11 Tarantula Tips
Here are some important tips when keeping a pet Tarantula:
1. Try and make the Tarantulas cage as similar as possible to its natural habitat
2. Tarantulas do not need webs so make sure to provide them with a large sampling of insects, rodents, birds, and lizards.
3. Do not feed your Tarantula more than once per week. Many Tarantulas go for 4 weeks without eating
4. Remove any uneaten food after 5 hours.
5. Keep the temperature of your Tarantula habitat between 70 and 90 degrees F.
6. Use an overhead lamp or heater under the Tarantula tank.
7. Remove all sharp edges from the Tarantula tank
8. Put potting soil in the bottom of your Tarantula tank or use small gravel with a few larger rocks for hiding
9. Put a water dish with a sponge on top into the tank
10. Most Tarantulas can survive in a small area but a 4 gallon fish tank would work better. Too large of a tank can cause stress. The ideal size is 4 times the size of the spider.
11. Use a padded mesh lid for the tank to provide fresh air. Keep this fastened securely
Great post although I’m not sure why I like it. I guess because it has to do with spiders. Are tarantulas poisonous?
Metagg is tracking this post…
Find out what Social News Sites are discussing this post over at metagg.com…
Any thoughts on why larger cages cause stress as these seem more similar to the wild? Cheers.
Got some agreements and disagreements with your list.
1) I agree with.
2) Tarantulas will thrive on a diet of only crickets. An occasional lizard, or pinky mouse is fine…but not needed at all.
3)There is no perfect schedule for feeding them. You can feed them as much as they will eat, or reduce it to the numbers they might get in the wild; a couple per week. They can survive for periods of weeks, to months, even years without prey items, if given access to fresh, clean water however. So they will not starve to death if you miss a week or two of getting them crickets.
4)5 hours is the longest I’d leave uneaten crickets in. If they’re going to eat them, it’s almost always right away.
5) Room temperature is fine. If you’re comfortable, so are they.
6)NO HEATERS!!! You can fry them if you’re not careful…and they’re a waste of electricity. See #5.
7)I agree…but that includes things like rocks if they can be fallen on from any height.
8)Potting soil is adequate. A mix of peat moss and vermiculite is best. The ratio varies on the species’ needs.
9)A wide, shallow water dish is ideal. NO SPONGES!!! They’re bacteria magnets! Occasional, lite misting of the arboreal species’ webbing is fine, as elevated water dishes are difficult to introduce to an enclosure.
10)That’s a fine size. Taller enclosures are needed for the arboreal species, larger for larger species, and smaller ones (deli cups and vials) for the juvies and s’lings.
I have almost all my terrestrial species in shoebox size, locking Tupperware style containers (with holes for circulation), to maximize space.
11)Get the same wire mess lids sold near the fishtanks you intend on putting the spider in, with some locking clamps, or the twist locking specialty tanks made for reptiles.
Or the locking Tupperware containers, with some holes for ventilation (use a cheap soldering iron to melt the holes in the plastic, and then remove any left over material from the holes).
Or… leave the poor tarantula in its natural habitat…
Caged pets are not fun!
11 Tarantula Tips…
[...]Try These Tarantula Tips They….[...]…
Try to give him an earthworm. My baby tarantula ate a 5-inch-long worm in a few minutes. It looked so crrrreeeeepy!
well this is pretty cool although posting comments about it is kinda of lame.
Hey
My tarantula has been acting wierd, the last two days i have had to turn him back on to his feet,due to falling off the branches i put in its habitat; I guess my question is :
can a tarantule turn itself back to its feet? or
is this tarantula ill?
Do these spiders occur in South Africa, in Particular KZN (Natal)? The local people insist that they do but they also insist that they kill people. Is there perhaps a similar (dangerous) specied in Africa? I have seen an enormous spider similar to this, slow moving, crawling along a wood cabin wall (in a game reserve)and dissapearing into a crack. Would they come into human territory, there is food available (lizards etc.,). Please let me know?
My spiderling is 4 cm and havent molted in about 13 months is that normal it eats well and the substriagt is alway moist temp is always at exeptabel levels is the something wrong with the spiderling its a curly hair my freiend got his the same day and his is 9 cm already
my tatantula would not eat so i smashed it…
i just captured a tarantula that was in my back yard about 5 minutes ago…..should i kill it? or should i leave it in my backyard which is the country?
some people say they cant kill a person 15 years or older is that true or can they kill anyone at any age or just animals?
tartantula’s r not poisonous.
kali, why would u want 2 kill a tartantula? here where we live at, we use them 2 tell what the weather is gonna be like.
ja, if your tartantula, would not eat, y smash it. just let it go.
olga, i have not tried earth worms yet. but since i have some n the refridgerator, for fishig i might just try 1. i have 2 tartantula’s and 1 household scorpion with a stinger.
to worlds smartest man: tartantula’s r not poisionous a couple of week’s ago i got bit by my wild one. and i just let it bleed out. i have two tartantula’s.
I recently caught a 4 inch long texas brown tarantula. I live in texas and its brown so thats what i think it is. I happend to look out my back door window and my dog was chasing it. I saved it and bought a 9 dollar plastic “tararium”. A few days later i went to my aunts house and there was a little, ide say 1 1/2 inch brown tarantula. It was curled into a ball and looked dead. it wasn’t upside down or anything but i blew on it and it moved a tad bit so i knew it was alive… i brought him/her home and put it in the tararium with the 4 incher i had saved… the larger one is soo calm and i can hold him/her on my hand and have even put it on my face, but the tiny one i dont even want to try and put it on anything im thinking about releasing it back into the wild. Any advice? should i get another tararium for the little one? they dont seem to mind eachother and i bought a small coconut shell for each one?? any advice