Tarantula turned out male? Be happy about it.

A lot of us are bummed when one of our spiders gets confirmed male. All we think about is the shorter lifespan. That's a dysfunctional way to look at it, though. Below are four reasons to smile when your tarantula turns out to be male.

- You will get a more unique Tarantula
With the possible exception of Pamphobeteus, most people's mental image of a species is the mature female. Getting a male means that you will have a unique tarantula from the standard image, whether its a metallic blue M. balfouri, or an earthy MM Poecilotheria.

-You will appreciate your time with it more
You can appreciate something that will end soon more than something that won't. You will treasure your male tarantula more, knowing that it won't be with you as long. Sure, I appreciate all my females, but its easy to start taking them for granted when you know they will be with you for the next 10+ years.

-You will have more molt-related behavior
Many of us are fascinated by the cyclical nature of molts. A spider in its prime one day stops eating, and slowly darkens up. Then, it lies on its back, casts off its old skin, and emerges fragile, pale, and refreshed. It recovers, and goes back to its prime. If you think about it, a tarantula is born and grows old many times in its life. With males, you get to observe this cycle more frequently.

-If you breed him, you multiply him and his species
Your male is half of what a species needs to continue. If you breed him, not only are you bringing more of his species to the hobby, you are also bringing more of him to the hobby, since all slings that he helps make are half-clones of him.


Anyone else have other reasons?

I'm learning to love them, as it seems I have no choice. Either my local pet store is pulling a flim-flam on me or I just know how to pick males! My first two T's I ever bought were an N.Chromatus and a C.Fasciatum and both matured in the last 4 months! Initially I felt the way you described...disappointed, suspicious that somehow I had been tricked into males, sad because I knew they wouldn't be around much longer. Since then I have worked out my first breeding loan with my N. Chromatus and am currently working on getting one going for the Tiger Rump. It's cool and feels good to send them off to achieve their purpose. So for me anyway, my males have helped me meet other breeders on here, I've gotten to watch the highly accelerated molt cycle, and I'm contributing to the necessity of wild caught specimens! Three great reasons that having a male is an ok, or even great thing!

Males are almost always gentler and safer to handle. Exceptions occur, of course.

I have a few males in my collection, initially my boyfriend made fun of me for "ending up with males," and, "wasting my money." I pretty much brought up all of the points in the OP, and even though he said that he would still never want a male, he told me that I was right, males are important too.

When you start in this hobby, all your looking for is females. Some years down the road once you've got a nice collection going, all you'll do is look for males.

Later, Tom

if you raise from slings i think it helps you really decide what you like. i'm often thankful that i have terrible luck and end up with males otherwise i'd end up inundated with a bunch of tarantulas i didn't really like just because they ended up being female. i'm having that problem with my Brachypelmas :|

although i have to say i do enjoy the breeders i know and send males to because of my luck

i sort of disagree with males being gentler or easier to handle. i think some of the most nervous tarantulas i have dealt with were males coming close to their ulitmate molt that were already jacked up on hormones or something.

Philth said:

When you start in this hobby, all your looking for is females. Some years down the road once you've got a nice collection going, all you'll do is look for males.

Later, Tom

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Very true >_>

malevolentrobot said:

i sort of disagree with males being gentler or easier to handle. i think some of the most nervous tarantulas i have dealt with were males coming close to their ulitmate molt that were already jacked up on hormones or something.

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Philth said:

When you start in this hobby, all your looking for is females. Some years down the road once you've got a nice collection going, all you'll do is look for males.

Later, Tom

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both are very true lol.
Id also like to add the only thing ive seen more nervous/defensive than a PU male tarantula is a paired (gravid) female..

While everyone is fairly sure mine is female, I wouldn't be disappointed if she was actually a male. It's been a positive experience and it would most likely encourage me to either try to breed them or purchase another tarantula in the future.

Regardless of what this thread says, I'm going to be a little upset every time one of my slings turns out male. All that matters to me is the shorter lifespan. Sure, they may molt more frequently, but females will molt more often because they live a helluvalot longer. I don't plan on mating my males, I don't see how they're more "unique" when 50% are male, and I doubt I'll appreciate my time with it more.

I still won't be miserable about it, there's nothing wrong with males except they don't give you as many years for your buck. The only advantage to males that I can think of is the opportunity to replace it with a new sling when it dies, which means getting to watch the fascinating lifecycle of a tarantula all over again!

Zeph said:

I don't see how they're more "unique" when 50% are male

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50% of eggsac is male, but because they die earlier, there are more females than males in the end.

my elegans ended up male.. turns out my friend had a breeding female.. so we traded an elegans for a diversipes