My tarantula, baby Sabbath :D

[Vephriel]

I've been dying to get another tarantula for quite a while now. I have Shelob, my lovely G. rosea. She's an old girl, a little grumpy, and mostly likes staying in her cave. I took her in from my old workplace as a bit of a rescue when someone brought her in. I really wanted to have a young T that I raised myself though.

So, I started looking around.

Ideally I wanted a black species, so I was perusing some care sheets and stumbled upon the G. pulchra, or Brazilian Black. They were absolute gorgeous. Beautiful shiny black coats and thick furry legs. I was in love!



They're known to have wonderful temperaments as well, being part of the Grammostola genus.

I looked around on some local reptile/arachnid forums and managed to find a guy who was selling some of his collection. Sure enough, he had a young G. pulchra. I contacted him and I learned it was only a year old, just a couple inches long, and comes from a very reputable Canadian breeder.

Here's the photo he sent of it:


In a few hours I'm going to pick it up. I'm SO excited. Unsure of what gender it is, I probably won't be able to tell until it gets a bit older or by studying a molt, but either way I'm not concerned. ^^ I'll post some more photos once I get back home.

[Bonita]

Oh thats a cool looking one. Love spiders but for some reason I just cant stand them walking on me... lol
Cant wait to see more pictures

[Siliverin]

congrats veph! I bet you cant wait!

[cowmuflage]

Aw man that's awesome!. So wish we where aloud to have them in NZ I'd kill for one D:

[meepitco]

He's adorable c: I am normally terrified of spiders, but Tarantulas dont phase me as much.

[Nili]

Aww
I'd love a pet spider, but I hate how they crawl across my skin lol
He's gorgeous <3

[Gumballs]

Beautiful! Is the breeder perhaps Tarantula Canada? We have three beautiful tarantulas from them.

We have Peter, she is a B. albopilosum, eight months old and about an inch and a half. When we got her she was just a quarter of an inch. She was our first tarantula.

Now we have a B. boehmei (half an inch) and a G. pulchripes (one third of an inch), had them for a week now and they are just wee babies.

I'm kind of scared of spiders so I'm really glad my parents bought them as babies. Peter is just getting furry now and is growing like a weed, and I'm not nervous of him at all. Watching him grow has really helped me with my fear of spiders. They are fantastic pets that are easy to keep and easy to handle. Can't wait to see more photos of yours if you decide to post some!

[Vephriel]

Yes, it's indeed from Tarantula Canada! D'aww, yours all sound adorable. <3

I'm leaving in about 20 minutes to go pick my baby up. ^_^ As long as it's not too spooked after the drive and getting home I'll see if I can take some photos.

[Gumballs]

Awesome! Do you have any names picked out? I really want to name one of our new ones Aragog, then have a feminine name for the other. I know we don't know their actual sex, but it's still fun. We named Peter after Peter Parker but always refer to it as a her. xD

[Vephriel]

Eeeeee just got home. HE'S SO ADORABLE, I'm going to die. <3 I'm probably just going to default refer to him as a male.

As for names...I have a few ideas, but I'm going to give it a day or so until I decide. :3

[cowmuflage]

Man "hes" tiny XD but very cool indeed.

[Vephriel]

Haha, he's so tiny. <3 I can't wait to watch him grow. Some day he's going to grow up big and handsome like this:

(adult G. pulchra)

[Siliverin]

i dont like spiders to much but daw babeh!! its so fun watching any animal grow up

[Chimera]

He is super adorable <3 since working at the zoo ive been studying from ive become hugely fond of tarantulas. While im more into having pets i can cuddle at home, i definitely love to handle the tarantulas. How long does his species live?

[Vephriel]

The males can live about 5-7 years, and females upwards of 20-30. So, for that reason I almost want it to be female, but I also would love to have a male tarantula since I already have Shelob, so...either way I'm fine. I'll probably just pretend it's male regardless, haha.

[Chimera]

wow thats a huge age difference o_o

[cowmuflage]

Sucks to be a male! Another male gets screwed in the animal kingdom. They don't kill the males after sex right? I know some spiders do that.

[Vephriel]

Yeah, the one downside to male tarantulas is their significantly shorter lifespan. Generally I prefer having male pets, but whichever this one turns out to be is fine.

[cowmuflage]

So would you tell if he's male by his size or colouration? Sorry I'm going by my fish logic here XD Females useally are bigger in the fish world.

[Vephriel]

It can be a bit complicated. In general females do tend to get a bit larger and bulkier. It's hard to tell when they're young, so I'll probably have to wait until he's older so I can take a good look at his molts. This page goes through most of the methods though: http://www.tarantulas.com/sexing.html