r/tarantulas • u/FiewLoo • Feb 01 '16

Question First Tarantula?

Hello!

First pardon my English its not my native language.

I have been admiring spiders since I could walk, see spider, pick up spider. Sadly Im livin in Sweden where there barely are any exciting spiders to find so gotta get me one home. Im 19 years old, I love taking care of pets.

I have read the basic stuff about owning a Tarantula will of course read even more inbetween classes. I do need some tips of picking my first one.

Requirements:

  • Needs to be a good handling one. I'm aware that you should maybe not handle tarantulas too much but I love these creatures and need to hold them sometimes. I have held one when I was younger.

  • Cant hurt cats. I do own a cat, I have no itention in letting my comming Tarantula and the cat to be even close to eachother, the terrarium will not be in a place where the cat can approach and disturb the T. But if the thing would happend, the Ts bite shall not be able to damage my cat.

  • Beginner friendly, I have never handled these creatures before so I need an somewhat easy one.

The price dont matter really, neither do the space of the terrarium needed for it.

Hope I can get some help over here thank you! :)

Sincerely Fredrik

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u/r4cid H. maculata Feb 01 '16

needs to be a good handling one

Sorry to break it to you friend, but this isn't exactly something that anyone can accurately guarantee. While i can tell you which species are less likely to be opposed to you holding them, every individual spider is different

For example, another comment here mentioned B Albopilosum (Honduran Curly Hair) as a good choice because they're mellow and only really flick hair. My Curly Hair is only about an inch a cross and attacks anything in it's enclosure. With bites/teeth, it's never kicked hair at me once. Just bites. I'm talking food, water drops, a paintbrush, anything. It also loves to sprint. I'd never even imagine holding it because of it's behavior.

In short, no spider is any better to handle than the rest. No spider enjoys being held, and all it does is stress your spider out and increase the risk of an accident (especially with a cat running around). If you want a pet you can handle and interact with, this may not be the one you're looking for

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u/FiewLoo Feb 01 '16

Thanks for your input, wanna note if I would handle the Tarantula it would be in a room with closed doors where my cat would not be able to be in, but in worst case the cat might sneak into my room without me noticing or forgets to close the door for im being lazy. But yea If I notice the spider would keep denying my attempts of being able to handle her/him I would be fine with it!

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u/r4cid H. maculata Feb 01 '16

You should be fine then! Good luck and be sure to come back and let us how things go :) and if you have any questions this is the place to come