Pet shop Gloucester top tips on keeping rats

Posted on May 25, 2012 by rangell

Pet shop Gloucester top tips series. We will be producing a series of top tips blogs for all the animals we sell, so make sure you subscribe to our email list to get notification of these blogs. Our pet shop Gloucester now also has a YouTube channel you can subscribe to.

Five Top Pet Shop Gloucester tips on keeping rats

Be very sure of your source. Don’t buy from just anywhere. A common scenario goes like this: chap goes to a “pet supermarket” and buys two “male” rats. Takes the rats home and a week later one of them gives birth. He’s now stuck with the babies so he sells them through friends or the local paper. What the buyers and probably the seller doesn’t realise is that the parents were probably brother and sister, so the babies are going to be genetically weak. This can lead to growth problems, organ failure, early onset of tumours and ultimately shortened lifespan. He may even sell them to another pet shop Gloucester. In our pet shop Gloucester, we only get our rats from reputable breeders or breed them ourselves.
Make sure you get an appropriately sized cage. Rats are active animals and need some space. If the supplier tries to sell you something that’s only really suitable for a hamster, walk away, they don’t know enough about rats to be selling them. In our pet shop Gloucester we have a range of excellent cages well suited to the most discerning rat. We also stock all the suitable ancillary equipment such as houses, bedding, wheels, water bottle etc.
Think about where you are going to house your new pet. Rats are very sensitive to high pitched noises that we can’t hear. The only time I have had reports from customers that their rats were fighting was when they had placed the cage too near a television. Moving the cage stopped the problem. Imagine having an insessant high pitched whine in your ear all the time, it would make you iritable. If you’ve got young children, you will know what it’s like ! At our pet shop Gloucester we have the knowledge to be able to advise you on all these things about rats that most people wouldn’t realise. Other things that can emit high pitched sounds inaudible to us but audible to your rat include, computers, kettles, games consoles, telephones, even some energy efficient lighting.
Feeding too much protein can cause problems. Rats are omnivores, they eat anything but feeding too much meat products can cause renal problems and will cause their wee to smell quite strongly. At our pet shop Gloucester we stock a range of excellent rat foods and treats.
Rats are rodents and their teeth grow constantly. They must have something to gnaw on to keep their teeth worn down or they will suffer from overgrown teeth. In extreme cases they will no longer be able to feed. In our pet shop Gloucester we stock a variety of wood gnaws, mineral blocks and toys designed to take care of this for you. It’s a good idea to change toys and chews regularly. Take them out, put in some new ones but don’t throw the old ones away. Keep them and change them back in a week or two. Keep swapping them round to keep them interested.
A bonus point, we always like to give a little extra at our pet shop Gloucester. Always wash your hands after handling your rats. They are very clean animals (considering the reputation of their wild cousins) but they can carry e.coli and other bacteria in their guts. In our pet shop Gloucester we have anti bacterial hand washes for customers who have handled our animals. As a minimum was thoroughly with soap and water.

For more advice from our pet shop Gloucester team on keeping rats, contact us, post on facebook or better yet call in the store.

See you soon

Richard Angell

Tarantulas – How to handle spiders

Posted on May 24, 2012 by rangell

Tarantulas – How to handle spiders. To start with, we do not recommend anyone handle tarantulas. This is for a number of reasons.

Firstly, although there is no such thing as “deadly” tarantulas” (I’ll tell you a story about that at the end) some do have medically significant bites and can be quite aggressive and fast. I’m not going to tell you how to handle one of these.

Secondly you may be allergic (unlikely but possible) to a tarantulas venom. Unfortunately the way to find out if you are is to get bitten and then of course it’s too late.

Just as importantly, tarantulas are delicate animals. They can be severely damaged or even killed by falls of just a few inches. Obviously this is more likely to happen during handling.

