Visser wrote: Thanks Nhandu. I'm surprised you handled the P. cambridgei. I looked after my brothers 5cm specimen, and would not even think about handling.

It would seem Avic. avic is a good species to handle. I'm dying to get my hands on some Avic. versicolors.

Hi Visser, I presume that your brother's cambridgei is also an agressive feeder. I don't have experience with any other specimens other than my own female, but it is starting to look like most of them share the same temperament.

Thanks ! Glad I joined! I'll keep that in mind. I guess I have a lot in common with the T's - I also have that surprising defence mechanism that kick in once a while!

...and YOU have not even been gently poked yet... :laugh:

Every spider I've had the chance to lay my hands on
Following on from Scarab's excellent advice, I would add a couple of things. There have been many that have condemned handling for various reasons and much debate as to wether T's can be 'tamed'.
Firstly remember that T's have personalities and you can encounter a very aggresive G rosea and a totally handleable P muticus. The most important thing is the approach as Scarab said and reading the body language. After that ALL T's can not be 'tamed' but definately become 'accustomed' to be handled (this is my opinion and I don't really care what anyone else says lol).
Admittedly there are risks involved with handling T's (getting bitten, flicked or worst of all, injury to the T itself), however I feel that if that's what makes you happy as a T keeper, that outweighs the negatives. My kids have converted hoards and hoards of friends and their parents from arachnophobes/killers/haters to T keepers and enthusiasts by holding them and breaking down those barriers!
For me that effect is far more valuable in the longrun than the 1% of handles that go wrong....

Agreed Taki. Even in my limited experience, I have noticed the same thing with regards arachnophobes and breaking down those barriers. Just this past weekend, one of our friends who is terrified of spiders, held a B. vagans. He was glowing afterwards, and couldn't stop talking about the experience. He now wants to get his own T. I watched a complete transformation happen in just a few minutes.

i handle my

l parhybana female around 7 8 inch (the one on my profile pic she flicks a bit when you put ure hand in her tera but shes quite carm once shes on you

g rosea sub adult sex unknown 4 inch flicks now and then but quite dosile again once you have hold of him/her

g rosea sub adult female 4 inch verry dosile never shown any threat signs

a avic sub adullt 3 inch slow verry chilled t once on your hand doesnt want to move no mater how mutch you try to perswade her (thats if you can get her uot of her hide)

b auratum sling 1 inch quite fast

cully hair sling just over an inch very slow loves to kick hair

thats it for now nothing to scary but still all very unpridictible