For Gigi - Sterlingspider on: Tarantula care
This was turning out to be way too long for a response to someone else's post, so I made it its own post.
If you have any interest whatsoever in my take on tarantula care,
First off, this discussion board is the awesome in regards to tarantula care: arachnoboards
The most generally recognized book on the subject is The Tarantula Keepers Guide it's good to have around and is available at most pet shops. I don't agree with absolutely everything in the book, but for the most part it's pretty good. Edit: there is now a second version. The info is more up to date but WAY MORE BORING.
Tarantula keeping is a VERY new hobby comparatively. You have been around longer then the hobby, so there are a LOT of myths and misconceptions around.
Here is a pretty good listing of posts detailing stuff that's good to know. A lot of that info will be repeats from here, but some of it won't.
General tarantula physiology: The "head" part where the legs are attached is often called the prosoma, the "butt" part is the opisthoma or abdomen. The abdomen is the most delicate part and can rupture if the tarantula is dropped. This is the primary reason most people tell you not to handle your tarantula. They get nothing out of the experience except perhaps a nasty 'splodey death.
Tarantulas are usually measured from the tip of the first front leg to the tip of the opposite back leg when splayed out. They can usually grow back most injured or missing body parts so a missing leg, fang, or spinneret isn't much to worry about though it may take several sheds. Though unless treated very quickly injuries to the abdomen are usually fatal. Tarantulas have an open bloodstream and move via hydraulics, so a bleed out is incredibly dangerous and any bleeding injury should be staunched as soon as possible.
Tarantulas typically mature within 3 or 4 years and males only typically live a year after that so they tend to be fairly small. Female tarantulas live considerably longer then males, sometimes up to 20 years and can reach surprising sizes in some species. Sexing a tarantula is a sometime difficult business and generally requires a molted skin. Mature males will show certain specific sexual characteristics which are important to look for in a pet store tarantula so you don't get a short lived pet. Here is a pretty good example of what to look for in a moult and a link to information on male characteristics. Due to the age and size limitations sexed females are typically more expensive then unsexed or male tarantulas.
Yes you are counting right, that's 10 legs. Well, actually 8 and two pedipalps, which are like foot/antennae/sex organs. They use them to carry stuff, it's neat. Their mouth is actually underneath them, they do not drink through their fangs like vampires, though they will use the fangs to help liquefy the food better to eat it. Spinnerets and anus on the butt (pinktoes are notoriously accurate poop shooters) and the epigastric furrow (as close to a tarantula vag as it gets and what you look for in a molt to determine if a T is a female) is on the underside of the abdomen.
On housing: Kritter Keepers tend to be the housing of choice and the more of them I get the more I see why. But really anything well ventilated, close-able, and see through works. Many people even keep their Ts in Tupperware.
The general rule I use for ground dwellers is 2.5 x Leg Span for length, 1.5 x LS for width (or any rough equivalent of floor space), and no taller than one legspan. If the T is an arboreal flip those figures to 2.5x LS for height and about 1.5 x LS square for floor area. For a bit of scale my biggest girl is in a 5.5 gallon tank. Tarantulas are highly territorial and nearly blind, giving them lots of living space for food to hide in does not do them any good.
You want a water dish bigger then the prosoma (head part) as that is where their mouth is and they have to "sit" in the dish to drink, but smaller then their leg span so that they do not drown (that's pretty rare though, this is more of an issue with babies) and do not put cotton in it! It doesn't help the tarantula drink any and harbors bacteria.
You want at least couple of inches of some sort of substrate on the bottom, more if the tarantula tends to burrow. Generally (for ground dwellers) you want to fill the tank to the point where they can nearly touch the lid if stretched out to limit falling, this is obviously not the case with arboreals. I prefer the compressed bricks of coconut hull stuff you get in any pet shop, but many people use a combination of peat moss and sterilized potting soil (though this has a higher chance of mold and mites I've noticed) and something for the tarantula to climb on/hide under depending on whether it's ground or tree dwelling. Cork bark is pretty ideal for both as it's light, easily cleanable, and looks good in a tank. I like adding a couple of silk aquarium plants to the tank for looks. Some Ts are little interior decorators and will pull up plants, move dishes and dump dirt in their water. That's just how they are.
