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summer_jackelThis 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.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 10:03 pm (UTC)And "Velvet," if the name sticks, is a lovely girl. Though wolf spiders also trip my AUGH AUGH AUGH reflex (ask Kyn about the one I found by the pets' water fountain--in my memory, it keeps getting bigger and bigger). Tarantulas mostly don't, and I am very fond of rosehairs especially--so I'm also sad to hear about how they come into the pet trade.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 10:50 pm (UTC)Haha, wow. Please take lots more photos-- I would love to hear more!!
no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 11:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 11:24 pm (UTC)Wooooow...
Now I know why they're called "wolf spiders'. That's some nice 'fur' texture. :)
And Avi is so teeny, OMG!
And doesn't she just have the cutest toes? :D
no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 11:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 04:18 am (UTC)I've been wanting an A.versicolor and a Grammostola pulchra for some time... I just can't get into the idea of raising an insect colony to feed them. :P
no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 09:52 am (UTC)Heh. Just the other day, I was trying to convince my girlfriend that I really didn't care if she shaved her legs or not...
Good luck raising both of them!
Chris
no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 12:43 pm (UTC)EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE (gasp flail arms flail flail flail) EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
(heeheehee)
no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 01:10 am (UTC)Tarantulas, at least the ones one usually sees as pets, are slow-moving, fuzzy and kind of kittenish. They don't do that spidery skitter. Wolf spiders kind of look like they're assessing you so that they can figure out the one thing that will frighten you most. Velvet is a challenge. Her beauty and grace are undeniable. So is the fact that she is an OMFG giant crawly fangy SPIDER. Living on my bedroom dresser. I suspect I'm going to get over the last of my spider nerves with her, but can I say I'm still not looking forward to moving her into her nice new terrarium when I get it.
I am hoping that people start CBing the rosehairs soon; they really are ideal and inoffensive little 8 legged pets. If I saw one come up needing a rehome, I might still spring for her. Of course, collection MIGHT not be damaging wild populations any, but I'm not willing to support the system by buying a "new" spider until I have lots of data. Besides, CB spiders are apparently quite available. Avi, grow up healthy please.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 01:15 am (UTC)The little eyes you can just barely see for the glitter help, though. So far, we have an apparently content, eating, most importantly not-dead Avi. Stay that way, ok spiderling?
no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 01:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 01:17 am (UTC)I think they got called wolf spiders because they seek and hunt down prey instead of spinning a web and waiting for something to walk into it...which definitely makes her a different kind of pet than a tarantula. But the soft gray fur is very wolfish. She is a pretty thing.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 01:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 01:21 am (UTC)A.versicolor is _pretty_, oh my wow.
The cricket thing is the main reason I put off spiderkeeping for so long, honestly. It's definitely a pain. But then I figured I'm usually at a pet store that sells crickets a couple of times a month anyway, so it wouldn't be too much trouble. I don't want to set up a cricket colony.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 01:22 am (UTC)Heh, if you were trying to convince your girlfriend _not_ to shave her legs, you might compare them to those of a wolf spider. You might. I'm not saying this would be a GOOD idea, mind you.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 01:23 am (UTC)This is Velvet, of course. Avi says, 'What? A spider? Where?'
eek! SPIDERS!!! CUTE!!!!
Date: 2010-01-07 10:27 pm (UTC)wtfwtf>>@@*@@<@*@*@*@< wtfwtf
very wide eyes.... these spiders are probably as big as my palm and they really do the prettiest orb webs. I has new camera so I take pictures when it warms up and they comes out again.
I love wolf spiders!!! I love hunter spidies. I had the cutest little oreo cookies and cream looking spiders all over for a while, about the size of mini m&m to a full size m&m... they were hunters, not trappers, and looked so cute... I don't know where they went. sigh... I had them for years then suddenly they were gone.
Okay the toesies on yon wee baby spiderling is TOO CUTE!!!! Lil black booties >.< eeeee!!!!
Velvet looks lovely. So how poisonous is she? I cant keep any poisonous spiders because my cats knock EVERYTHING over all the time. Don't let Pounce play with Velvet. Cats LOVE to knock spiders around. shakes head...
Craigs list comes through again. I'm glad you rescued them from the clueless dude. I think you got some good babies there.
Re: eek! SPIDERS!!! CUTE!!!!
Date: 2010-01-08 12:55 am (UTC)I didn't know that you were of the spider-loving contingent! The giant orb-spinners are gorgeous, and I'd love to see photos. I generally love to enjoy them visually, but prefer to avoid physical contact.
/groans/ oh, PounceTiger is staying SO away from the spidders! Because they are high on dressers he doesn't tend to be on, he has not seen them yet. I do need to get Velvet a bigger, _heavier_ terrarium before long, though, for catproofing and because her old plastic box sucks. Wee Avi should stay in her deli cup until she's bigger, apparently, because small space will help her in getting her food. Velvet, on the other hand, is using ALL of her space, so she will be getting a bigger box.
What Tiger Angel likes is my pet mice. Oh, you should see him. STARING at them with his burning aqua eyes, trying to figure out how the cage is locked. Yeah. I got them completely for his benefit. It's a very secure lid on their box, but I still worry.
The venom of a wolf spider is not, I believe, particularly dangerous in and of itself, but she has big fangs and could inflict a mean mechanical bite if she wanted to, and what venom she has probably would make it even less fun. I plan not to give her a chance.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-14 03:35 am (UTC)How are both your dearlings? It's cold here so most spiders are in hibernation.
hugs!
mcx