How do you feed a tarantula?
Last night I was visiting with a friend in my kitchen, when I casually asked her, “Do you want a tarantula?” I knew she was the sort of person who might want one. However, she told me that she has promised herself not to handle any more tarantulas, scorpions, etc., because her children imitate her. Then she said, “Ingrid, you can’t give away that tarantula! You are practically family. He has your blood.” That is true. For several months, the spider and I shared a room happily. He only bothered me by making rustling sounds at night, and I only bothered him by sometimes turning on the light to make him stop rustling. But then we fumigated… and killed off his food supply. And he started eating me instead. For a couple of weeks, he bit me every night. (I even have scars to show for it.) I didn’t like that so much. Even when it’s not deadly poisonous, a tarantula bite is not a pleasant thing. But it was a wild animal and stayed well hidden from me, only munching on me while I was asleep. Then I went on a trip, and while I was gone the tarantula came out to play (and frightened some houseguests so badly that they may never visit us again)! My brother put the spider in a jar and saved it to await my judgement when I came home. I found that I couldn’t bring myself to kill it. However, if I don’t do something with it soon, it will die of starvation. So… how does one keep a captured tarantula? I don’t think I can afford an aquarium, but obviously the jar that it is in right now is not satisfactory. I know they eat crickets and things, but how do I open the container to put a bug in without letting the spider jump out? I’d like to keep it, but I don’t want to set it free in my house again. I hope someone can tell me what to do with it!
December 18th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Well depeding on where you are in America and Canada I think you can buy live crickets in exotic pet stores to feed your trancula.
This is what I found for you:
FEEDING YOUR TARANTULA
LIVE PREY
Most keepers recommand feeding your taantula appropriate sized live prey. Appropriate-size prey are about 1-half the size of the spider’s body. If you give prey that are defenceless nad cannot harm your spider, then the prey can be larger.
BUYING PREY ITEMS:
Most suitable prey animals can be found in any petshops, baitshops that sell exotic animals. If you have a large number of spiderlings, or an extensive number of adults to feed, it may be more worth while breeding your own food animals. This ensure a steady supply of prey at various stages of size. None of these food items are tough to breed.
DEAD FOOD
Tarantulas prefer live food than dead ones. However, you can decieve them into eating dead food. One way is to plaster some meat into a small ball and dangle them infront the spider with a strand of string. Often the tarantula will percieve the movement and sieze the food as if it were live prey.
http://members.tripod.com/~limweijingkelvin/feed.html
We used to have a pet Camellion when we lived in Jordan and we would go out to the man holes outside have a stick flip it open quickly flick out a cockroach or two and catch them in jars to feed him. We also tried the dead food on a string moving it like flys (which we also occationaly caught) but after having this for a few days he was not feeling so well so we switched back to only live food. We had him for quite a few years before we let him go.
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December 18th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
I think I’ll have to do what you did with your chameleon — catch roaches and crickets and things. Of course, now that it’s winter the bugs aren’t as prolific as they are at other times of the year, but still I shouldn’t have to go far to find one.
Buying crickets is not possible. There is one pet store in town, and they have a few bunnies and puppies and a couple of parrots, that’s all. Oh, and a lot of horse feed. This is a horse town. It’s possible that there might be a pet store that sells crickets in Zacatecas, an hour away. It’s more likely that I’d find them in Aguascalientes, three hours away. But it’s not worth the trip.
I’ll have to try the dangling-meat-in-front-of-them trick. That sounds like fun.
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December 19th, 2007 at 8:13 am
guess you already found the solution to the problem, i was going to say, why not feed it on the bugs it had eaten before fumigation?
this reminds me of a friend in high school who was writing her extended essay (IB requirement) on something to do with praying manti (or is it mantises? i never know). anyway, there are PLENTY praying manti in swaziland, (not to mention moths the size of your head!)so she asked everyone, if they were to see one to bring them to her. she already found one and was keeping it in a jar. i guess she had him there for a few days and forgot to feed him. well i found one in my room so i brought it to her, she quickly put it in the jar with the one she had already and that one immediately ate the one i had just brought. i twas so crazy! i mean it just devoured the guy, like in 2 bites.
then again, female praying manti do eat their mates DURING copulation so…
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December 19th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Yeah, I suppose I could have thought of feeding it the bugs it used to eat. Trouble is, we’ve gotten rid of them in our house. But I shouldn’t have to go far to find one. I found a beetle on the sidewalk today.
That last thing you said is the single strangest thing I know about any bug. Although many female spiders do attack and try to kill their mates immediately after mating.
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