Beginner Tarantula questions!

[purplemuffin]

My boyfriend and I are interested in tarantulas... so we are trying to figure everything out before we go out and buy one.

The species we like seem to be pretty dang expensive, so I am guessing we will have to buy them younger and unsexed to be able to afford it.

I know I would like a female though, males live such short lives! But I guess that's the risk in buying them, and a male would be a good 'first time' spider I guess?

I see some people saying they have sexed their younger spiders with microscopes or something. I don't want to get ripped off. Is this a real thing? How small can you reasonably know or guess the sex of a tarantula?


We like the green bottle blue tarantulas and the brazilian black giant ones! I know the brazilian blacks are more docile, but I also really like the colors of the green bottle blues.. I know they are more skittish, but I wouldn't mind not touching them or messing with them! "Look don't touch" piece of living art!


How tricky is it to care for the younger spiders?


Also, I see some people feed their tarantulas multiple smaller prey items, or one or two larger prey items, which is better for the tarantula?


I'm still in the middle of research, but I know how unreliable other sites can often be, so I figured I'd ask here as well while I am researching

[Skittles1101]

I have an A.Versi which I don't think is too much like the two you like, but I was told in about 2-3 more molts that it can be sexed with a microscope, which I'm sure is true. I feed it one "small" cricket every 5-7 days, it's probably a little smaller than a nickel, including his legs right now. Mines fairly easy to care for, and is about to upgrade to a slightly larger enclosure

[purplemuffin]

Awesome! Nathan had a tarantula YEARS ago when he was a little kid--he found one in his grandpa's farm. His grandpa was going to kill it, but he took it home and took care of it for a good 4-5 years or so before his mom made him release it back into the wild. Thankfully it's instincts seemed intact, he watched it take down a bug as soon as he let it go!

So he's very, very excited now that we are older and can have a cooler set up and will be able to take even better care of the cool spiders He misses "Franklin D. Roosevelt"

[Alexandra V]

Both the species you've chosen are very easy to care for. It's tough to tell the sex until the spider is roughly 2" in legspan, by which point you can usually get a good guess even with the naked eye. With a microscope and a molt in good condition, you can generally tell the sex by about 1"-1.5" (but that may vary from species to species).

I personally prefer females over males for beginners because they tend to be slightly hardier than males and won't give you false alarms (males tend to do strange things, especially when they're at/reaching maturity that would be worrisome to a new keeper).

Honestly, you can deal with either of the species with no problems as a beginner IMO. And spiderlings, especially of those two species, are very easy to care for. Keep them in a deli container, don't leave more than 1-1.5 times the T's legspan in height from the substrate to the top of the enclosure, and dampen the substrate every few days, as well as dribbling some down the side of the enclosure so the s'ling may drink from the drops. Once the s'ling is about 1" in legspan, I offer a water dish (washed soda bottle cap) and bring the humidity to normal (both of those species don't really require extra humidity).

As far as feeding goes, that depends on you. Personally I tend to offer 1 or 2 crickets about the size of the abdomen of the T once a week for spiderlings. For juveniles and adults (anything at or over 2"), I offer one mealworm (or superworm if the T is over 3") weekly. Some T's will refuse to eat mealies/superworms, so for them I offer one abdomen-sized cricket per week.

Feeding multiple small prey items or one large one really both give the same result. One is not better than the other, per sé.

[purplemuffin]

Ohhh, that's good to know! I have seen a lot of these species for sale around that size, but I wonder if the sellers would be willing to sex them for me.. Hmm.


I definitely didn't know males acted weird near maturity. I guess it makes sense, they go through a lot of changes then!

Why do you not want to leave more than 1-1.5 times the legspan in height?

[Alexandra V]

Ohhh, that's good to know! I have seen a lot of these species for sale around that size, but I wonder if the sellers would be willing to sex them for me.. Hmm.


I definitely didn't know males acted weird near maturity. I guess it makes sense, they go through a lot of changes then!