I typically wet any new substrate and and then microwave it dry, this helps inhibit any mold or mites.
Arboreal Ts tend to be fast and climby, so accessing the tank for feeding and cleaning can be an issue, and different setups will have different pros and cons so it's hard to cover everything on the subject. Here is a page with pictures of some enclosures, I would suggest the setup on the bottom with the upended critter keeper. Enclosures should be cleaned out every 6 months to a year, and food leavings should be policed regularly. Avics will tend to web their tanks up pretty heavily, this is cool looking but makes it much harder to clean sometimes and that web is shockingly strong.
Feeding: #1 food source is generally crickets. There's some argument in the hobbiest circles as to how often you should feed your tarantula. I generally give as many crickets as the tarantula will take (usually this is somewhere between 3 and 5) every 1 to 2 weeks and my girls tend towards the fat side. I generally buy a dozen large and a dozen small (at about a dollar a dozen) every week to 10 days for 7 tarantulas. If your tarantula does not seem to want to eat do not worry, some Ts have been known to go on 6 month long fasts. As long as they have water available they will be fine. Most Ts will also fast directly before and after molting, more on that later. You can also successfully feed them just about anything relatively soft bodied and the same size as their body or smaller (with the exception of mice, which should never be old/large enough to fight back). This includes meal worms, wax worms, roaches, grasshoppers, small lizards, and pinkie mice, but these tend to be harder to find/feed then crickets and are probably not contributing that much more to the T's overall health. Some Ts will even eat right out of a pair of tongs. Avoid any food that may have been exposed to insecticides. Any worm should be fed via a dish to keep them from burrowing and pupating in the tank. Uneaten food should be removed after a day to keep from stressing the tarantula. I found it was actually easier to get multiple tarantulas to eat up all the crickets quickly then care for the crickets for too long.
On humidity: Many people will tell you that certain species (like avics) must be kept at a certain humidity or they will DIE!OMGWTFBBQ!
With very very rare exceptions this is patently false and our usual home humidity is fine for most species. Misting the tank will pretty much only serve to piss off your tarantula, a water dish is usually quite sufficient for most species and if you're worried about humidity just put in a larger dish. Mold is much more dangerous to a tarantula then low humidity, so always make sure things are well ventilated and err on the dry side. Some spiderlings are too small for a dish (like my little ones) and generally the easiest way to deal with that is to use a dropper to drip water down the sides of the tank. Average house temperature is generally OK, I try to keep my girls above 75 F when I can, but as long as it stays above 65 they should be fine.
Molting: Tarantulas grow by moulting, much like snakes. This can be as often as once a month for spiderlings to a year and a half in between adult sheds. Generally the tarantula will look dingier and darker (not much help if your tarantula is black) and will refuse food. Eventually you will see it flipped onto its back and it will squeeze out of its skin usually over the course of a couple of hours. Because they are so vulnerable at this time they should not be disturbed much or fed for over a week after this to give their body and fangs time to harden, though access to water is highly important at this point. Here is a very good description with pictures.
The pointy/painful/uncomfortable bits: Most of the issue with tarantula bites is based on the two very large holes you are going to receive, my two bigger tarantulas have bigger fangs then most cats I've met. If you are bitten and envenomed it may be painful, but the species you are interested is not known to have medically significant venom and that I know of people do not tend to have allergic reactions the way one would with bees. Some species are considered to be "medically significant" even these are not deadly, just extremely painful and can possibly cause heart rate fluctuations ( more of my thoughts on that subject here). "New world" tarantulas are far less likely to bite then European, Asian and African Ts, because they have another line of defense called urticating hairs. They can kick these off at you like porcupine quills, but they're more like a cross between fiberglass and itching powder. Some people do have stronger allergies to these then others, but exposure can be pretty easily limited by getting a LONG set of tongs for tank maintenance (which is suggested anyway) and using gloves when cleaning out tanks.
Environmental dangers: Spray air fresheners are apparently harmful to tarantulas, obviously insecticides are as well, so keep watch on when neighborhood/house sprayings may be.
Links of interest:
American Tarantula Society
The Tarantula's Burrow
British Tarantula Society
Swift's Inverts one of the biggest mail order sellers, a good price comparison source.
