Just got my first Tarantula

[Kurt Nelson]

So clearly I am new to owning Tarantula's to begin with so first off greetings and what awesome creatures they are. I have done some research but I'm a little worried. The guy at the pet store told me to feed it 5 crickets, but instead I got it some worms because I was a little afraid of cricket breakouts and whatnot. I put about 4 in because the worms have burrowed into the coconut husk stuff I have put down for it.

I'm pretty sure it's on it's first worm, I haven't dug around for any and it hasn't really moved since I got it.. that being yesterday, but it seems to still be eating the worm after 24 hours. It has got a nice little silk web going on and seems to have its face buried in it. I'm just wondering if this is normal.

It's a pink toed tarantula, very gorgeous and seems pretty young still. I have named it sir legsalot for kicks lol. Only name my girlfriend would let me name it. She didn't even want me to get it, but I put my foot down!

As soon as it molts I'll be posting more pictures for you guys to help with sexing it.

Attached are pictures of it.

 

[harleyqueen]

She is stunning I m mad about pink toes tho. Good luck for a long healthy life with her.

 

[Nada]

Welcome aboard Kurt.
Unfortunately, Pet-stores are a wealth of mis-information. You never want to feed your Tarantula more than 1 prey item at a time, and you want to remove any un-eaten prey after 24 hours.
As far as your housing, Tanks are really poor enclosures for a Avicularia(pink toe). It's very hard to keep heat and humidity high in them. you'd be better with a nice clear Food storage bin, with holes drilled into the side.
Eating a prey item for 24 hours is nothing to worry about.
please feel free to ask any questions you might have, and we'll do our best to answer them. Be warned though, tarantulas are addictive.

 

[Bast]

Welcome to the boards and to the hobby! Gorgeous little spider you have there We're neighbors too, I live in Calgary I agree that the enclosure is probably not the best, definitely don't need that much floor space (arboreals need more height than width) and it will be hard to maintain humidity with that set up. I currently use an Exo-Terra tall nano with 3/4 of the screen top covered with saran wrap. If you don't want to spend the money on the Exo; like Kenny said, a storage bin works well...you could also check around some hobby shops/dollar stores for some tall containers which are usually pretty cheap.

I only feed my 3" A. avic 1-2 crickets a week (Karina usually only accepts one). You're lucky that your T. ate right away, my little one didn't eat for over a week when I first got her (I was bummed lol), it does take them awhile to eat so don't worry about her munching away. I wouldn't worry too much about cricket break outs if you are only keeping a small amount. I buy them 2 at a time, because I really don't like taking care of them for any length of time (though I'm probably going to have to re-think this as I already have 2 more T's in mind that I want to get lol). I would take the uneaten worms out of there, so they don't bug the T/die/defecate in the substrate and start to rot (or pupate/lay eggs etc). Also, if those are superworms (that's what they look like to me) I would crush their heads before feeding them to your T, I had one bite one of my Leopard Geckos back in the day...I've been careful with them since (not sure if they'd harm a T or not, but I don't trust them anymore LOL).

 

[Kurt Nelson]

Thank you for all the nice comments, I will definitely take it all into consideration.

I however just got home and I went through and found two worms. I took them out and put them back into a container but I could not find the third one, so I'm under the assumption that the T is on it's second one. Maybe I'll see if it's done eating tomorrow and sift through the dirt again for the last worm. If I can even find it.

I didn't know you could purchase 2 crickets at a time, I'll see if a local pet store has separate ones I can buy. What are they? like 10 cents a piece? I really want to feed it a mouse! Inhumane I know, but that stuff fascinates me.

how often should I be feeding it? Twice a week one cricket at a time? or once a week and just give it the second cricket when it's finished the first?

Thank you very much. I'm afraid of super worms lol, but I was told feeding them live food was better so I didn't crush it's face.

 

[Bast]

The Petsmart near me sells them for 10 cents each...the other reptile shop will make you pay $1.00 (the price of a 10 lot) even if you only want less than 10. I just go to whichever store happens to be closer while I'm out running errands. I would think that your spider would be too small to feed a mouse to, but maybe a pinkie? Not too sure on that since I have never done it. There's also some controversy surrounding feeding vertebrates to T's; one argument being that too much calcium could cause moulting problems.

