G. rosea spiderling

[Fabio Pontecorvi]

Hello everyone, my name is Fabio and I have just (3 days ago) began this incredibly interesting hobby.
I am a little on the confused side about the following. Should I clean the pot the sling is in? if so how often?
Also when should I consider a bigger pot? and ultimately is it ok to feed my G. rosea maggots?

Some advise from more experienced people would be of great help.

[Stanley A. Schultz]

Hello everyone, my name is Fabio and I have just (3 days ago) began this incredibly interesting hobby. ...

STAN'S NEWBIE INTRODUCTION

DID YOU HEAR THAT? THAT WAS THE NEWBIE ALARM!

WELCOME TO THE HOBBY!



WELCOME TO THIS FORUM!



Okay, so we're all newbies, often for a long time. We've done what everybody else does: Read all the Internet care sheets. Listened attentively to everything the expert down at the local pet shop told us. Wasted a lot of money on things we shouldn't have. Incorporated a lot of things that were useless or even dangerous. Stressed out over meaningless details while ignoring the real issues. Way overkill. That's not a criticism; I'm just delineating the problems. It's just the way humanoids are, I suppose.

We can deal with all that.

There's nothing wrong with being a newbie as long as you do something about it. After 45 years of keeping tarantulas, I still consider myself a newbie. We can trace a tarantula's ancestry back over HALF A BILLION YEARS. They've had that long to develop and fine tune their lives and lifestyles. They're incredibly complex and detailed creatures. We're gonna be playing catch-up (that's the newbie part) for a long, LONG, LONG time!

The first thing you need to understand is the KISS principle, not to infer that you're stupid. Inexperienced, maybe. Stupid, I don't think so. As proof, you can speak, read, and write English (arguably one of the more difficult languages on Planet Earth), and use a computer just fine. But, I digress. As long as you supply the basic necessities of life for your captive tarantula, the less you incorporate into its cage and care regimen, the less there is to go tragically haywire. KISS, indeed!

The second thing you need to understand is that tarantulas are like no other creature you've ever kept or even heard of before. All the ingrained assumptions and prejudices that you've been taught since childhood don't apply, and may even be dangerous to them. They're neither tropical fish, reptiles, canaries, nor gerbils, and you don't take care of them like any of those animals. One of the biggest problems with newbies is trying to get them to abandon all their prejudices and begin to look at the world from the vastly alien perspective of a huge, fuzzy spider.

FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELT.
MAKE SURE YOUR SEAT BACK AND TRAY TABLE ARE SECURED IN THEIR UPRIGHT POSITIONS.
THIS IS GOING TO BE ONE H*** OF A RIDE!

Because tarantulas are so bizarre and unique, you have a lot of homework to do. To begin, you need to read the following webpages.

1) Stan's Rant. ESPECIALLY, READ THE PART ABOUT NOT TRUSTING ANYTHING A PET SHOP TELLS YOU! AND ESPECIALLY, STUDY THE FOUR RECOMMENDED BOOKS.

2) Myths.... Read the entire webpage tree.

3) Care and Husbandry of the Chilean Rose Tarantula. IF YOU HAVE A WILD CAUGHT CHILEAN ROSE TARANTULA (Grammostola rosea) YOU NEED TO READ THIS WEBPAGE! If you don't have a Chilean rose you can safely ignore this one for now. Just remember that it's here for whenever you do get a rose. Or, you can read it out of curiosity. It contains a lot of hints applicable to other arid species.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The comments and instructions in Care and Husbandry of the Chilean Rose Tarantula are applicable only to wild caught G. rosea. CAGE BRED AND RAISED G. rosea are no different than any other captive tarantula and are best cared for just like any other arid species. See Growing Your Own for further information.

4) Substrate. Because you need to know about this very basic, underlying part of a tarantula's existence.

5) Growing Your Own. This is a global, game plan for caring for your newfound little buddy. You need to figure out where it is in the vast scheme of growth and development, then start taking care of it properly from that point onward.

6) If you can possibly spare the time, at least skim through the entire Spiders, Calgary website.

Lastly, be aware that this system is not the only one available. Neither is it necessarily the best one. You'll see and hear all sorts of other ideas as you go along. But, Marguerite and I have spent decades selling tarantulas to all kinds of people of all ages, and fine tuned this system so as to make it pretty much as bullet proof as it can get. Use our system at first, until you begin to understand these weird animals. Then maybe you can experiment with some of the not-so-conservative approaches recommended by others.

You need to learn to look at the world from the vastly alien perspective of a huge, fuzzy spider. READ THE BOOKS! READ THE WEBPAGES!

__________________________________________________ _______

... I am a little on the confused side about the following. Should I clean the pot the sling is in? if so how often? ...

A basic guideline is to clean it at least once a year, or clean it whenever you can detect an odor, whichever occurs first. This is seldom a problem with babies and spiderlings (a.k.a., "slings" or "s'lings") because you'll probably be periodically switching them to larger (and therefore clean) quarters anyway.

... Also when should I consider a bigger pot? ...

Again, as a guideline (not a natural law or anything) the shortest floor dimension container you use should be at least twice the tarantula's leg span. Three times would be better. When it begins to look a little cramped, move it to a larger container.

... and ultimately is it ok to feed my G. rosea maggots? ...

Can you get clean maggots? If so, yes. If not, no.


Best of luck. Remember, your little 8-legged Yoda is going to be giving you pop quizzes daily!

[Fabio Pontecorvi]

Thank you Stan for the lovely welcome (feel absolutely initiated :P) and for your advise. I have read care sheets and recommendations; but reading a script and actually engaging in a conversation (virtual in this case) is much more nourishing to the mind.
Funny you should advise those links as I read them after I posted my questions. Very good articles, got to love some of the myths! I was literally talking yesterday to my cousin about the "deadliness" of Ts; and I quote "I would never own one! its like asking a rattle snake to bite you!". Mmmm I forgive him because Arac Attack and arachnophobia are good films (from a comedy stand point).

Actually find it odd I waited so long to start this hobby actually. Love all things "creepy and crawly", weird charisma of arthropods!

Thank you again for helping me out and welcoming me to the forum.