Eight legs and one pea brain. . .

[chronarchy]

I've been reading about camel spiders recently, and I'm amused to think that I may actually want one. Except that I realize that such things should not be kept in captivity, and don't make good pets [Link to Care Instructions, not for those who don't like leggy-things]. They need a lot more care than I can give them, and I don't think I can afford

Comments

[ceolnamara]

I don't really enjoy looking at arachnids. I used to, as a child, but then I saw Arachnaphobia and decided (yes, decided) that I would be scared of spiders from then on. The power of the mind.

I'm not so much scared of them now, but I still have a gut reaction *ick*.

Who knew I was a chaote so young?

[chronarchy]

Hehe. My reaction to them is mixed, most often. I honestly don't care to have them crawl on me, but I don't mind them. I do often take them outside, though. I much prefer to do that.

I'm generally uncomfortable with letting the cats chase them down, or I wouldn't care much about them at all :)

[tanrinia]

the cost of the food is why i don't currently have a snake...

well, that and vitaminJ is none to keen on the idea....

and i'd probably name said food and then cry when it was feeding time....

[singingwren]

If you got a garter snake, you wouldn't have to feed it anything fuzzy. You could feed it large insects and small frogs, even minnows. That's what we always did. <3

[chronarchy]

Honestly, I've always thought it rather cruel to keep snakes in 2x3 tanks. I really think that if you're going to keep one, you should devote at least a 6x6 area for the thing. A lot of people have them and keep them in tanks where they can't even stretch out.

I remember one neighbour had a water monitor in a 30 gallon tank. At the time, I remember thinking, "damn, that's soooooo cool!" It was only on reflection, years later, that I realized just how disgustingly horrid that animal's life must have been.

Yeah, I'm generally against reptiles as pets, unless they're really small and have a very large cage.

[tanrinia]

I've always thought it rather cruel to keep snakes in 2x3 tanks. I really think that if you're going to keep one, you should devote at least a 6x6 area for the thing

well, definitely :) although, like most animals, they pretty much chill and sleep when they aren't hunting. i used to think it cruel to keep the cats in the house cos all they did is sleep. then i read some more about cats in the wild and their 18-20 hours of sleep/day and i felt much less guilt.

i don't have birds for much the same reason. (that, and vitaminJ doesn't like birds as pets.) i would love to get a pair of lovebirds, but finding a cage big enough to let them fly around a bit but with spaces that aren't big enough for them to get thru is damn near impossible.

[edelweiss68]

Ew. Arachniphobia rules my life, sad to say. I'll stick with my terrestrial snail, green tree frog, and three cats, thanks. ;)

[chronarchy]

Heh. I'm not overly frightened of them. I don't like them in my bed, though, I admit.

Spiders in my bed are killed on sight.

I respect their territory so long as it doesn't conflict with mine.

[singingwren]

We have a special garden on the side of my house at home full of sweetpea and trellises. Every year when I was little, HUGE yellow-and-black garden spiders would hatch there. One or two would inevitably take up residence there on a web. We viewed them as our 'pets.' We spent hours catching bees in little containers, shaking them up to get them really dizzy, and then opening the containers near the web so the dizzy bees would fly in, and then watching our precious pets eat. We caught them crickets and all sorts of things. We even named them, sometimes! I was so proud of my pretty spiders, I made all my freinds see them... and the more we fed them, the bigger they got, until they were at least a quarter-size around in body, not counting their huge legs

[qorinda]

I used to catch and play with bugs as a kid also. We would put them in big jars with holes in the top. We especially liked catching grasshoppers and the rare praying mantis. In fact, my neighbors made a special cage for the praying mantises and we would go out and catch grasshoppers and flies to feed them. We watched them go through laying eggs and hatching new babies, and molting their wings, and all sorts of stuff. Very educational.

As for spiders, I used to play with daddy-long-legs, because they tickled. And I still won't kill a spider, believing them to be good luck. If I find one living in my house spinning too many webs, I will put it outside.

[singingwren]

I love praying mantises! Hee! <3

[chronarchy]

*nods* They're pretty nifty creatures, and I understand that they're agressive like that.

It's kinda like cock-fighting, though. Doesn't sit well with me, I admit.