u/DudeWithARebel

I will be feeding it this weekend. I think it’s hungry. Beautiful species this is.

First pic of what I could get without disturbing it or lifting the lid off. Second pic is the container I bought it in and what it’s going to. Third pic is what the setup is like. I understand it’s from Africa and not precisely what this set up is like. But I did create a burrow and what I thought was a decent amount of substrate. I will put in a bottle cap for its water bowl before I rehome it as well.

Are there any hints or tips on how to rehouse a baboon T that isn’t really found off of Google or YouTube? Any tricks that seemed to have worked? I’ve never had a Baboon T before and from what I looked up, is one of the best beginner Baboons you can buy as they are usually less aggressive/defensive than others. Which is nice because it’s an absolutely beautiful specimen of tarantula. I had a 12 hour drive home and I’m sure it was a rough little drive for Ts in small little containers. I did what I could to get home fast but also drive as smooth as possible for them. When I got home, I of course took them out of the bag and this guy was in a defensive posture striking because I could really feel it when holding the container. Then a couple of days later, I took the lid off, to give it a bit more air I guess? Lol. It didn’t do anything. It was as calm as you would like from a T. Didn’t move. So I’m 50/50 on this being real defensive or just a calm mellow rehousing. Lol.

I’ve only rehoused gentle/docile species and never have I done an Old World or aggressive one. So I’m thinking of loosening the lid, so it’s just sitting on top and not pushed down. Place the whole thing in the new enclosure and take the lid off with feeding tongs or pliers, lol. Let it venture out on its own and then carefully take out the old container. I thought about maybe buying a new paintbrush with fine bristles and maybe coaxing it out that way? Thank you for all advice.

What a beautiful specimen.

So I bought cork bark specifically for this reason of having this species. I bought a bigger enclosure which maybe it’s enjoying? I don’t know. It hasn’t really left this corner since I got the lid down on it and this little one doesn’t even seem interested in the slightest about this bark here that it could make its burrow out of. Do these Ts normally do stuff like that? Just build their own burrow as opposed to using what’s there to add onto it?

I’m working on getting more holes drilled into it for better ventilation. I feel it’s a great sign if it’s webbing up already and doing its thing. I haven’t fed any of my three Ts since picking them up on Saturday.

I was going to wait until Saturday or Sunday to feed. Give them a week of acclimation and all. I’d also feed my first two Ts and start feeding them all on the same day. I will probably start buying mealworms too so I can feed a mealworm. Pretty sure three of my Ts can handle one.

So I traveled 10 hours to come down and hit up a reptile expo happening. I haven’t been in probably 6-7 years, so it was really nice to go to it again. I had a list of nine tarantulas I was interested to buy. I walked out with three of them. I would have taken the lids off of the enclosures, but the Ts have webbed to the lid and considering I have a 10 hour drive home tomorrow, I don’t think I’d like to stress them out more than they are.

Picture 1: Harpactira pulchripes - Golden Blue Leg Baboon Tarantula

Picture 2: Caribena Versicolor - Antilles Pink Toe Tarantula

No picture: Pterinochilus Murinus RCF - Orange Baboon Tarantula

I didn’t get a picture of it, but it’s just a baby sling right now. Again, I don’t want to disturb its enclosure more than I already have by moving them and moving them again tomorrow. The OBT doesn’t even have colour yet, whereas the Jewel is a beautiful blue with the tiger design on the abdomen. The Golden Blue Leg has some beautiful coloration happening already! The Pinktoe is in a small short enclosure at the moment and I bought a small arboreal enclosure to put it in when I get home. I also bought some sorghum moss and some bark so I can create a nice little burrow for it to web to. I’m really ecstatic I was able to find three Ts I wanted on my list. Not saying I will buy the other six, but I just had a bunch written down incase they didn’t have certain species there. When I last went, there was a couple of tables full of tarantulas, but this past weekend, only little sections of a table here and table there had Ts. I was a little disappointed with that specifically, but I still managed to grab three!

Is this normal? If so, why?