Got myself a goliath birdeater lol

Ok so i aint been in this game for long, but i couldnt resist her, she is huge and looks promising to be bigger lol

Also i appologise for bad quality photos, ill get some good ones soon i promise! lol

Can see her in right corner













Any advice or anything then feel free, im still new to this, thanks lol.

Advice: start a roach colony

Other: kudos, you have a big ugly spider - nothing wrong with big ugly spiders

Rasputin wrote:

Advice: start a roach colony

Other: kudos, you have a big ugly spider - nothing wrong with big ugly spiders

Hey yeah thanks not bad advice lol, i put down the deposit on her 6 days ago, at the shop they said in those 6 days she had eaten 10 locusts and 2 pinky mouses lol, i asked the guy how many locusts i should feed her a week, and he said "a box" in a box here being 8 locusts, then gave me some frozen pinkys free, i gave her a locust today and i cant even explain how mad it was, i dropped it and before it hit the floor she managed to turn around run about 30cm across the tank and grab it.

And yeah nothing wrong with her, better than a hamster right? lol

Yeah, you'll want a decent colony of roaches. Roaches are the easiest thing in the world to keep (I don't keep roaches but have been thinking about it lately). I wouldn't give it mice, makes too much of a mess and requires constant cleaning.

Yes, better than keeping rodents - rodents are to be kept for nothing more than snake food

That is really, really sweet...does it rub it legs togehter and make the sound similar to velcro being pulled apart?

PaperTiger wrote:

That is really, really sweet...does it rub it legs togehter and make the sound similar to velcro being pulled apart?

I know the sound your on about but no i havent heard it yet, im pretty sure its a warning sound so you know when they have had enough, i don't aim to annoy her lol, but im sure ill hear it sometime soon through some mistake ill make

Yeah, its a defensive measure and she may make a hissing noise when disturbed. I think the noise is called stridulation and it happens when ole girl rubs the bristles on her legs together. They also can defend themselves by biting or by kicking those pain in the you-know-where urticating hair towards their harassment. Those hairs can be severely irritating feel like shards of fiberglass. When you feed her, does she turn and leave a web barrier to prevent any interruption?

PaperTiger wrote:

Yeah, its a defensive measure and she may make a hissing noise when disturbed. I think the noise is called stridulation and it happens when ole girl rubs the bristles on her legs together. They also can defend themselves by biting or by kicking those pain in the you-know-where urticating hair towards their harassment. Those hairs can be severely irritating feel like shards of fiberglass. When you feed her, does she turn and leave a web barrier to prevent any interruption?

Yeah i know about the shooting hairs, got a couple in my hand whilst scrapping the substrate out of the large flat kritter keeper with my hand (mistake) lol, itched for a hour or so but was fine, im sure i can put her large kritter keeper to better use than to have her in there taking up the whole thing.

When i fed her i dropped it in and she literally pounced on it, she then kept turning round in circles webbing the substrate if thats what you mean?

Yeah, thats it. About how big is she right now?

Honestly im not totally sure, at the shop they said sub adult, but to me i could swear she is about 10 inches which would suggestly adult i would think, a molt left maybe 2 but i cant imagen her getting much bigger.

She was up on the glass the other day not fully stretched out and i had my pair of 25cm tweezers i feed with and i had it from the tip of her front leg to her 2nd pair of legs at the bottom, not the very back legs, and it was basically the size of them, so i would say about 10 inches, shes a big girl still eitherway lol

Sweet..your making want to get one of these now whithout a clue to where I would put something of that size. Congrats on getting her though as it is a worthy investment.

Ive got used to her size quite quickly, she actually looks abit smaller since i got her yesterday but i guess that was to be expected lol, and yeah she is a nice addition to have, quite hard to get over here in england lol

Most likely the only thing as far as inverts that is not available across the pond (some delux Scorps that can't swim the Atlantic...lol).

Looks like she needs some fattening up. (Hopefully it is indeed a "she.")

