New Addition

After many months of research, and getting the okay from the wife, I’d like to introduce the newest addition to my collection, and my very first tarantula. Prince Harry, as we’ve chosen to call him, is a curly hair tarantula or Tlitocatl Albipulosus. Still very new to this species and this side of the herp hobby but wanted to share.


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Congrats to your new critter! I hope everything goes well! You'll have to post a picture of it's first molt! Aw how cutee :P

Not much experience with t's but I did keep one native t when I lived in the Calif. desert a while back. For about 6 months, then I re-homed it, as I had literally a house-FULL of snakes (more than enough to do). Love this one's "hair-do". :D

he looks so flurfy and cute! but be careful because some tarantulas can kick their hairs at you when angry! I don't know if Prince Harry is the kind that can do that though. congrats on the new animal!

Adorable!

I used to keep T's but I decided to give my collection to a buddy when I had a medical injury that caused bad nerve damage in my hand, because I was really worried I wouldn't be able to take care of them with my fine motor movements in my right hand being so poor. I miss them so much and now that my hand is mostly healed 10 years later, I often consider getting some again.

Curly Haired are generally pretty chill, a great choice for a person new to T's. Just stay away from OBT's, they fly and teleport :D

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Originally Posted by BeansTheDerp

he looks so flurfy and cute! but be careful because some tarantulas can kick their hairs at you when angry! I don't know if Prince Harry is the kind that can do that though. congrats on the new animal!

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I do a fair amount of shedding myself...wow, imagine if our hair was actually a weapon!? :cool:

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

I do a fair amount of shedding myself...wow, imagine if our hair was actually a weapon!? :cool:

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Oh mine totally is. It's gotten caught in more earrings and whacked people in the eye plenty of times :P

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Originally Posted by nikkubus

Oh mine totally is. It's gotten caught in more earrings and whacked people in the eye plenty of times :P

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:rofl: That wasn't quite the way I pictured it- I meant the way tarantulas use theirs to repel threats. Mine is actually more of a threat to me- when my snakes tie it in knots.

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

:rofl: That wasn't quite the way I pictured it- I meant the way tarantulas use theirs to repel threats. Mine is actually more of a threat to me- when my snakes tie it in knots.

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True story! :rofl:

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Originally Posted by nikkubus

True story! :rofl:

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I never said I doubted you- & I don't. :D

Anyway, :hijackd: Oops, sorry Hugsplox! Back to :spid0r::spid0r::spid0r:

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Originally Posted by nikkubus

Oh mine totally is. It's gotten caught in more earrings and whacked people in the eye plenty of times :P

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my hair gets caught in stickers and hair ties and even Beans. that's right I said Beans. he tangles himself in my hair constantly and stares at me from my shoulder until I untangle him, then he continues to DO IT AGAIN.

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Originally Posted by BeansTheDerp

my hair gets caught in stickers and hair ties and even Beans. that's right I said Beans. he tangles himself in my hair constantly and stares at me from my shoulder until I untangle him, then he continues to DO IT AGAIN.

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That's what snakes do with long hair (mine too), mostly in their search for traction, so we can't exactly blame them. If you stuck me on top of a tall tower (aka a human) & I had no hands, I'd do whatever it took to avoid falling too.

You guys had me cracking up reading these posts this morning. I was going to go through and quote everyone but I figured I'd just do a single response.

Over the weekend I got him transferred into his enclosure, and have just been letting him do his thing. While I've heard curly hairs are pretty docile, I don't intend for this to be a hands on pet, he's just to look at. They do have urticating hairs, or hairs that they kick off as a defense mechanism, and I read that they can even blind predators in the wild if they get in their eyes.

So far I've seen no posturing or hair kicking from this guy. Even when I was ushering him into a catch up to transfer him into his new enclosure he was just relaxed and walked right in for me. The ease of care so far as been ridiculous compared to the reptiles. I'm excited to watch him grow and while I kind of bounced the idea around of starting a small collection of Ts I think I might just stop here.

YESSS snakes entangled in hair =disaster. I swear they hook themselves in there

I would agree that the care is ridiculously easy in most new world species as long as you start with an old enough one. Slings and certain species can be quite a bit more demanding than this size of curly hair. I find feeding more difficult than reptiles that eat f/t but it's still very hard once they are a bit grown as long as you aren't dealing with really fast species.

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Originally Posted by nikkubus

I would agree that the care is ridiculously easy in most new world species as long as you start with an old enough one. Slings and certain species can be quite a bit more demanding than this size of curly hair. I find feeding more difficult than reptiles that eat f/t but it's still very hard once they are a bit grown as long as you aren't dealing with really fast species.

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Yea I'm a little concerned about feeding but I obviously haven't tried yet, I figured since I just put him in a new enclosure I'd leave him alone for a week or so before even trying. I really hope he'll take dubias because I've gotten everyone else off crickets and I do not miss having them in the house, but I figure 1-2 a week won't hurt anything.

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Originally Posted by Hugsplox

Yea I'm a little concerned about feeding but I obviously haven't tried yet, I figured since I just put him in a new enclosure I'd leave him alone for a week or so before even trying. I really hope he'll take dubias because I've gotten everyone else off crickets and I do not miss having them in the house, but I figure 1-2 a week won't hurt anything.

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He should. I never had an issue with any T not wanting dubia and preferring crickets, so long as they are big enough to eat baby dubia in the first place. I too am not a fan of crickets.

Week 3 Update

It has been a ride so far! Prince Harry was sat in a quiet corner for the first week to settle in. By the end of week I was seeing some signs of molting, and sure enough exactly 1 week after coming home, he was on his back. The molt went well and I was lucky enough to catch it at the beginning so I got to observe the entire process. Week 2 showed what my research told me was typical post-molt behavior. Towards the end of the week he became more active and started periodically exploring his enclosure.

After giving him a few extra days to be sure his fangs were hardened I dropped in a feeder this morning and my slow spider suddenly became a speed demon. This was my first time seeing tarantula hunting behavior and it was fascinating to observe.

Long story short, so far so good!

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Originally Posted by Hugsplox

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After giving him a few extra days to be sure his fangs were hardened I dropped in a feeder this morning and my slow spider suddenly became a speed demon. This was my first time seeing tarantula hunting behavior and it was fascinating to observe.

Long story short, so far so good!

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I didn't know that, about their fangs needing to harden?

And just so you know, we wouldn't turn down a t-hunting video around here. :spid0r: If you ever happen to catch it...;)

(Some people probably sleep too much anyway...:D)

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

I didn't know that, about their fangs needing to harden?

And just so you know, we wouldn't turn down a t-hunting video around here. :spid0r: If you ever happen to catch it...;)

(Some people probably sleep too much anyway...:D)

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I didn't either! Everything I read though says that everything, including their fangs, are incredibly fragile after a molt, and most recommendations were to wait a week before attempting to feed, which seems to have worked out even though I went a few days over for my own peace of mind.

I started to try and video this time but wanted to make sure I wasn't being too intrusive for his first feeding with me. I pretty much just dropped in the feeder and stepped way back to see what he would do :rofl: