Metal Pets: The Tarantulas

I have not done one of these in a very long time (looks like damn near 10 years exactly).  And well, I did not have time today to do a full album review and wanted to keep my streak alive, so this is a pretty quick and easy way to get a post in.

What could be more metal than owning a bunch of tarantulas?  For years I have wanted to get one, but just never really got around to pulling the trigger.  I have done a massive amount of research leading up to it and last fall I found a Craigslist ad by a seller in Lincoln who had a bunch of tarantulas for sale.  One in particular caught my eye as a very good introductory species:

This is a chromatopelma cyaneopubescens, commonly called the green bottle blue tarantula.  This was my first one.  He has been named Cuddles.  This is a pretty easy introductory species and I kind of wanted a male, in case I decided tarantula-keeping was not for me, it would not be a real long-term commitment as males only live three to four years.  Well, I got attached to him quickly and now I am dreading the day I lose him.  He just finished molting today for the second time since I got him.  I am looking forward to seeing him out and about again in a day or so.

I decided I wanted to expand my tarantula population soon after the first molt.  I had a couple of near-buys over the next several months, but for whatever reason, it just never quite worked out.  Until just recently.

A few weeks ago, I added this very young grammostola pulchra, commonly referred to as a Brazilian black tarantula.  I picked it up from the same seller as Cuddles, who have come to refer to as My Spider Guy.  I like this one a lot because it has been very active, wandering around its enclosure.  I once saw it carrying a chunk of substrate around in its mouth.  It is a voracious eater as well.  About two weeks ago it buried itself in its substrate under a leaf and has not been seen since.  Hopefully he will molt soon and come back out.  This will eventually be the largest of the tarantulas I currently have.

Just days after I purchased the above tarantula, I received this very young brachypelma emilia or Mexican redleg tarantula as part of an online order I placed with a friend.  I liked the species a lot and nearly acquired an adult a few months ago, but the deal fell through.  This one molted within a week of me purchasing it, which is good because now it is finally starting to eat.  So far it does not have a real strong food reaction but it stays out almost all the time instead of hiding.  Hopefully it will get a little more reliable about eating soon.  This picture was taken just after its molt.

This is an adult female ceratogyrus marshalli or straight-horned baboon tarantula.  This was my first Old World species, which are generally for a little more advanced keepers as they tend to be faster, more defensive and have more potent venom.  This is also my first burrowing species, but she tends to stay out of her burrows most of the time.  I picked her up from another seller last weekend and she has quickly become a favorite.  I just love the little horn she has in the middle of her carapace.

I had to use the previous owner's picture to show off my augacephalus ezendami or Mozambique baboon tarantula.  I bought it from My Spider Guy last weekend at the same time as the above tarantula.  Unfortunately I have yet to actually see it in full since it has burrowed beneath its hide.  My Spider Guy said it had been in pre-molt for some time, I am guessing its molt will be occurring very soon.  I hope so, because I would love to see it.  So far I have only gotten very brief glimpses of its legs in its hide.  Thursday its legs were sticking out just a little bit when I walked in the room, but it quickly moved all the way back in the hide.  This is another Old World species.

The tarantulas have become my recent obsession.  I am not sure if I will add any more right away, but I feel like I have a decent start and some diversity with ages and species.  I only know the genders of two of the tarantulas, the others are too young to tell yet.  Tomorrow I will be back to a regular metal post.

Metal Pets Pt. 9: Nadir Al Bashyr

Nadir Al Bashyr is my fiancee's new horse. He is a young Arabian stallion. He is not especially stallion-like though. He is fairly calm and is surprisingly sweet. He really likes Destiny, the other horse and gets upset when my fiancee takes her away to be trained, leaving Nadir alone.

Metal Pets Pt. 8: The Fish

My fiancee has turned into a fish fanatic. We currently have two aquariums. We have a small aquarium with a beta named Kashi, two corys named Wall-E and Bern-E, and a couple of neon tetras, both named Archimedes. This is a simple, small wall-mounted tank. We also have a much larger 55 gallon tank with a number of fish. We have two needle-nose gars named Harry and Harriet, two striped Raphael catfish named Henry and Henrietta, three black-finned sharks named Sharky, Slime, and Slick, a pictus catfish named Fluffy, and the pride of the tank: a black ghost knifefish named Spoon. I had little to nothing to do with the names of the fish.

I can't get a picture of the fish, because they don't sit still long enough to get a decent picture, but here's a stock picture of a black ghost knifefish.
The most interesting story so far with the fish is the time one of the needle-noses bit my fiancee. She had her finger in the aquarium while putting the divider on the top of the tank and one of them must have thought her finger was a worm. We still laugh about that. I haven't been bitten yet, but I'm sure my day is coming. I am after all in charge of feeding them live crickets occasionally since Mrs. Metallattorney does not want to sentence any living thing to death.