Lastly, some tarantulas (new world species) have urticating setae (hairs). Even if they do not flick them at you in defense you will still get them on you if you handled the spider. If you touch your face, or put your fingers anywhere near your eye you are going to be in trouble. I’ve had tarantulas hairs in my eye. The whole of the side or my face swelled. It looked like I had sacks of water hanging under my eye and it hurt like a… well like something very painful.

Those points aside you may feel that at times it is necessary to handle your spider so I’ve put together a short video showing two methods. At some point, when I next need to move or “re-pot” one of our more aggressive types I’ll do a video on my favourite method for doing this. Trust me, it will not involve picking it up! Enjoy.

Oh and the story about “deadly tarantulas”…. well about 6 months after we opened we were robbed of the contents of our till. The police were here until about 8pm on a Saturday night, which round here gets noticed. On the following Monday I had two young girls come in the shop and ask what was going to happen to me. I asked what they meant and they said “well, a man came in your shop on Saturday and was bitten by a deadly tarantula and died, that’s why the police were here…” My response to this was that they should know that was rubbish because for a start there’s no such thing etc. Just goes to show how some of the more ridiculous stories about tarantulas can start and spread.

For more species specific information on tarantulas, contact us or pop in the shop and see me. we do great deals on complete set ups and have really good prices for a wide variety of spiders.

Bearded Dragon Care Sheet

Posted on May 23, 2012 by rangell

Bearded dragon care sheets around on the internet. Not all are of much use, so I have posted our basic care sheet here for anyone who needs it.

We have had quite a few customers in who have either inherited a bearded dragon from a friend or relative or have bought a bearded dragon recently and who have been trying their best to improve the care of their new (and often unexpected) bearded dragon. I have been able to help in most cases so I thought I would jot down a few basics for people in this situation or for anyone thinking of purchasing a bearded dragon in the near future.

Generally a bearded dragon require quite a large vivarium as an adult. I would recommend 30” as an absolute minimum for one adult although 36” would be better. 48” is excellent and anything bigger is good but probably just showing off! Very young ones can at least look a bit lost in one though and some do seem (at least at first) to get a bit nervous in a large viv. (they will hide away a lot, sometimes to the point of not getting enough UV light) so starting off in a smaller viv is definitely OK, although not essential. They do grow quite quickly.

They require a good temperature gradient (a “hot end “and a “cold end”) to enable them to regulate their body temperature with the hot spot at the hot end at 40-45 C and the cool end around 25 C (so you are going to need two thermometers). There are a lot of opinions out there on heating a viv. and I’ll not get into it all here. I use a heat mat combined with a basking lamp (sized to the viv.) to create a hot spot. I have mounted mats on the side and on the bottom of the viv. with equal success. I have seen comments saying never use a heat mat and cannot agree. I have never had a problem, ever and this is over a number of years with a large number of animals. That said, there are alternatives and they are fine too (with the exception of “heat rocks” – they really are a bad idea, if you bought a bearded dragon starter set up from a certain well known pet supermarket you will have one of these, please throw it away to avoid any risk).

A thermostat will help avoid over temperature. A bearded dragon can tolerate lower temperatures (i.e. if your spot lamp blows) for quite some time but will suffer quite quickly from over temperature. Even with a thermostat you should always check your thermometers at least daily – thermostats can fail.

A bearded dragon needs relatively high levels of UVB light to manufacture vitamin D3, enabling them to assimilate calcium. You will need a 10-12% UVB lamp on 12 – 14 hours a day. Remember UV light does not travel too far from these lamps so make sure they are not too far from where your dragon likes to bask. I don’t use hides with beardies, sometimes they can spend too much time under it and not get enough UV – not common but best avoided.

Substrate (what your bearded dragon lives on) is probably the most controversial subject in the hobby. I am not going to tell you what not to use, there is not a substrate currently in use that can’t cause problems. I use beech wood chips or desert bedding in the main although I have used others. I have never had any issues with impaction so I can’t comment on what is worst for this. However I avoid calci sand, as calcium is an essential nutrient for a bearded dragon, so they will eat as if they feel they need it – why tempt fate? Also, most of my vivs. are front opening, with sliding glass and the sound of sand in the runners makes me cringe!