If you have any interest whatsoever in my take on tarantula care,
First off, this discussion board is the awesome in regards to tarantula care: arachnoboards
The most generally recognized book on the subject is The Tarantula Keepers Guide it's good to have around and is available at most pet shops. I don't agree with absolutely everything in the book, but for the most part it's pretty good. Edit: there is now a second version. The info is more up to date but WAY MORE BORING.
Tarantula keeping is a VERY new hobby comparatively. You have been around longer then the hobby, so there are a LOT of myths and misconceptions around.
Here is a pretty good listing of posts detailing stuff that's good to know. A lot of that info will be repeats from here, but some of it won't.
General tarantula physiology: The "head" part where the legs are attached is often called the prosoma, the "butt" part is the opisthoma or abdomen. The abdomen is the most delicate part and can rupture if the tarantula is dropped. This is the primary reason most people tell you not to handle your tarantula. They get nothing out of the experience except perhaps a nasty 'splodey death.
Tarantulas are usually measured from the tip of the first front leg to the tip of the opposite back leg when splayed out. They can usually grow back most injured or missing body parts so a missing leg, fang, or spinneret isn't much to worry about though it may take several sheds. Though unless treated very quickly injuries to the abdomen are usually fatal. Tarantulas have an open bloodstream and move via hydraulics, so a bleed out is incredibly dangerous and any bleeding injury should be staunched as soon as possible.
Tarantulas typically mature within 3 or 4 years and males only typically live a year after that so they tend to be fairly small. Female tarantulas live considerably longer then males, sometimes up to 20 years and can reach surprising sizes in some species. Sexing a tarantula is a sometime difficult business and generally requires a molted skin. Mature males will show certain specific sexual characteristics which are important to look for in a pet store tarantula so you don't get a short lived pet. Here is a pretty good example of what to look for in a moult and a link to information on male characteristics. Due to the age and size limitations sexed females are typically more expensive then unsexed or male tarantulas.
Yes you are counting right, that's 10 legs. Well, actually 8 and two pedipalps, which are like foot/antennae/sex organs. They use them to carry stuff, it's neat. Their mouth is actually underneath them, they do not drink through their fangs like vampires, though they will use the fangs to help liquefy the food better to eat it. Spinnerets and anus on the butt (pinktoes are notoriously accurate poop shooters) and the epigastric furrow (as close to a tarantula vag as it gets and what you look for in a molt to determine if a T is a female) is on the underside of the abdomen.
On housing: Kritter Keepers tend to be the housing of choice and the more of them I get the more I see why. But really anything well ventilated, close-able, and see through works. Many people even keep their Ts in Tupperware.
The general rule I use for ground dwellers is 2.5 x Leg Span for length, 1.5 x LS for width (or any rough equivalent of floor space), and no taller than one legspan. If the T is an arboreal flip those figures to 2.5x LS for height and about 1.5 x LS square for floor area. For a bit of scale my biggest girl is in a 5.5 gallon tank. Tarantulas are highly territorial and nearly blind, giving them lots of living space for food to hide in does not do them any good.
You want a water dish bigger then the prosoma (head part) as that is where their mouth is and they have to "sit" in the dish to drink, but smaller then their leg span so that they do not drown (that's pretty rare though, this is more of an issue with babies) and do not put cotton in it! It doesn't help the tarantula drink any and harbors bacteria.
You want at least couple of inches of some sort of substrate on the bottom, more if the tarantula tends to burrow. Generally (for ground dwellers) you want to fill the tank to the point where they can nearly touch the lid if stretched out to limit falling, this is obviously not the case with arboreals. I prefer the compressed bricks of coconut hull stuff you get in any pet shop, but many people use a combination of peat moss and sterilized potting soil (though this has a higher chance of mold and mites I've noticed) and something for the tarantula to climb on/hide under depending on whether it's ground or tree dwelling. Cork bark is pretty ideal for both as it's light, easily cleanable, and looks good in a tank. I like adding a couple of silk aquarium plants to the tank for looks. Some Ts are little interior decorators and will pull up plants, move dishes and dump dirt in their water. That's just how they are.
