summer_jackel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
summer_jackel) wrote2010-01-05 01:50 pm
summer_jackel) wrote2010-01-05 01:50 pm
Entry tags:
Spiders
This post welcomes the two newest members of my increasingly weird multi-species family. I am on a bike, so have a story and a rant.
When I was in my mid teens-early 20s or thereabouts, I kept a pet tarantula. She was a rose-haired named Gala, after her species' taxonomic name Grammostola gala, because I thought that was really clever when I was 14. I was extremely fond of her, and she was a very non-demanding roommate. Fuzzy, slow-moving and largely inactive, she ate a cricket or two every week or so, providing excitement which was half bloodthirsty glee and half just an opportunity to see the spider do something other than sit regally and motionlessly under her bark hidey. She laid an egg sac once, that never hatched probably because I didn't have access to the data I needed to care for it, and shed on average once a year. I was always careful to mist her properly to preserve her exoskeleton and make it easier to shed, because that's the biggest risk in captivity unless you drop the animal. The new skeleton is paper-thin and soft, and if the old shed tears it, the spider bleeds out and dies. That's what happened to Gala, after I'd had her for about 5-6 years. I am no longer too proud to admit that I still tear up a little if I think about it too much.
By the time I got around to wanting another, I had a partner who adamantly never wanted to live with one, so I abstained. This is no longer the case, and while I'd thought about it for the last couple of years, the time didn't feel right. Then there's the whole issue about where the thing comes from; I was young and without the internet when I got Gala, but now I think it a rather vital point of ethics to know the provenance of any foreign wildlife one happens to want for a pet. It is thankfully illegal to import wild parrots for pets in the US and EU, but that's recent; there seems to be a little more emphasis on only keeping captive bred beasts in herpetoculture these days and I really HOPE more attention comes to reef fish soon, because collectors cyanide reefs and deplete fragile populations to get them. OK, so I won't start on fish.
Not wanting to be part of this problem, I did the necessary research and quickly found out that rose-haired tarantulas are captured in the desert and scrubland of Chile, imported, and are available at half the pet stores in America for $15 each. Nowhere is there any data regarding the impact of such large-scale collection on wild populations (it might be harmless, but I'm not putting money on that) or captive-bred spiders. Oops. Scratch that plan.
Avoiding the whole issue of where to obtain a captive bred spider of a species I can live with, I decided to seek a 'used' one on Craigslist. That meant looking at the CL pet section, never a good idea. I quickly found several posts by a jerkface with, I kid you not, a houseful of big, aggressive spiders, a baby on the way and an apparent need to get rid of them all right now not kidding must be gone by end of week. Hey, at least it wasn't a scarlet macaw, right? Big, aggressive and fast are manifestly NOT what I was looking for in a pet spider, but I called him anyway. Turns out the big ones were almost gone, but he had a pink-toed tarantula spiderling. Since that was an acceptable species, I went and got it.
I didn't quite understand how tiny "spiderling" meant until I saw the thing, which is smaller than a dime and terrifyingly fragile. I took her anyway, and a week later she seems perfectly healthy and content, spinning tiny little web hammocks to rest in and eating tiny tiny little crickets. CL jerkface also had remaining his African wolf spider, a large, undeniably fast moving and graceful beast with delicate habits, big sharp fangs and an uncanny way of making calm, level eye contact. She impressed me with her beauty and also how effectively she tripped every vestige of an 'OMG horrible frightening HUGE SPIDER AUGH' response I still had.
Then I noticed she hadn't been given a water bowl. (Anything with a legspan approaching 3" should have one; smaller spiders get water from mist and prey and shouldn't have a bowl lest they drown). There's now a wolf spider on my bedroom dresser. She's quite fascinating. If spiders make you at all squeamish, you might not want to look.
I
warned
you
...
....
.....
Isn't she lovely, though?
This is her not hanging out in her burrow like tarantulas do.
I think 'Velvet' would be a good name.
Grooming herself carefully and frequently, like a cat.
And here's the baby. Named 'Avi' for her species Avicularia avicularia; it's tradition.
It turns out that Avi is, awesomely, captive bred. Pink toes are apparently not hard to breed by tarantula standards, and the company Jerkface said he bought her from confirms that any spiderlings it sells are CB. Ethical petkeeping success!
She got right out of the mini kritter keeper she was in, and is now back in the plastic cup with tiny holes she came in, at least until I find an appropriate terrarium with a really fine screen or she grows to something approaching a reasonable size. I hope I can rear her to adulthood. It's a project.
