So I am pretty new to this and fortunate in that all of the tarantulas I've kept so far have exhibited interesting behaviours. Not so fortunate in that I've not really found much information about what it all means. The spinning and hunting my A. avicularia did was pretty straight-forward, and I didn't see that much of her (or his) "private" life. Now I have a young female A. chalcodes and I am pet-sitting an aged male G. rosea, and they're both out a lot and doing stuff like preening and looking at activity in the room, checking out the baby garters they're neighbours with. Neither of them has done any spinning at all.
I used to think that I wanted animals primarily for handling, but over time this has changed, and I now keep some lizards that I only handle when strictly necessary for husbandry purposes. While I very much enjoy the gentle sensation of a tarantula walking on my arm, just one or two that do that will probably be enough, and I'd love for others to display a range of different observable behaviours within their habitats. As such would like to tailor my addict list of future spider kids with some diversity in mind.
Are there some particularly interesting species/subspecies I ought to keep in mind - hopefully some that I can feel I can take on as a beginner (as well as some that I could fantasize about while I become more experienced)?
I used to think that I wanted animals primarily for handling, but over time this has changed, and I now keep some lizards that I only handle when strictly necessary for husbandry purposes. While I very much enjoy the gentle sensation of a tarantula walking on my arm, just one or two that do that will probably be enough, and I'd love for others to display a range of different observable behaviours within their habitats. As such would like to tailor my addict list of future spider kids with some diversity in mind.
Are there some particularly interesting species/subspecies I ought to keep in mind - hopefully some that I can feel I can take on as a beginner (as well as some that I could fantasize about while I become more experienced)?