Question about holding/handling my pink toe

[jordanily]

Hi everybody!

I got my pink toe male on Sunday (1/09/2021). I relocated him to his cage on 1/10/2021 (early AM), a few hours after getting him. He went in without a problem. He ate the 2 crickets the pet store gave me. He ate the first one on Sunday, 1/10 and he ate the second one probably 2ish days ago.

My question to you all: I watched videos and I spoke with the pet store before leaving on handling. I know to test his mood before attempting to hold him and I move him by lightly nudging his back legs with a pen. He moves around the tank when I do this. He just goes in all around the walls of the tank. After a few tries, he starts to crawl up towards my hand which I have my palm laid out for him to crawl on. He starts to touch my hand, crawls a little more up, and turns around and goes back down into the tank. Am I doing something wrong?

I appreciate all advise. I don't want to aggravate him, either. He was extremely friendly at the pet store. I'm attaching a photo because this was tonight. I think I did slightly bother him, judging by his positioning.

 

[Konstantin]

Hi
Handling of tarantulas is a bad idea.Its very easy to injure or even kill your spider if it goes wrong.
They are not like your average pet.They don't benefit from it and are uncomfortable when in touch with human skin.Also they are not able to bond with you or in other words get used to being handled by you.
While the so called more docile species will tolerate handling to some extent they dont like it and will try to avoid it .
Its not worth the risk of losing your spider just so you can experience a thrill.Thats not what tarantula keeping is all about.
Regards Konstantin

 

[Aracnoenthusiast]

I second that. Handling has too big a chance to end in a "help! My t fell" post. They dont get used to it or enjoy it.

 

[jordanily]

Thank you both for your input! I will leave him alone and enjoy from afar @Konstantin @Aracnoenthusiast

 

[Konstantin]

Hi
Im glad you took the advice.
They are better being an observational pets.
Think about it like fish that doesn't do much and like to sit in same spot for days on end.haha
Regards Konstantin

 

[Arachnoclown]

Pinktoes aren't the ideal spider to handle. An adult can easily jump 5-10 feet into harm's way. For this reason is how I got bit by one.
One of my favorite spiders "Marley aka Granny" is a 14 year old pinktoe right now (They generally only reach 12 years). When she was much younger she would play this game with me. Everytime I would open her enclosure she would jump out and run around on me while I would clean up and water her enclosure. One day she jumped out (3-4') and couldn't grip onto my arm and sank her fangs into me. It did not feel so good. Luckily it was a dry bite I believe because there was only the pain with the bite itself. This happened a couple other times as well but it was only scrapping with the fangs to gain traction.

I'm not trying to discourage you from handling. Just trying to inform you that they can jump and bite as well.
I feed my pinktoes every two weeks...3-4 crickets would be fine.
Good luck with your new addition.

 

[ArachnoHorn]

Handling certain tarantulas can give you rashes as well.

 

[jordanily]

Pinktoes aren't the ideal spider to handle. An adult can easily jump 5-10 feet into harm's way. For this reason is how I got bit by one.
One of my favorite spiders "Marley aka Granny" is a 14 year old pinktoe right now (They generally only reach 12 years). When she was much younger she would play this game with me. Everytime I would open her enclosure she would jump out and run around on me while I would clean up and water her enclosure. One day she jumped out (3-4') and couldn't grip onto my arm and sank her fangs into me. It did not feel so good. Luckily it was a dry bite I believe because there was only the pain with the bite itself. This happened a couple other times as well but it was only scrapping with the fangs to gain traction.

I'm not trying to discourage you from handling. Just trying to inform you that they can jump and bite as well.
I feed my pinktoes every two weeks...3-4 crickets would be fine.
Good luck with your new addition.
View attachment 52906

Beautiful!!! Thank you for the insight, very very much

 

[jordanily]

Handling certain tarantulas can give you rashes as well.

Thank you for the information I'm leaning towards not handling. He's just so beautiful, the last thing I'd want to do is harm him.

 

[jordanily]

Really thankful I found this website! You guys are awesome!

 

[Volkswachter]

Yeah, just piling on to what everyone else has already said. Tarantulas are fascinating creatures which are wonderful to observe, to study, and to raise but they are not for handling. A fall from even a few feet can seriously injure or even fatally injure a tarantula. My solution to this "problem" was to also get into the reptile hobby, so I have two beardies, 3 leopard geckos, and a gargoyle gecko, all of whom are happy to be handled and benefit from the enrichment of being out of their enclosures and free to roam for 20-30 minutes a day.

The fun of tarantulas is watching their feeding response, watching them rearrange their enclosure (my A. Hentzi are little bulldozers and rearrange their houses all the time) and raising them from slings and going through the whole process with them, even docile species should not be handled, if you're really interested in something similar, I've found that "free feeding" my calmer tarantulas is a good experience, but just remember it's a good experience for YOU, the tarantula is indifferent completely, but if you want to let a slow, non-bolty specimen out and plop a worm somewhere on the floor for him to blunder into, that's something you can do, but again, this is for your enjoyment, not the T, they're ambush hunters, not active hunters.