Advice for long road trip with Ts?

emc37 · Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 1:45 am

I'll be moving from San Diego to Sacramento in late June (about a 9-10 hr drive) and of course will be taking my Ts with me! I have 14 Ts and they can all fit inside a large styrofoam box I have (the box will be in the front seat, wedged firmly between the seat and dashboard). I figured it would be best to leave them in their enclosures to minimize stress, and I plan to take out their hides or any decorations that could possibly injure them. I heard that filling the enclosures at least halfway with substrate would provide some cushioning...is there anything else I can do to make the ride less stressful for them? Thanks!

jmugleston · Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 4:15 am

Why not make life easy on yourself and put them into deli cups with damp paper towel on the bottom?

jmugleston · Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 4:16 am

It will take much less space that way and no worries about them falling and hurting themselves.

Christian Elowsky · Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 5:04 am

I agree with Joey. Pack them up tight, while it'll take a while, you have little risk to the animals. Unpacking into their homes will only take a few minutes as well.

mtaylor84 · Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 3:27 pm

I moved from Sacramento, CA to Phoenix, AZ in January with 27 tarantulas. Christian and Joey are right - put them in deli cups, because they will try to climb while you are on the road. I put mine in cups a couple days before I left, and gave them a day or so to relax when I arrived in AZ before rehousing them back into the original containers. I didn't have a single injury.

I also found it's a good excuse to do a complete substrate switch out if needed!

TheVez2 · Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 4:20 pm

Ditto, every time I have moved with my Ts, I put them in deli cups. Then they all fit nicely in a smaller styrofoam cooler. And I don't need to worry about their normal enclosures too much, they just get packed in the back. It's pretty easy to do and makes for a pretty worry free move.

I'll be doing it next month myself, when I move again (military).

Stan Schultz · Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 7:36 pm

emc37 wrote:

I'll be moving from San Diego to Sacramento in late June (about a 9-10 hr drive) and of course will be taking my Ts with me! I have 14 Ts and they can all fit inside a large styrofoam box I have (the box will be in the front seat, wedged firmly between the seat and dashboard). I figured it would be best to leave them in their enclosures to minimize stress, and I plan to take out their hides or any decorations that could possibly injure them. I heard that filling the enclosures at least halfway with substrate would provide some cushioning...is there anything else I can do to make the ride less stressful for them? Thanks!

Stress? You wanna know about STRESS?

Historically, these creatures or their precursors have ridden the continents while they split and collided, survived tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes, comet and asteroid strikes, being peed on by Tyrannosaurs, being dumped on by wooly mammoths, and a bunch of other horrors that we can't even imagine.

Your wild caught tarantulas have been abducted from their nice comfy burrows by some huge, clumsy, misshapen, alien thing with not enough legs and body odor and bad breath, stuffed into vile little deli cups with a rotten wad of cotton, shipped to the other side of the planet, displayed in some horrible cage with too bright lights and too much commotion in some pet shop, then jiggled and bounced forever before you got it home. Then you put it in another bizarre container with clear walls and no privacy whatsoever, with some wild cat-thing always starting hungrily through the glass. Now there are no seasons, no fantastic sunrises and sunsets, no variation. Now we know what San Quinton must be like.

And, the captive bred babies may think they have it made, but ...

Sorry. I'm just having some fun with you!

But, what the others have said is very true. Stress is one thing that appears way, WAY, WAY down the list of priorities when caring for or moving tarantulas. So, far down that it's almost a non-issue. Being squished, dropped, or blenderized is much more serious.

Take good care of your little 8-legged travelers!

emc37 · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 10:15 am

Thanks everyone for all the advice! Will definitely go the deli cup-padded-with-damp-paper-towel route now.

Quote:

Stress? You wanna know about STRESS?

Historically, these creatures or their precursors have ridden the continents while they split and collided, survived tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes, comet and asteroid strikes, being peed on by Tyrannosaurs, being dumped on by wooly mammoths, and a bunch of other horrors that we can't even imagine.

Your wild caught tarantulas have been abducted from their nice comfy burrows by some huge, clumsy, misshapen, alien thing with not enough legs and body odor and bad breath, stuffed into vile little deli cups with a rotten wad of cotton, shipped to the other side of the planet, displayed in some horrible cage with too bright lights and too much commotion in some pet shop, then jiggled and bounced forever before you got it home. Then you put it in another bizarre container with clear walls and no privacy whatsoever, with some wild cat-thing always starting hungrily through the glass. Now there are no seasons, no fantastic sunrises and sunsets, no variation. Now we know what San Quinton must be like.

And, the captive bred babies may think they have it made, but ...

Sorry. I'm just having some fun with you!

But, what the others have said is very true. Stress is one thing that appears way, WAY, WAY down the list of priorities when caring for or moving tarantulas. So, far down that it's almost a non-issue. Being squished, dropped, or blenderized is much more serious.

Take good care of your little 8-legged travelers!

And Stan, you make a very good point. :lol:

Now all that's left to do is woman up, grow some ovaries, put on some thick rubber kitchen gloves to avoid those #$@! bristles that will soon be flicked my way, and formulate a containment plan for my M. cabocla & T. cupreus that I'm 1000% sure will try to make their "great escape" during the move!

(IMO, Pokies ain't got nothing on the Tapis when it comes to teleporting!) :spider:

emc37 · Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2012 6:39 pm

Update: road trip completed; all Ts made it! Started the road trip with 14, and somehow ended up with 18...the addiction strikes again! :spider:

Kelty333 · Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 1:53 am

We just traveled from central Texas to Colorado with an A. versicolor sling. He / she did just fine all the way there, stayed for two weeks and traveled back just fine. My biggest concern was keeping it cool and out of ANY direct sunlight.

Advice for long road trip with Ts?

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