A bearded dragon does require a water bowl although they are rarely seen to drink (I know some individuals seem to love getting in their water bowl but I have only seen this when kept on sand). Do change the water regularly and keep the bowl clean. It is hot in a bearded dragon viv. and bacteria will grow very quickly around the rim of the water. A feed dish is a good idea for the veggie component of a bearded dragon diet, to help avoid the risk of impaction by picking up bits of substrate.

Your bearded dragon will love something to climb on, branches, rocks etc. Avoid anything sharp, they may suddenly jump down and you don’t want them to get injured. Any thing else in there is up to you. Some people like to put in things to encourage activity and don’t mind what it looks like, so use anything they can find. Others like it to look as natural as possible. It’s really up to you but I would suggest you read a good book for the more advanced aspects of setting up a vivarium both for further advice and for ideas if, like me, you’re not that creative yourself.

Your bearded dragon is an omnivore. They eat a wide range of foods including crickets, locusts, cockroaches and various lavae, vegetables and fruit, meat (small mammals) etc. In captivity they also need vitamin and calcium supplements to ensure continued good health. I feed mine to a regular regime. It is necessary for the health of the bearded dragon and with the amount of animals I have to feed it is more convenient to stick to a plan and this gives us confidence our animals have received a varied and balanced diet. You will find your own regime that suits you. I will give you mine just to illustrate what a balanced diet looks like, not to suggest this is superior to any other feeding plan.

Day one – cricket or locusts dusted with Nutrobal vitamin supplement.

Day 2 – salad vegetables.

Day three – crickets or locusts dusted with calcium powder.

Day four – salad vegetables.

Day five – crickets or locusts dusted with calcium powder.

Day six – fruit or veg.

Day seven – crickets or locusts without any supplement.

I vary this further by changing the crickets and locusts for morio worms from time to time and very occasionally wax worms. I don’t use mealworms myself due to the higher level of chitin in the jaws and the consequent increased risk of impaction but occasional mealworms would be OK. I must confess the type of veg I use depends very much on what is on offer at the local supermarket or my garden but favourites of my bearded dragon are rocket salad or herb salad, grated carrot, romaine lettuce, curly kale and cucumber. Customers have also used spring onion greens but I haven’t had a lot of success with those. Those that have swear by them. Again I haven’t had a lot of success with fruit but common ones used are strawberry, mango and banana.

One way of getting veg. into a more obstinate bearded dragon is to feed the veg. to the insects. Whatever they eat, your bearded dragon is eating. I do this sometimes but usually I have gut loaded them on a gut load formula any way. For a very young bearded dragon I dust every feed to ensure the rapidly growing youngsters are getting enough calcium but I only ever use vitamin powder once a week. The risk of over dosing far outweighing the risk of underdosing when using such a balanced diet.

It is important to consider the size of the insect food. It is a bad idea to give anything longer than the distance between the eyes of your bearded dragon. Too many over large insects will not be properly digested and you will see the half digested remains in the bearded dragons poop, possibly along with some blood! Alternatively your bearded dragon may regurgitate the meal, again with the risk of damage from the sharp bits of exoskeleton.

Things to avoid feeding are obviously using anything toxic! This sounds really obvious but people have been caught out with plants. The bearded dragon may not eat the plant but the insects probably will. The bearded dragon will then eat the now toxic insect. I don’t usually use live plants with my bearded dragon but other people do, so make sure you know what plant you have and that it is safe. Also I avoid broccoli and cabbage leaves as these contain oxylates that can prevent calcium being available to the metabolism.

Common problems with bearded dragon feeding include the notorius addiction to wax worms. I have seen a bearded dragon fed these exclusively. Not only is this a bad idea from a nutritional point of view but you often end up with a bearded dragon that will only eat this one source of food and frequently only when fed by hand! However I have not yet seen the bearded dragon that cannot be weaned back onto a balanced diet with a little perseverance.

