The arachnophobe with 2 new pet T's

candyraver69 · 08-18-11, 02:11 PM

Well my son has been begging for a long time to have some spiders, and I keep telling him, keep reading about them, keep reading about them... etc. He reads daily about them, educates me on his findings excitedly all the time. We watch youtubes together about them.

Well I have been frequenting a certain reptile dealer's website lately and there was an amazing deal on some 2nd instar Cobalt Blue T's. Mind you I have very little hands on experience with T's, and am pretty afraid of spiders in general, especially T's. The momma of these blew me out of the water, and I know that this species in particular are a terrible choice for beginners considering their speed and powerful venom, but considering we will not be handling them at all but by brushing them into a container to clean the enclosure... I went for it. We are now the proud new owners of two darling little slings. They arrived safely, and I got them into their enclosures without having a heart attack or harming them :P I did a little meditation number to calm my self, knowing that if I was calm and slow, they would respond accordingly, where if I jerked and freaked out, I'd end up getting my face bit off.

stephanbakir · 08-18-11, 04:23 PM

Keep in mind that the ones I worked with ran up my chopstick (plastic) that I was using to guide him into a delicup.

candyraver69 · 08-18-11, 11:55 PM

Yeah, I have seen a bit of that in the videos. They are quick little suckers too. I am going to eventually get them into a viv with a hinged door so that if that happens, I can quickly close the door on the handle of the tongs and gently pull them out and try again.

I'm going to have my epi-pen ready at all times regardless just in case! Might not stop the terrible pain and being sick for weeks, but it could save my life if I have an allergic reaction.

candyraver69 · 08-18-11, 11:58 PM

I saw some really nice vivs for T's built with 10 gallon aquariums tipped up on the side, plexiglass front with vents built with screen and cut up round tupperware, then hinges maybe 5 inches up or so. I'm going to get those built pretty soon. For now they are just in some medium size tupperwares with small holes drilled, soda lids, and peat.

stephanbakir · 08-19-11, 05:16 AM

A bad day for roaches!! - YouTube

KD35WIN.AS.ONE · 08-19-11, 08:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by candyraver69

I saw some really nice vivs for T's built with 10 gallon aquariums tipped up on the side, plexiglass front with vents built with screen and cut up round tupperware, then hinges maybe 5 inches up or so. I'm going to get those built pretty soon. For now they are just in some medium size tupperwares with small holes drilled, soda lids, and peat.

It would be a waste of your time... No Haplopelma will utilize any of this space. The cages you speak of are built for arboreal species exclusively. How many inches of substrate do you currently have in there tub? How many holes do you aprox. have in the tub?

candyraver69 · 08-20-11, 04:27 PM

love that guy's vids, I'm subscribed to him.

right now they are each in a tupperware that is about 5 inches high by 6 inches by 6 inches, just over half full with damp peat. they are less than an inch big though. I made pre-made burrows for them, they seem to like them, but may build their own once they settle. You think a 10 gallon turned the regular way would be more appropriate for this species? After some more reading I think that may be the case, but tarantulaguy's vids he's got a lot of species in the upright tanks. If I did them upright I was going to definitely have the substrate deeper than it looks like he has, and have a little log over the borrow for them.

candyraver69 · 08-20-11, 04:31 PM

Oh, and there is 16 holes drilled in the lids, I figured I could drill more if that wasn't enough, but that seems to be doing the trick. It's enough that I still need to mist, but not too much that it lets too much humidity out, there is still a fine mist on the sides of the sides from condensation of heating. They are small holes.

KD35WIN.AS.ONE · 08-20-11, 09:52 PM

Ok good, sounds like you got it down. Id keep them in the tupperware for awhile. Just give them plenty of room to burrow, 5 inches is fine for young ones. The only thing i can recommend to you is drill some more holes, ventilation is a serious problem for spiders, they really need about 5x more air flow then most species of snakes.

candyraver69 · 08-20-11, 11:31 PM

Okay I will drill some more holes, thank you for the tip. I think I may even just buy some of the vents I found on a website that sells the special T viv's and hot glue those in. In the meantime more holes for sure though

I fed them tonight. Those dumb crickets didn't even need directed, they walked right into the webs without any help :P My little spiderlings got them so quick I barely saw what happened

Too cool.

I'm looking into getting some dubia roaches to feed the T's nymphs (very small ones). I hate the idea of keeping crickets, and going to buy 2 at a time is going to get annoying fast. Just need to find a reptile buddy that I can pawn adults off on every now and again hehe.

candyraver69 · 11-09-11, 06:00 AM

Caught Anubis hanging out on top of his burrow the other day. First I've seen all of him since I changed his enclosure. I'm estimating him at about 2 inches now. I keep saying him, but I haven't sexed him yet. Waiting on the next molt to try.

And so much for the two Cobalts. The arachnophobia is gone and replaced with arachno-insanity. I have a full blown collection now. I have become very adept at handling slings. I have a gift with them that the hubby does not posses no matter how hard he tries. I just hope that I can maintain it with adults. It seems with the little ones as long as I am calm, move slow, and can sort of predict how they will react to the way I move I can get them to go where I need them. They are fast, but as long as I get them going in the right direction that's fine! Maybe keeping snakes prepared me in a way. I learned how to pay attention to an animals body language.

BlindOne · 11-10-11, 10:49 AM

It's funny how the T collecting happens, you think you'll want 1-2 T's....then maybe 10.....next thing you know you're looking at the bookcase with 60 T's in it.

Such easy critters to keep and watch, I love 'em

**lady_bug87** · 11-10-11, 11:46 AM

my husband wants one so bad but my arachnophobia is terrible lol I thought about surprising him with one for his birthday but I seriously cannot get over the fear lol

BlindOne · 11-11-11, 12:11 AM

get one T....after you've watched it not move for 72 hours straight, your fear will be replaced by boredom ;-)

ZARADOZIA · 11-11-11, 03:00 AM

Braver than I am. Allergic reaction is another fear of mine, especially after last year. I was outside with my neighbors talking on the front porch and rested my foot in our mulched flower bed. The next thing I know I feel something bite/sting the side of my leg and feels like it is on fire, then I felt something bite/sting my eye, I'm jumping up slapping at my face and leg like a crazy person!

I was stung 5 times by ground hornets. 3 times in my leg, 1 time on my upper brow line and 1 time on my lower brow line. Thank god for wearing glasses or else it would have been in my eye.

I'm allergic to Benadryl so I bought a different class of antihistamine, well, that was a very bad idea because it turns out I am allergic to ALL H1-blockers (this is when and how I found out).
My face swelled up so bad I looked like I went 5 rounds with Evander and didn't get one punch in. My leg swelled to the size of a softball. Had to go to doc and after she ran a bunch of tests and noted that my blood oxygen levels were extremely low she placed me on steroids and gave me Epi-pens.

Great way to learn what I am allergic to…BLEH Now anything that is venomous and can bite or sting I steer clear of. I have never been stung or bit by anything before…figures the one time I am that I would be allergic to the medication I used to help but ended up making everything even worse!