The-New-Guy wrote:

a molt left maybe 2

Spiders (Ts included) continue to molt throughout their lives.

Mr. Mordax wrote:

Looks like she needs some fattening up. (Hopefully it is indeed a "she.")

The-New-Guy wrote:

a molt left maybe 2

Spiders (Ts included) continue to molt throughout their lives.

And heres me trying to sound like i know what im on about lol

You reckon? She always pounces on any food i drop near her and demolishes a full locust in a matter of minutes, like i said the guy at the shop said it eats like crazy, 10 locusts and 2 pinkys in 6 days, i fed her yesterday when i got her and earlier today, i was just thinking 1 locust a day maybe? Well he said 8 a week so thats near enough, but i mean i aint a expert so ill put another in later no doubt she will eat.

Reckon 8 a week is about right?

Also im just abit concerned about the temps, the 3 foot tank has a massive stickon heatmat on the side which puts it upto the temp ive read on a care sheet on arachophiles from robc (tarantulaguy1976) im sure some of you are familiar with, i trust what he says as he has the biggest collection ive come across so far and i watch all his vids seems to know whats what. Says about 82F during day and about 77 at night, my thermometer in the top left reads 83 exactly but on the ground it reads abouts 92, the tarantula is staying in the furthest corner away from the heatmat.

Problem is im not sure if its cause of the heat cause thats the corner filled with moss aswell which you can see from the first pic, so either she just loves moss or is trying to get away from the heat? Im pretty sure its just the moss, extra 10F cant hurt i cant imagen?

Lovely specimen.. Definitely on my wishlist if I decide to get more Ts.

Shinryuu wrote:

Lovely specimen.. Definitely on my wishlist if I decide to get more Ts.

Its a must have for anyone who has a passion for tarantulas, i knew i had to have her when i said what it said on the tank, she is the star of my collection so far.

Don't know a whole lot about species-specific care regarding this one; I was just suggesting a fattening because it looked a bit slim compared to its legs.

Yeah your probably not wrong the body does look smaller than i expected compared to the leg span, ill look into it

Rasputin wrote:

Yeah, you'll want a decent colony of roaches. Roaches are the easiest thing in the world to keep (I don't keep roaches but have been thinking about it lately). I wouldn't give it mice, makes too much of a mess and requires constant cleaning.

Yes, better than keeping rodents - rodents are to be kept for nothing more than snake food

Mice... I don't feed those anymore. They make a mess and it's gruesome.

The body is indeed slim. She needs a big couple of meals. They will take large crickets but it takes a ton to fill them up. They need very high humidity. Wear those yellow gloves you use when cleaning when you clean the cage. The hairs SUCK. Don't mess with it, they are pretty aggressive. I think they can hiss too. They are also very easy to stress so avoid moving her tank as much as possible.

Andrew273 wrote:

The body is indeed slim. She needs a big couple of meals. They will take large crickets but it takes a ton to fill them up. They need very high humidity. Wear those yellow gloves you use when cleaning when you clean the cage. The hairs SUCK. Don't mess with it, they are pretty aggressive. I think they can hiss too. They are also very easy to stress so avoid moving her tank as much as possible.

She is feeding on locusts, i chuck in 1 a day atm, she takes them down in no time. And yeah i have a heatmat on there, its about 70% humidty 88F on the ground, i have heard from robc (tarantulaguy1976) some of you might know from Youtube etc that she is about to molt, and i beleive hes right, been in her log for a good few days now.

And yeah ive already made the mistake of getting hairs in my hand from touching the substrate, wasnt that bad actually but i dont really wanna make it a common thing to happen so yeah lol

that aint all she has for defense! do you really want that stuck to your hand pumping in venom?
how much was she?
and are you sure she is a she? i dont really know about tarantulas but if its eating that much and still looks a bit spindly then is it possible its a male?

No i deffinatly do not lol, and ive had plenty of people say female, but i myself also thought a male, but apperently not lol. And was £95