That said, they can be fussy as they get older. Giles, my eleven year old bearded dragon, will not eat crickets at all. He used to but now he would rather starve. It’s OK though because he will eat everything else. You may also get a bearded dragon that will not touch something. The basic message is that as they are omnivores, it probably doesn’t matter as long as they get a balanced diet.

We now stock fruit beetle lavae and our own cockroaches. Any bearded dragon (of appropriate size) seems to love these.

For more information on your bearded dragon either contact us or better still pop into the shop and see us and our bearded dragon stock..

Rabbit health check advice

Posted on May 21, 2012 by rangell

Here’s a short video on how to carry out a quick health check on a rabbit. This should be done by the pet shop before you purchase but it should help you if you know what they should be looking for.

You can also carry out this quick check once a week when you clean out the rabbit. Being proactive like this can identify problems when they are still relatively easy to sort out and will not only benefit the rabbit but could also save you a small fortune in vet bills.

The checks are basic and simple to do but can identify symptoms of serious problems early, making treatment easier (so cheaper) and more effective.

A simple weekly check of the ears for example can spot ear mites which can be easy to treat at an early stage of infestation but can be harder to get rid of when established and can lead to secondary bacterial or fungal infection. Checking the rabbits bum weekly can help prevent fly strike which often can prove fatal.

Have a look at the video. I will be producing a lot more similar videos on a variety of animals and subjects which I hope will prove useful to you. Please feel free to comment on this blog or on the videos if you find them useful. If you have a subject you would like me to do a video on, leave a comment or use the “contact us” form.

Enjoy.

Pet shop advice and discussion forum on Facebook

Posted on May 15, 2012 by rangell

Pet shop advice and discussion forum is developing on our facebook page.

Following on from the relaunch of our Angell Pets facebook page it is starting to develop past the purpose for which we I set it up. Originally it was so we could inform our customers of what was happening in the shop, what new stock we had in or offers we were running. It has since taken on a life of its own and is just starting to turn into a bit of a general pet shop advice forum.

Contacting your pet shop for advice

Our pet shop staff have always been available at the end of the phone or in the pet shop to give advice where we can on a whole range of issues around pet care. We do not intend this to change but Facebook has given us an additional platform to give interactive pet shop advice.

Our intention now is to give pet shop advice on a whole range of subjects through our blog and YouTube channel and to use Facebook for giving follow up advice on these subjects and on more specific issues people may have. We do recognise that people may want to raise issues they may not feel comfortable discussing in an open forum (where they may feel they have done something incorrectly – usually they haven’t!) and Facebook provides the mechanism for this as well, via messaging.

Of course there is still good old email but there is always the chance your mail will get lost amongst the hundreds we receive a week from pet shop suppliers, banks, spammers etc. Putting up a post is probably the best way to share your ideas or concerns. I can almost guarantee that what you think is a stupid question is just the question half a dozen others want to ask but think is a stupid question so they don’t. You’ll be doing them a favour.

As a pet shop business we will obviously have to have some rules of conduct. Don’t be profane, don’t be insulting or demeaning to others, Do check your question hasn’t already been asked and don’t be offended if its pointed out to you that is has. Don’t bother pointing out my spelling mistakes, there’ll be too many and please don’t post any advice that you are unsure of. Make sure you have direct knowledge of the subject rather than post something you have heard or “read on the internet”.

As an example of how bad some of the “advice” out there can be; a well known person in the pet shop industry was scanning through one of the reptile forums. He came across some advice on keeping venomous snakes. Being very knowledgeable he knew the advice was incorrect so he went about tracing it back to its source. This proved to be a fourteen year old child who had never kept any snakes, let alone venomous ones. Following this advice could well have caused the owners death!