How big is your spider? Karina is 3" and I feed her 3 week old crickets right now, if they are on the smaller side I offer her 2, but she's only taken 2 once. General rule of thumb is offer the meal (the prey item shouldn't be any larger than the T's abdomen) and remove anything that hasn't been eaten in 24 hours. I would think once a week would be more than sufficient.

Oh the super worm will keep moving for awhile even after you crush it's face...so the T will still be attracted to the movement (and I have heard that some T's will eat dead prey as well) and pounce. I wouldn't feed it anything that's been dead long though, bacteria and all that jazz. I abhor super worms (I can still hear the sound of them crawling in the bucket I used to keep them in *shudder* LOL)...if I was going to feed worms I'd just go with meal worms; easier to keep, less 'aggressive' and you can keep them in a shallow dish without worrying about them roaming around and burrowing into the substrate.

 

[Kurt Nelson]

How do you measure? body size or with leg span?

 

[Bast]

I used diagonal leg span to measure Karina.

 

[Kurt Nelson]

2 and a half 3 inches. something like that. it still has food in it's mouth so i don't want to handle it right now... plus it's still getting adjusted to it's new environment. it's pretty small still, the petstore was kind of clueless when it game to it's age and sex. So i'll determine sex when it molts and i post pictures.

 

[Bast]

Yeah, best to leave him/her to it's meal Sounds about the same size as Karina; so I think you would be good with 2-3 week old crickets (for prey size just compare the feeder size to the size of the T's abdomen and go from there) and/or meal worms. Super worms seem pretty big for a spider of that size; pretty good first meal in it's new home LOL. If you go meal worms, you can keep them in the fridge and they last a really long time. Just take out one or two a couple days before feeding time and give them some dog/cat food and a carrot to munch on; get them nice and healthy so you can send them to their doom haha.

 

[Kurt Nelson]

Yes! To their doom! Alright, I'll definitely consider meal worms and crickets. Just i finish up the bucket of super worms first? My T seemed to enjoy them, if it did actually eat two.

 

[Bast]

How many did you get? If you do decide to keep them you really need to make sure that you keep them fed and watered or they will start eating each other...also they tend to get stinky very quickly; so be prepared to clean their bucket too (and don't put them in the fridge). If it was me I would see if the store would take them back and let me trade for some other prey item, but then I REALLY, really hate Super worms haha.

 

[Kurt Nelson]

Whatever they were 5 bucks, i can just throw them out lol. They are so ugly and gross, I'd rather throw them out lol.

 

[Bast]

Kill them first LOL

 

[Kurt Nelson]

Flush them! And I was reading that it's okay to put more than one pink toed T together in the same habitat. Is this true? Can I get two? Will they fight?

 

[Bast]

Ewww, super worm water lol. I remember when I still had some super worms left over (about 30), and I had nothing left to feed them too, I transferred them to a bucket with no air holes and a lid on it (ice cream bucket I think), I didn't feed them or put any water in with them (sorry if this upsets anyone btw, I guess it is kind of mean)...it took 8 months for all of them to die :/

I have read that you can do a communal set-up with A. avics. I've never done it (obviously since I only have one T), but if you do a search for Robc on google and/or youtube, he has some awesome videos and he's been successful with communal set ups. I remember reading that you need to start a fresh enclosure (so none of the T's has claim to any territory), and there's always going to be a risk of cannibalism. I don't know much about it; maybe someone else here has some experience with this type of set-up.

 

[Kurt Nelson]

Thank you very much, I appreciate it. And 8 months is a long time. Why didn't you just refrigerate them?

 

[Bast]

No problem Because (before I knew better) the first time I had purchased super worms, I thought they were just bigger meal worms; so I put them in the fridge and (not sure what caused them to smell like that) they ended up stinking up my whole fridge, took quite awhile for my fridge to smell normal.

 

[Kurt Nelson]

Oh gross, I thought they would have just died. But now I understand.

 

[Nada]

Communal enclosures are a risky adventure. I won't do it persoanlly, but if you do try it, make sure you give them a lot of room, and keep them very well fed.
and Please don't feed them Verterbrate prey. Many inverts are known to have trouble breaking down a Vertebrate skeletal system, and althought Tarantulas aren't proven to be one, It remains an un-nessasary risk. add to that; that a small mouse can very easily kill a large Tarantula, I've seen it 1st hand.