Entering new territory. My first tarantula.

[YungRasputin]

imo A seemanni is a great starter. The "beginner" lists out there often seem to have a very narrow view of what a beginner wants and can manage, so only the most stone-still docile, handleable terrestrials are included. My first T was a dwarf fossorial known for its teleportation abilities and I did fine with him. Someone with reptile keeping experience and who is going to read up on a species before buying is fine with like, *most* tarantula species probably. Plenty of people even get the Psalmopoeus irminia as their first tarantula and do fine

people have done that yes but it’s not wise to do this imo both for your sake and the sake of the animal because what i should be asked: if you get tagged are you going to have the nerves to safely secure the animal before treating yourself? will you be able to keep calm through the pain? will you be able to control your knee jerk reactions to pain so you don’t fling the spider across the room? this is what should be considered because Irminia and Cambridgei are both highly unpredictable - they can be super chill one moment and then furious the next - more than that, they’re fangs will hurt in and of themselves in addition to the sting of venom

i would also note with this genus specifically the side-effects of their venom also include 8+ hours of vomiting in addition to the pain and can also include lightheadedness, muscle cramps, heart palpitations, profuse sweating, etc - not trying to scare anyone off but they’re a p serious animal and i would argue there is a difference between general reptile reflexes/muscle memory and venom reflexes/muscle memory eg: i have several decades of reflex experience dodging “zero mistake” arachnids who’s venom could be lethal even with immediate medical treatment which is different than reflexes involving non-lethal/non-venomous where the primary thing is just avoiding a little bit of pain

is the difference between: a ball Python bite might be annoying for 5-10 min, a bite from Venezuelan Sun-Tiger will ruin your entire day

it sounds weird from the outside i understand but i just think working with venomous animals gives you a whole different mindset