Now, that is an extreme example but the advice promulgated on the internet can be divided into three categories. Good advice, from experienced keepers who just want to help people out. Fortunately there is a lot of this about but unfortunately there is also a lot of bad advice, often I’m afraid to say from people who should know better i.e. pet shop employees etc. They too want to help you out but they are giving you either just opinion, not fact, or just reprocessing old advice that may once have been the norm but has since been superseded by better ways. Sadly there is a third category which is deliberate bad advice.

It’s the internet folks, it gives access to all sorts of weirdos, idiots, mentally unstable, big headed know nothings, well .. you get the picture.

It can be difficult to sift through all this information to find what is good. Following some pet shop “advice” can be costly, some as shown, can be dangerous, some can just lead you to think there is only one way of doing things when actually there are often quite a few options, one of which may be better for you.

Hopefully this pet shop Facebook forum can help with the sifting. Its my pet shop so I will be moderating it and I will take down stuff I know to be wrong or think may mislead people, deliberately or unintentionally. If you see something you disagree with, let me know first before you go commenting on it. It may be that it is just another way of doing something that you haven’ considered. It may be you’re right, in which case we will listen and act. But let’s keep it polite, friendly and objective.

For those of you thinking “he’s opening up to attacks from competing pet shop businesses and dealers” well you are probably right but my view is, if they are spending time focusing on my business then they aren’t spending enough time focusing on their own so won’t be competitors for very long. If they start using some of the advice from us and our customers then that’s a good thing. Maybe their own pet shop customers will start to get a better service than they have been getting! Everyone’s a winner.

Finally, we are a pet shop. Our Facebook fan page does still serve the function of getting information to our customers on what we have available and what offers we are running. This site also does that through our emailing service. Customers using this pet shop service will get advance notice of offers being run, so will get first dibs when there are limited stocks. We will also be offering discount and FREE STUFF from time to time. At the moment we have some FREE venison dog treat bags in the pet shop for Facebook users. Go there to find out how to claim them.

Facebook page

So post your questions about pet shop advice and post your own ideas if you want or feed off others. Please remember the Pet shop forum rules though and of course I am still available at the end of the phone or in the pet shop.

Pet shop Gloucester – top tips on snake handling

Posted on May 13, 2012 by rangell

Pet shop Gloucester tips. Just a brief post on 5 top tips on handling snakes from your favourite Gloucester pet shop.

Pet shop gloucester, pet shop, reptile shop gloucester, reptile shop, snakes

Great plains rat snake

If your snake has just fed, DON’T HANDLE IT. Handling a snake after it has just fed can be at best unpleasant and at worst dangerous. Snakes swallow their food whole and rely on strong stomach acids to break it down. Whilst this happens relatively quickly, for the first 24 – 48 hours the snake has a large, hard object in a small, confined space. In the wild they would lay up during this period and allow the acids to do their work. Handling causes the snake to move around and this puts pressure on its stomach (or in the case of inexperienced handlers they may actually squeeze the area). This action can make the snake regurgitate the meal, bringing up the very strong stomach acids with it, which can cause damage. Even worse, if the snake doesn’t regurgitate and the meal is still undigested other internal organs can be damaged by the pressure, if handled roughly (or dropped). Then of course there is the risk to you. Even a docile snake may strike when it has just been fed and is digesting its meal. It knows you shouldn’t be picking it up even if you don’t. To see snakes being fed come to our pet shop Gloucester at 5pm on Saturdays.

For more advice on feeding snakes come and see us in our pet shop Gloucester.

If your snake is shedding, DON’T HANDLE IT. It’s not so much that it dangerous for the snake (although it may lead to incomplete shedding) but with its eyes clouded over it can’t see. Would you be in good mood if you suddenly had one of your senses taken away? The snake still has other, very accurate senses, so it can and will tag you. You can see snakes in various stages of shed in our pet shop Gloucester so you can get to know how to gauge when the shed will occur.

For more advice on problem shedding come and see us in our pet shop Gloucester.

