Yesterday I was having a look at some of my T's. A large portion of my collection are pretty vicsious T's. A lot of them I don't even try handle. When I clean their cages, they act very wild. They get very aggressive, and some of them will actually snap at the spatular that I use when I need to move them into another cage. So I know if my hand was there, I would have been bitten.

There are then other T's that I can do anything with. And it is these T's that I tend to work with.

So I was thinking, surely there is a way to train these guys. At the moment I have been studying up on how to train my dogs. So I was thinking that it might be worth applying the data that I have to my Tarantulas. I don't mean that I am going to make then do tricks, but it would be great if I can get each of them to a point where they can all be handled, even the most vicious.

So what do you think of this as an idea? Is this something that is actually wanted in the T Keeper world?

There is quite a lot of debate regarding this topic. Unfortunately(?), on account of a tarantula's limited intellectual capacity, it is not a great vessel for learning. However, that being said, the consensus seems to be that T's are able to undergo a limited level of conditioning, but that's about it.

Seven wrote: There is quite a lot of debate regarding this topic. Unfortunately(?), on account of a tarantula's limited intellectual capacity, it is not a great vessel for learning. However, that being said, the consensus seems to be that T's are able to undergo a limited level of conditioning, but that's about it.

Thanks for the response.

My idea on this is to be able to create a system where you can take any Tarantula, no matter what it's natural temperament, and make it docile. If I asked the forum whether this is possible, I would probably get the answer "No". I am not really asking whether it can be done. I think it can, and I have seen instances where various people have done it. My question is really if this is of interest to anyone. If there was such a system, would anyone be willing to learn it.

The reason I am asking is that I am going to now create the system. But should I document it and take videos all the way? Should I make this into a system that can then be taught easily to other people? Should I go into all of this effort, or is this only for my own use?

Regardless of whether it is for your own use or not, it helps to comprehensively document everything you do. There's a reason it's accepted scientific practice - it allows you to refer to earlier notes and see if you have actually made any progress. Heck, regardless of the outcome, it's still a curious experiment.

From what you're asking I gather that you are not interested in the forum's opinion on whether it is possible to train a tarantula or not, rather in the interest there will be from tarantula keepers in your training system?

In that case you'll have to document every step of your system, from start to finish. Your system will not have any credibility without scientific evidence off your training. If you are successful in sufficiently training a Haplopelma minax for example, I'm sure there will be keepers interested in your training system.

frootbat wrote: From what you're asking I gather that you are not interested in the forum's opinion on whether it is possible to train a tarantula or not, rather in the interest there will be from tarantula keepers in your training system?

I am not particularly interested in the forum's opinion. Not that it won't be a valid opinion. And not to make myself sound a bit stuck up. The forum has over the years effected my own opinion as to what I can and can't handle, and I feel that may or may not have been correct. When I was a kid I had two Horned Baboons. From what I have now read, they are not easily handleable. But I handled them all the time, even taking them to school a few times. Nowdays I have actually developed a bit of a fear for some of my T's, and part of that was the opinion I had created about their behaviour through what I had read. Now would I have been scared of them had I not done all of that reading? Maybe not. Maybe I would have just gone ahead and handled them, and been successfull at it or not. But the bottom line for me is that I refrained from handling them. I know that there have been debates about whether you should actually handle them at all. There are different viewpoints, and I have mine.

I do agree that the process should be documented. And based on what you have said, I will start doing this. It is just a bit of a shlep. But I have all of the equipment, so I suppose there is no reason for me to be lazy about it.