Why do you not want to leave more than 1-1.5 times the legspan in height?

If the seller is a nice person then they'd more than likely be willing to sex one for you, or at least let you bring in the exuvium once it molts so they can sex it.

As for the enclosure height, it's because the two species you chose are terrestrial species, and although they are able to climb and will do so readily, their heavy-set builds would not do well if they were to fall. The GBB you can afford a teeny bit more height because they like to web up the cage a fair bit, but even for them I'd be scared to go much higher than 2 legspans because they're built far more terrestrial than arboreal.

[purplemuffin]

That makes a lot of sense, thank you very much! I knew they were terrestrial, I didn't think about them climbing up the deli cup and falling!

I'm very excited about this! Now I just have to make sure I can get a reliable source of properly sized food before I even think of bringing one home. At the last convention I visited we got a flyer for a reptile store near us who sells feeders(mice and insects), so I'll see if we'll be able to get the small crickets reliably while the spiders are small.

[Alexandra V]

That makes a lot of sense, thank you very much! I knew they were terrestrial, I didn't think about them climbing up the deli cup and falling!

I'm very excited about this! Now I just have to make sure I can get a reliable source of properly sized food before I even think of bringing one home. At the last convention I visited we got a flyer for a reptile store near us who sells feeders(mice and insects), so I'll see if we'll be able to get the small crickets reliably while the spiders are small.

Anytime Hope you can find the stuff necessary! Feel free to contact me (or the whole forum!) if you have any more questions, and make sure you share lots of pics when you get one!

[purplemuffin]

I do have a few more questions for you (or anyone else I guess who would see this?)

How fast do these guys grow? I guess specifically these two (green bottle blue and brazilian black)

Also, what size crickets would a 3/4" or 1" need? I ask because that's about the size tarantula I keep seeing, and I was wondering if they need pinhead crickets or 'smalls' or whatever size. I'm trying to figure out how long I would need to buy super small crickets for a tarantula. I don't breed my own crickets, and the stores around me sell by the dozen, so I'd end up with a bunch of tiny crickets that none of my other animals could really eat(and would get too big too fast probably if I just kept them).. But I guess as the crickets grow I could feed them to the geckos!

I DO have a working mealworm colony of various sizes, but can mealworms be fed to tarantulas? Would they be good for them?

Just still figuring out the feeding part. Once the spider is bigger it wouldn't be an issue, just when it is young!

[Alexandra V]

I do have a few more questions for you (or anyone else I guess who would see this?)

How fast do these guys grow? I guess specifically these two (green bottle blue and brazilian black)

Also, what size crickets would a 3/4" or 1" need? I ask because that's about the size tarantula I keep seeing, and I was wondering if they need pinhead crickets or 'smalls' or whatever size. I'm trying to figure out how long I would need to buy super small crickets for a tarantula. I don't breed my own crickets, and the stores around me sell by the dozen, so I'd end up with a bunch of tiny crickets that none of my other animals could really eat(and would get too big too fast probably if I just kept them).. But I guess as the crickets grow I could feed them to the geckos!

I DO have a working mealworm colony of various sizes, but can mealworms be fed to tarantulas? Would they be good for them?

Just still figuring out the feeding part. Once the spider is bigger it wouldn't be an issue, just when it is young!

The GBB tends to be a medium grower and the brazilian blacks are known to be slow growing. At around 1" they would in fact need pinhead crickets, but you could put in a little bit of effort and go one of two ways: either go with larger crickets and pre-kill them, or do the same with pre-killed meal worms. I feed mealworms to my smaller Ts and superworms to my larger ones that will take them (one of mine wants nothing to do with them) and for my very small ones (at or under 1") I still do pinheads because I can get them by half dozens here. Once they are about 2", I start offering live mealworms.

From personal experience, if your tarantula is willing to take them, meal worms have been like steroids for my slings and they've been growing much faster and bigger since I switched onto them.