Metal Pets Pt. 7: Voodoo Vegas

Meet the newest member of the Metallattorney family. This is Voodoo. He is a kitten from my fiancee's parents' recent farm cat litter. He is related to Twizzy. Most likely he is both his grandchild and nephew. Therefore, grandson/nephew. We've had him for a couple of months now. He has definitely livened up the household and keeps the other animals on their toes. His favorite thing to do is to take his cat cube around for a drive around the living room, attacking all animals and people that get in his way. He doesn't know it yet, but eventually he will lose those damn claws.

Metal Pets Pt. 6: Sienna

Sienna is my fiancee's favorite. She's also definitely the most lovable and probably the craziest of the dogs. My fiancee says that she is the ditziest of the pack. She may actually be the most manipulative as well. Or so my fiancee says. I suppose it's possible. She does play some games with us. She has what we refer to as the "almost game". She will almost sit when she is told to sit, hovering just inches from having her butt on the ground. The "almost game" is also used when she gets as close as she possibly can to food without actually taking it. Sienna is also afraid of a lot of fairly innocuous things, such as floors. She refuses to walk on linoleum floors. It's pretty funny really.

Metal Pets Pt. 5: Destiny

Destiny is my fiancee's horse. I'm not allowed to touch her, but she wanted me to share this anyway. I'm not sure what I could possibly do to a 1,000 pound animal, but oh well. According to my fiancee, Destiny is very intelligent, and perhaps a little spoiled. Apparently, she thinks she's people and will not work for people if they treat her like an animal instead of a person. She says that Destiny is extremely smart, possibly the smartest animal she has met. She has escaped twice, once when she leaped over a four foot fence as a weanling.

I haven't had much exposure to the horse. She glares at me when I drive up to my fiancee's parents' house. That's pretty much it.

Metal Pets Pt. 4: Hannah

Hannah is our border collie. As a typical border collie, she is extremely intelligent and diligent. She is the most gifted of the dogs when it comes to tricks. My particular favorites involve her playing frisbee. When we have gone to my parents' house, she always goes in search of the frisbees and brings them to us to throw for her. She is very good at catching and returning them. She often drops the frisbee a couple of feet away, but if she is told to bring the frisbee closer, she will do so. She is the only dog I have seen able to do that. My other favorite thing about her is that she greets me with hugs. She stands on her hind legs and wraps her front legs around my waist.

Metal Pets Pt. 3: Annie

My fiancee decided I should split the dogs up into individual posts.

Next up is our absolutely beautiful German Shepherd Annie. Annie is a gorgeous sable color. She is also one of the sweetest dogs in the world. That is, as long as she knows who you are. I went to my fiancee's apartment shortly before we started dating. Annie was in a kennel and I walked into the room. Annie went ballistic, barking and growling, that is until she was let out of the kennel. She immediately ran behind the bed and hid. From that time forward, she has become a very friendly dog towards me. She absolutely loves the both of us.

Metal Pets Pt. 2: The Reaper

The Reaper has been a subject of a couple of prior posts. He is our little blue heeler puppy and next week, he will turn one year old. My fiancee and I joke around about him a lot, but we do love him, at least I think so. He is undoubtedly a handful and is often difficult to deal with. We have discovered a couple of unusual things about him though. One is that he is surprisingly calm in the car. And when I say surprisingly, I mean it. He is not calm ever, EVER, but he rides in the car extremely well. Secondly, he is extremely smart, freaky smart. He has learned to drink out of a glass without knocking it over. He learns tricks very quickly. He also figured out how to break out of his kennel. That was an interesting day, coming home during lunch to find that he had utterly demolished a phone book, leaving little pieces all over the floor.

One of these days, The Reaper will be a good dog. Let's just hope we can make it that long.

Next time up: The other three dogs: Sienna, Annie, and Hannah.

Metal Pets: The Cats

Last week, there was a blog on Invisible Oranges (http://invisibleoranges.com/2009/11/why-do-metalheads-tend-to-be-cat-people.html) about why metalheads tend to be cat people. Essentially, the arguments that writer put forth are that pet owners tend to prefer animals that are like them. Many metalheads are introverted, independent, and a little rebellious. This is far closer to describing cats than dogs, although he has never met The Reaper, my blue heeler puppy.

As for me, I have always been an animal person. I have had various animals all my life. In particular, I have had cats all my life. Currently, I have four.

Meet Bagheera, the spawn of Satan. Bagheera had a wild streak a mile long when he was younger. He once pulled a knife off of the counter and picked it up with his mouth. My dad walked out to check out the sound and saw the cat walking down the hallway toward the bedrooms with the knife in his mouth. He has also put three people in the emergency room and once chased my little brother up the stairs. Since I moved out of my parents home, I took Bagheera with me.

This is Sai. Sai is a little bit of a freak. He's a polydactyl cat, but he practically has an extra paw on each of his legs. The joke when we were getting him declawed was that we had better not be charged by the claw as he had 26 claws.

This is Daisy, my fiancee's cat. Apparently she has a mean streak to her as well. My fiancee said that at one point Daisy would growl and hiss at her just because she told her "no".

And, this is Twizzy, my fiancee's other cat who has adopted me. Twizzy is the friendliest cat in the world and is more doglike than any of the others. He is very dependent on people and constantly jumps in my lap when I go home.