So assuming your snake is not shedding and has not been fed within the last 48 hours the most important things is to BE CONFIDENT. Most people who keep snakes will tell you the snake can sense it if your nervous. I don’t think they have any ability to sense nerves in you at all, however they can pick up on your body language. If you go in with a hesitant hand that’s shaking, moving in then pulling back the poor old snake doesn’t know what is going on. When they are unsure or the situation they naturally get defensive and may well strike. To practice handling snakes come into our pet shop Gloucester and ask to have a go. I can and have on several occasions demonstrated to new owners in the shop where I can simulate a nervous owner and get a cornsnake to strike or be confident with a rather nippy kingsnake and not get tagged. In fact someone once brought a kingsnake into the shop, complete with viv. (as they couldn’t get the snake out, it was so aggressive). The snake was hissing and striking at the glass. I opened the viv. picked the snake straight up and it was quite calm. The owner then hesitantly took the snake off me and promptly got bitten on the neck. Which takes us to the next point.

For more advice or demonstrations on snake handling come and see us in our pet shop Gloucester.

Keep the snake away from your face. If a snake does bite it should only be able, at worst, to get your hand. If it gets anywhere else, guess what – that was your fault. Staring up close into the face of a snake is a bad idea. Snakes are carnivores, their senses for the most part are binocular and forward facing in order to hunt. This means they are particularly sensitive to anything immediately in front of them that moves. If you wave your hand about in front of your snakes head, or worse your nose (especially if it’s as big as mine) you are much more likely to get tagged. Also all reptiles can carry salmonella. Letting a snake touch your face near your mouth (i.e. kissing it!!) is really a bad idea.

For more advice on being bitten by snakes (especially if the snake won’t let go !!) call us at our pet shop Gloucester.

Wash your hands afterwards. As stated, snakes can carry salmonella. This bacterium is quite likely to be found on the snakes skin. They poop in the viv and move around – it will transfer bacteria onto its skin. You will be letting the snake run through your hands, you will touch it near its cloaca (vent) where the poop comes out so you will get bacteria on your hands. If you don’t wash your hands immediately you will be transferring bacteria everywhere you touch. Salmonella is a dangerous infection, potentially fatal in infants, the elderly and immunosuppressed individuals. If you are fit and healthy you will survive it but you will never want to get it again. I have had the disease. It is unpleasant, debilitating, incredibly painful and will take some time to recover from. All you have to do to avoid getting it, or giving it to your family, is wash your hands, preferably with an anti bacterial hand wash. We sell them, so you have no excuse. Also some snakes carry diseases that can be passed onto other snakes, the one that springs to mind is IBD (inclusion body disease) that can infect boids (pythons and boas). It is highly contagious and always fatal. Always disinfect when moving from one boid viv. to another or any other enclosure for that matter. Cross contamination is the commonest vector for the spread of mites, for example. An alcohol hand wash will kill any eggs on your skin (it dehydrates them) as well as bacteria and the mechanical action also helps lift dirt that is harbouring pathogens.

For more advice on reptile hygiene contact us at our pet shop Gloucester or subscribe to our YouTube channel where we will be adding all sorts of tips and tricks.

I hope these tips are of use. If you have any more questions or need more advanced help with anything just get in touch with our pet shop Gloucester and we will try to help.

Gloucester Pet Shop Dog Food Advice

Posted on May 12, 2012 by rangell

Pet shop top tips on dog food

We hope this information helps when you are thinking about what is the best food for your pet. For more advice on what is the best pet food for your dog visit our pet shop in Gloucester, or give us a call, or leave a comment below. Make sure you register to qualify for your 10% discount.

Favourite Gloucester pet shop – vote here for a chance to win £100

Posted on May 8, 2012 by rangell

Pet shop customers vote here for your favourite Gloucester pet shop and you could win £100 through the Pet Care Trading Association.

