Stuck between a rock and a hard place: LPS G. porteri

So my LPS has another G. porteri in stock. It's a little one, estimated DLS of 2.5" - 3". It looks pretty dehydrated and it always seems to be marching around its enclosure like its looking for somewhere to hide...or possibly food. Another remote possibility is that's an immature male.

This is the same LPS that sold me a gravid G. porteri as my first T. They're either bringing in WC specimens (pointlessly! How many CB rosies are out there? Millions?) or their supplier doesn't separate breeding stock from animals available for sale.

I've been debating on rescuing it, fattening it up and looking for someone who'll give it a good forever home (though I am fully prepared to keep it for the rest of its life if another home can't be found), but if I do they're just going to bring in another one and in a few months I'll be struggling with the same dilemma. I don't know what to do about this - aside from this one unfortunate issue, it's a pretty good pet store. They only ever bring in CB birds and herps, they carry an interesting selection of fish and they're the only place in town where I'm comfortable buying feeder bugs, so I'd rather avoid alienating them unless they give me a good reason to do so. In the worst case scenario I do have someone near me from whom I can order feeders in bulk.

In an ideal world I would educate them on how to tell the difference between a healthy Tarantula and a not-so-healthy one, but at the end of the day I know that all they really care about is selling the T as fast as possible. A far more realistic solution is to talk them out of selling inverts - it's not like they're making any money out of it anyway. On average, they sell one invert every 3 months for $30. Fish and fish accessories seem to be their bread and butter.

Does anyone have advice on how to approach them on this issue? I'm sure that Pet Store owners get pretty annoyed with people like myself coming in and telling them how to run their business, and as I said, I don't want to ruffle anyone's feathers.

If this is your regular store, I assume that you know some of the employees pretty well? In that position, my first step would be attempting to share husbandry techniques with long term employees that I was familiar with. I know the people that work at me LPS pretty well. I often show them pictures of my latest enclosure or my T doing something cute. That might be a good way to start a conversation about husbandry. If you're dealing with a chain store, it's going to be incredibly difficult to get their care policies changed. You can speak to managers, district managers, etc. in an attempt to educate them and get the policies updated and it is always worthwhile to try. Remember to be polite and have a conversation whenever possible. The louder you yell, the less folks are inclined to hear you.

Thankfully it's a privately owned establishment, so I don't need to worry about them using corporate policy as an excuse.

EDIT: I've made feeble attempts at developing some level of rapport with the people who work there, but between the fact that they're not the most receptive and the fact that I'm crippled by severe social anxiety that makes me come off like a deer in the headlights around strangers when I don't have a computer to hide behind...they never seem to be very interested in anything I have to say aside from, "Here's money."

A skinny T that paces its enclosure sounds like a mature male to me. Are you 100% on the identification, I picked up a Euathlus parvulus at PetCo that was marked as a "Rose Hair"

If it is a male it's not mature yet; I saw neither hooks nor emboli, and that's the first thing I looked for when I saw how puny it was. I can't be 100% sure on species without a molt to look at, though looking at pics of Euathlus parvulus I can see how a layman could mistake the two. I've gotta buy more crickets within the next day or two so I'll try and get a closer look at it the next time I'm in the store.

Update: I went in today to check on the little one, and it's actually looking much better. It's entirely possible someone else went in to express concern before I could, because the G. porteri I've mentioned in this thread now has a hide, clean water (with no sponge) and it's been given a good meal. Its abdomen was full and chubby and it wasn't pacing - it actually seemed to be pretty much at ease. There was one live cricket in the enclosure with it, but I suspect whoever fed it might have just given it one cricket too many. Overall, I'm no longer concerned for its well being. Hopefully soon someone who can give it a great home will come in and snatch it up.

Also, I'm pretty certain it really is a G. porteri, and I'm thinking that it's just a small female. Still haven't been able to get a close enough look to get a positive sex ID though - the snarky dude was working today and was disinclined to open the enclosure for me. To add injury to insult, they were completely out of feeders. No crix, no waxies, not even hornworms! I'm about ready to drop this joint like a hot potato and start ordering my feeders online.

LythSalicaria said:

To add injury to insult, they were completely out of feeders. No crix, no waxies, not even hornworms! I'm about ready to drop this joint like a hot potato and start ordering my feeders online.

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Sounds like it's time to kick up a cricket or Red Racer colony so you can be self sufficient

:sarcasm:I think you should purchase it! Lord knows there is not a pet store on the planet that knows what they are doing!

skippydude said:

Sounds like it's time to kick up a cricket or Red Racer colony so you can be self sufficient

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Now that I've got a Tokay to eat up the excess, that's not a bad idea. I did try starting a cricket colony back around April or so but I ran into problems with Orb Weavers sneaking in and decimating the population. Real bummer that was - they were producing pinheads like crazy. I'm sure I can find a way to keep them out though, and at this point between my Ts and my Tokay I shouldn't have to worry about having too many crickets.

Quick question, though I feel a little silly for having to ask - what are red racers?

Wadew said:

:sarcasm:I think you should purchase it! Lord knows there is not a pet store on the planet that knows what they are doing!

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If it's still there on payday, I might.

Sorry for using the common name, Red Racers are Blatta lateralis

You can trade off your surplus too. Check out my T list, I bet 75% came from trading off my Dubia surplus

Aiyaiyai! More of them?!

I had to get hornworms for my Gecko today, and they brought two more in. *bangs head against wall*

On the bright side, the one dude in the place who's sometimes open to a bit of conversation was in. I actually got a chance to talk to him about husbandry, and he even got me to help him sex the two new ones that came in. One of them is a very pretty MM G. rosea (or at least I think it's rosea - his hairs were very pink, where my G. porteri's hairs are more of a brown/gold color). I'm thinking that I will give him a home. I can't use him for breeding purposes for several reasons, the most prominent being that it seems like the supply already far exceeds the demand, but I think he's beautiful and would make a good addition to my collection. Seeing as he's a MM and not going to live even a fraction as long as his female counterparts, I'm going to try and convince them to give me him and the runty one I mentioned previously for a discount. The other new one, a very large, very fat female, already has someone coming to get her.

I'll be doing this tomorrow. Once I get them home I'll take some pics before they go into their enclosures.