I just rode for three hours on the trainer, including a set of 4 three minute sprint intervals. Getting tired. Hey look, I have pet spiders. Wish me luck with the itsy bitsy one in particular.
When I was in my mid teens-early 20s or thereabouts, I kept a pet tarantula. She was a rose-haired named Gala, after her species' taxonomic name Grammostola gala, because I thought that was really clever when I was 14. I was extremely fond of her, and she was a very non-demanding roommate. Fuzzy, slow-moving and largely inactive, she ate a cricket or two every week or so, providing excitement which was half bloodthirsty glee and half just an opportunity to see the spider do something other than sit regally and motionlessly under her bark hidey. She laid an egg sac once, that never hatched probably because I didn't have access to the data I needed to care for it, and shed on average once a year. I was always careful to mist her properly to preserve her exoskeleton and make it easier to shed, because that's the biggest risk in captivity unless you drop the animal. The new skeleton is paper-thin and soft, and if the old shed tears it, the spider bleeds out and dies. That's what happened to Gala, after I'd had her for about 5-6 years. I am no longer too proud to admit that I still tear up a little if I think about it too much.
By the time I got around to wanting another, I had a partner who adamantly never wanted to live with one, so I abstained. This is no longer the case, and while I'd thought about it for the last couple of years, the time didn't feel right. Then there's the whole issue about where the thing comes from; I was young and without the internet when I got Gala, but now I think it a rather vital point of ethics to know the provenance of any foreign wildlife one happens to want for a pet. It is thankfully illegal to import wild parrots for pets in the US and EU, but that's recent; there seems to be a little more emphasis on only keeping captive bred beasts in herpetoculture these days and I really HOPE more attention comes to reef fish soon, because collectors cyanide reefs and deplete fragile populations to get them. OK, so I won't start on fish.
Not wanting to be part of this problem, I did the necessary research and quickly found out that rose-haired tarantulas are captured in the desert and scrubland of Chile, imported, and are available at half the pet stores in America for $15 each. Nowhere is there any data regarding the impact of such large-scale collection on wild populations (it might be harmless, but I'm not putting money on that) or captive-bred spiders. Oops. Scratch that plan.
Avoiding the whole issue of where to obtain a captive bred spider of a species I can live with, I decided to seek a 'used' one on Craigslist. That meant looking at the CL pet section, never a good idea. I quickly found several posts by a jerkface with, I kid you not, a houseful of big, aggressive spiders, a baby on the way and an apparent need to get rid of them all right now not kidding must be gone by end of week. Hey, at least it wasn't a scarlet macaw, right? Big, aggressive and fast are manifestly NOT what I was looking for in a pet spider, but I called him anyway. Turns out the big ones were almost gone, but he had a pink-toed tarantula spiderling. Since that was an acceptable species, I went and got it.
I didn't quite understand how tiny "spiderling" meant until I saw the thing, which is smaller than a dime and terrifyingly fragile. I took her anyway, and a week later she seems perfectly healthy and content, spinning tiny little web hammocks to rest in and eating tiny tiny little crickets. CL jerkface also had remaining his African wolf spider, a large, undeniably fast moving and graceful beast with delicate habits, big sharp fangs and an uncanny way of making calm, level eye contact. She impressed me with her beauty and also how effectively she tripped every vestige of an 'OMG horrible frightening HUGE SPIDER AUGH' response I still had.
Then I noticed she hadn't been given a water bowl. (Anything with a legspan approaching 3" should have one; smaller spiders get water from mist and prey and shouldn't have a bowl lest they drown). There's now a wolf spider on my bedroom dresser. She's quite fascinating. If spiders make you at all squeamish, you might not want to look.
I
warned
you
...
....
.....
Isn't she lovely, though?
This is her not hanging out in her burrow like tarantulas do.
I think 'Velvet' would be a good name.
Grooming herself carefully and frequently, like a cat.
And here's the baby. Named 'Avi' for her species Avicularia avicularia; it's tradition.
It turns out that Avi is, awesomely, captive bred. Pink toes are apparently not hard to breed by tarantula standards, and the company Jerkface said he bought her from confirms that any spiderlings it sells are CB. Ethical petkeeping success!
She got right out of the mini kritter keeper she was in, and is now back in the plastic cup with tiny holes she came in, at least until I find an appropriate terrarium with a really fine screen or she grows to something approaching a reasonable size. I hope I can rear her to adulthood. It's a project.
I just rode for three hours on the trainer, including a set of 4 three minute sprint intervals. Getting tired. Hey look, I have pet spiders. Wish me luck with the itsy bitsy one in particular.