I typically wet any new substrate and and then microwave it dry, this helps inhibit any mold or mites.
Arboreal Ts tend to be fast and climby, so accessing the tank for feeding and cleaning can be an issue, and different setups will have different pros and cons so it's hard to cover everything on the subject. Here is a page with pictures of some enclosures, I would suggest the setup on the bottom with the upended critter keeper. Enclosures should be cleaned out every 6 months to a year, and food leavings should be policed regularly. Avics will tend to web their tanks up pretty heavily, this is cool looking but makes it much harder to clean sometimes and that web is shockingly strong.
Feeding: #1 food source is generally crickets. There's some argument in the hobbiest circles as to how often you should feed your tarantula. I generally give as many crickets as the tarantula will take (usually this is somewhere between 3 and 5) every 1 to 2 weeks and my girls tend towards the fat side. I generally buy a dozen large and a dozen small (at about a dollar a dozen) every week to 10 days for 7 tarantulas. If your tarantula does not seem to want to eat do not worry, some Ts have been known to go on 6 month long fasts. As long as they have water available they will be fine. Most Ts will also fast directly before and after molting, more on that later. You can also successfully feed them just about anything relatively soft bodied and the same size as their body or smaller (with the exception of mice, which should never be old/large enough to fight back). This includes meal worms, wax worms, roaches, grasshoppers, small lizards, and pinkie mice, but these tend to be harder to find/feed then crickets and are probably not contributing that much more to the T's overall health. Some Ts will even eat right out of a pair of tongs. Avoid any food that may have been exposed to insecticides. Any worm should be fed via a dish to keep them from burrowing and pupating in the tank. Uneaten food should be removed after a day to keep from stressing the tarantula. I found it was actually easier to get multiple tarantulas to eat up all the crickets quickly then care for the crickets for too long.
On humidity: Many people will tell you that certain species (like avics) must be kept at a certain humidity or they will DIE!OMGWTFBBQ!
With very very rare exceptions this is patently false and our usual home humidity is fine for most species. Misting the tank will pretty much only serve to piss off your tarantula, a water dish is usually quite sufficient for most species and if you're worried about humidity just put in a larger dish. Mold is much more dangerous to a tarantula then low humidity, so always make sure things are well ventilated and err on the dry side. Some spiderlings are too small for a dish (like my little ones) and generally the easiest way to deal with that is to use a dropper to drip water down the sides of the tank. Average house temperature is generally OK, I try to keep my girls above 75 F when I can, but as long as it stays above 65 they should be fine.
Molting: Tarantulas grow by moulting, much like snakes. This can be as often as once a month for spiderlings to a year and a half in between adult sheds. Generally the tarantula will look dingier and darker (not much help if your tarantula is black) and will refuse food. Eventually you will see it flipped onto its back and it will squeeze out of its skin usually over the course of a couple of hours. Because they are so vulnerable at this time they should not be disturbed much or fed for over a week after this to give their body and fangs time to harden, though access to water is highly important at this point. Here is a very good description with pictures.
The pointy/painful/uncomfortable bits: Most of the issue with tarantula bites is based on the two very large holes you are going to receive, my two bigger tarantulas have bigger fangs then most cats I've met. If you are bitten and envenomed it may be painful, but the species you are interested is not known to have medically significant venom and that I know of people do not tend to have allergic reactions the way one would with bees. Some species are considered to be "medically significant" even these are not deadly, just extremely painful and can possibly cause heart rate fluctuations ( more of my thoughts on that subject here). "New world" tarantulas are far less likely to bite then European, Asian and African Ts, because they have another line of defense called urticating hairs. They can kick these off at you like porcupine quills, but they're more like a cross between fiberglass and itching powder. Some people do have stronger allergies to these then others, but exposure can be pretty easily limited by getting a LONG set of tongs for tank maintenance (which is suggested anyway) and using gloves when cleaning out tanks.
Environmental dangers: Spray air fresheners are apparently harmful to tarantulas, obviously insecticides are as well, so keep watch on when neighborhood/house sprayings may be.
Links of interest:
American Tarantula Society
The Tarantula's Burrow
British Tarantula Society
Swift's Inverts one of the biggest mail order sellers, a good price comparison source.