As part of our efforts to stay a cut above the rest we belong to a trade association for pet shop businesses that shares our aim to improve pet care by encouraging responsible and ethical pet ownership.

They are running a competition to find the nations favourite pet care professional and as a thank you for your getting involved they will enter you into a free draw to win £100. Just click below to register your vote for us.

IMPORTANT

Before you do, don’t forget to register with us first. All notices of free competitions and offers will be coming via email to you in future so you will need to be registered to receive notification on how to get FREE STUFF and/or DISCOUNTS.

We think it important that a pet shop is more than just a shop. A decent pet shop should offer extra services and advice and also get involved in community programmes (like our free educational services to schools and organisations). It’s also nice to give our customers a chance to WIN SOME DOSH, FREE STUFF or GET DISCOUNT. This is why we have set up our new discounts and offers subscription. So make sure you subscribe and register. As they say, you need to be in it to win it.

So register with us your favorite pet shop to receive your 10% sign up discount and regular notification of offers, further discounts, free stuff and chances to win money.

Vote here

Spider for sale – what to think about

Posted on April 24, 2012 by rangell

Spider for sale – what to think about before buying

You typed in spider for sale but which one?

Youve typed in Spider for sale – why?

You decide you want a spider (and to be clear, by spider I am talking about tarantulas, not DWA listed true spiders). What type of spider is it best to get. Well there are a number of factors to consider and they all really depend on what you want from the spider.

First is budget. If you want an adult goliath bird eater, or a gooty ornamental you are going to need a bigger budget than if you want a chile rose spiderling. The budget you need is going to be greatly effected by all the other factors. Spiders can be cheap to aquire and to keep but if you go for one of the larger tropical species you are going to be adding to the cost and the level of skill required to look after them. Not something you are always told when you just type spider for sale into a search engine.

Lets assume you are a complete beginner, on a limited budget. What is the best one to go for when you type in spider for sale and start looking. There are a few that spring to mind based on hardiness, temperment and size. The obvious choice is the good old chile rose tarantula.

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The species is very hardy and long lived (if you are getting a spiderling they are slow growing as well). They are very inexpensive to buy and do not need a huge enclosure. Obviously they get bigger than any spider you will find in the UK but are quite moderately sized compared with some of the big bird eaters or earth tigers. The vast majority are very docile (captive bred as opposed to wild caught, more on that later) and are quite slow moving in general. They come from an arid region, so you do not need to worry about maintaining raised humidity (except a little during shedding maybe). The temperature in the wild varies from very cold at night to very hot during the day, so they can easily tolerate the temperatures found in the home. Extra heating is not really required for this species (unless you know your house is normally quite cold). All of these points make it one of the best spiders around for the beginner. However there are others to consider. Other Grammostola species such as the brazilian black tarantula or the chaco golden knee tarantulaalso make good beginner spiders. The brazilian black is a bit more expensive and gets a bit bigger and the golden knee gets bigger as well, so they will need a larger enclosure as an adult. The Brachypelmas, such as the Mexican red knee tarantula are also good starter spiders, although some like the Mexican red rumpare a bit more nervous and the Mexican fire leg seems to have only one purpose in life – to flick urticating setae (hairs) at you. The ones to avoid for a beginner are the aggressive species (most of the old world and australian), those that are very fast (avicularia – not agressive but do need raised humidity and are very quick), obviously those that are very agressive and fast, like the trinidad chevron, and those that require a higher level of skill to look after. Probalbly the best examples of this are the “marsh” spiders – those species that live in very humid environements, like the fringed earth tiger.

