Is she close to molting G Pulchripes (from Newbie)

[Jon Doyle]

Hi Guys, this is my first T and Midas is about 9cm legspan. She is still off her food so I have not tried for a few days. Do you think she is close to molting? She is drinking at night, but is quite lathergic. I have had her for about 3 weeks now, she looks well fed to me and she was shipped in the post, so still probably settling in. I have not ever seen a molt, but have tried to look at a few pictures online. Thanks Jon

[Luke Scott]

Hi from my ts mostly the ones who loose there hairs there bald spot will get darker and a few days just before they molt turns jet black and there's usually a lot of web in one spot not where they eat that u know looks out of place she could just not be hungry she looks if a she very well fed in my opinion

[Stanley A. Schultz]

Hi Guys, this is my first T ...

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!

___________________________________________

... She is still off her food so I have not tried for a few days. ...

She is well fed to the point of obesity. Feeding her or even worrying about it should be way down your list of priorities.

... Do you think she is close to molting? ...

No. When she's about a week or 10 days away the bald area on the top of her abdomen will turn very black.

... She is drinking at night, but is quite lathergic. ...

Almost all tarantulas are lethargic. It's their way of dealing with an unreliable food source and often very long fasts. If you're looking for something that bounces around the cage you're going to be vastly disappointed. Many of us keep dozens to hundreds of tarantulas because they're so easy to care for, and with that many the probability is pretty good that we'll see SOMEBODY do SOMETHING sooner or later. Maybe. On a good day. If you hold your tongue just right...

... I have had her for about 3 weeks now, she looks well fed to me and she was shipped in the post, so still probably settling in. I have not ever seen a molt, but have tried to look at a few pictures online. Thanks Jon

Relax. Chill.

Go to the kitchen. Grab your favorite glass, cup, mug, stein, or flagon and fill it with your favorite beverage.

Grab a small rug, slip your favorite CD in the player or turn on your iThingie.

Go into the tarantula's room, spread the rug on the floor and practice your favorite form of meditation with your spider.

Tarantulas meditate a lot; so should you! Their Lotus Position is pretty much unbelievable.

There now. Doesn't that feel better already?



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

[Jon Doyle]

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!

___________________________________________



She is well fed to the point of obesity. Feeding her or even worrying about it should be way down your list of priorities.



No. When she's about a week or 10 days away the bald area on the top of her abdomen will turn very black.



Almost tarantulas are lethargic. It's their way of dealing with an unreliable food source and often very long fasts. If you're looking for something that bounces around the cage you're going to be vastly disappointed. Many of us keep dozens to hundreds of tarantulas because they're so easy to care for, and with that many the probability is pretty good that we'll see SOMEBODY do SOMETHING sooner or later. Maybe. On a good day. If you hold your tongue just right...



Relax. Chill.

Go to the kitchen. Grab your favorite glass, cup, mug, stein, or flagon and fill it with your favorite beverage.

Grab a small rug, slip your favorite CD in the player or turn on your iThingie.

Go into the tarantula's room, spread the rug on the floor and practice your favorite form of meditation with your spider.

Tarantulas meditate a lot; so should you! Their Lotus Position is pretty much unbelievable.

There now. Doesn't that feel better already?



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

Thanks for the advice guys