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Too much work, too little time


Happy New Year everyone, 2025 seems like the perfect time to contemplate retirement as I have been running my bug business for 45 years! So, I have thought about it and don’t much like the idea J I have instead decided that working part time sounds much better! My plan is to work just three or four days a week, not six or seven, it would be great to have a distinction between the week and the weekend. I have been trying to cut down for some time and it just hasn’t worked out. I have realised that keeping tarantulas is a major stress to me, if I were to be incapacitated, I have absolutely no backup. I have to face facts that I am not getting any younger. My family and friends would not have a clue how to look after my spider collection.

Times have changed, tarantulas have become mainstream pets and the market is pretty much flooded. I have a wonderful collection but I will gradually be phasing them out. I always have far more than are shown on my website as some are in the process of breeding and many are pre-moult and therefore I don’t want to risk posting them until they have completed their moult and are back feeding again. There are many issues with keeping my collection, too many to list but if you really want to know, just give me a call J I am so fed up with being asked for a female, I don’t attempt to sex my tarantulas, I simply don’t want to know the sex as I have lovingly looked after them for months (sometimes even years!). I know you want a female, so do I but what would then happen to the males? I am not prepared to destroy them and I am not prepared to lie either. So many people don’t have a clue about the sex of their tarantulas but they will happily say they are all female, just to sell them.

I don’t know how things will go, will I be able to keep going without selling tarantulas? Only time will tell but I can’t keep working so hard for so little. I’m happy to talk on the phone and give advice and if I’m not available when you call, please try again or leave a message. I intend to have just one posting day a week and this will be on a Wednesday unless something important happens and then I will switch to Monday/Tuesday. I can no longer post on Thursdays as I will be having my gorgeous grandson Milo on that day each week as his mum returns to work. I have plenty of caring duties for both old and young these days and I just can’t fit everything in.

This message is not to say Bye Bye but Buy Buy!

(my tarantula species will slowly sell out and simply not be replaced)

You have no idea how many times I have written and then rewritten this blog! Happy New Year everyone.


Comments

  1. Vivien HicksJanuary 02, 2025

    Dear Virginia
    I've just read your blog. I used to buy from you in the past, but due to age it's now impossible for me to get hold of bramble. I agree that you have to think of the future. After years of sailing along in good health, and getting over 2 knee replacements, I stupidly managed to trip and fall in the kitchen on Christmas Day. I have broken my humerus, Left arm, and of course I would be left handed. It's very difficult to manage with your arm in a sling, and my husband is having to help me with virtually everything. Old age isn't easy, and it's horrid when you have to give things up that you have enjoyed all your life.
    I think you have made entirely the right decision, and I wish you well in 2025.

    Best wishes
    Vivien

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amy GoddardJanuary 04, 2025

    This can't have been an easy decision but well done! Here's to your new (hopefully more relaxed) schedule

    ReplyDelete

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