Mexican Fire Leg

OK, so your not a beginner. You’ve kept one, or a few spiders in the past but want something more challenging. Think about what type you want; burrowing, terrestrial or arboreal (tree living). If you go for a burrowing spider and it does burrow, you won’t see a lot of it, so you need to probably be interested in the set up as much as the spider. Maybe trying to recreate your own little piece of rainforest in you living room. This can be very rewarding in itself but you are not going to impress your friends with your big spider because they’ll never see it. Terrestrial spiders live inside or under things. Some also burrow a bit. These will be much easier to see (and clean out). Sometimes the spider will completely cover everything in web. It’s a matter of taste whether you think this looks cool or just a bit dirty. The one thing for sure is, you won’t stop the spider doing it if it wants to. Arboreal spiders like to climb. Some build web nests in crevices or branch forks (Avicularia), some like to hide under tree bark (ornamentals). Most arboreals tend to be quick and agile and can jump quite a way. Decide on what type you want first and then buy an enclosure to suit.

Next decide on what age you want to get. Spiderlings are the least expensive. However there is a reason for this. Mother nature knows not all young will make it to adulthood so most animals overproduce young. Whilst yours will not have to contend with predators, there is still “many a slip twixt cup and lip” as is were and not all will make it. A juvenile is going to be more robust, after all it is one of those that has made it so far. An adult is obviously a strong spider. However you won’t know its actual age and nothing lives forever. A lot of spiders do live a long time however (decades) so you should be OK if its a female. This is another thing to consider. Males do not live as long as females, many years less in a lot of cases. However in some species the males get a lot bigger (leg span, rather than body size) so if that’s what you want, a male might be for you. As spiderlings it can be very difficult, if not impossible to tell the difference, another reason why the cost is lower.

I would put off getting some of the more difficult or agressive species like some of the earth tigers and baboon spiders until you have had some prior experience. It is not recommended to handle any taratula, for the sake of the spider more that anything but you definitley don’t want to be handling some of the earth tigers, ornamentals and baboons. They are agressive, they can’t flick hairs so they will bite and it will really hurt. Tarantula bites are not fatal (bites should always be followed by a visit to hospital though, due to the risk of infection – you would for a dog bite wouldn’t you?) but some are quite potent and there is a risk of allergic reaction. I have a customer from Zimbabwe who was bitten by a wild baboon spider and he likened it to someone pouring molten metal on his hand for an hour before it went numb and swollen. He then suffered from muscle cramps in his neck and legs for a few weeks. Not something you want to experience. You have been warned. Obviously moving these spiders around from enclosure to enclosure is where the need for experience with spiders comes in. Disturbing a spider in its nest or burrow is when you are going to be attacked. An orange starburst baboonlept from the base of it’s enclosure at my face when I moved its hide and surprised it. It travelled aroung three feet through the air. Fortunately it missed but then it had to be captured and put back – not for the inexeperienced.

One more thing to consider before you type spider for sale and one of the most important. Wild caught or captive bred? Captive bred are generally (although as more are being bred, not always) more expensive. However wild caught are generally more aggressive and more likely to stay that way. They will almost certainly come with their own host of parasites and possibly diseases. This can have major implications if you are adding to an existing collection. Lastly, no matter what claims are made, you can have no knowledge of how the animals were collected. Was it done responsibly from areas that can sustain the harvesting of that species, or was it done by people who kill as many as they manage to collect and take from areas where they are scarce? CAPTIVE BRED IS BEST PEOPLE.

So you know enough to select the best spider for sale for you. The question is why get one at all. Well, they do make good pets. They are inexpensive, most live a long time, they are quite easy to look after and have a very low cost of maintenance. The substrate is cheap and you don’t need a lot, the enclosures are relatively small (therefore cheaper), ancillary equipment is inexpensive, they eat relatively little and the food is cheap. They are interesting to observe exhibiting their natural behaviours, which they will do as they live in quite small territories in the wild and you can make a very attractive display from their enclosure. Be warned though. keeping spiders can be quite addicitive. There are quite a few enthusiast who start with one, perhaps bought as a gift, who go on to own large collections.

If you need any specific advice from the staff on spiders (or scorpions or other invertebrates) come in and see me at the shop, or contact us on the form on the right.

Hopefully this helps a little in informing you before you type spider for sale.