Love them or loath them, nobody can deny just how fascinating giant, hairy tarantulas truly are.
With over 800 recognized species, and ever more of these being kept in captivity each year, keeping tarantulas as pets represents a fascinating opportunity to learn about these much-maligned creatures.
Be careful though – my own experience suggests that once you own more than just a couple of spiders it’s easy to become obsessed and end up with literally hundreds of them. You have been warned!
Most articles about keeping tarantulas focus specifically on the cage itself; what size it should be, what it should be made from and so on. While all these elements are important, many articles miss a crucial element; where to place your tarantula tank in your home. In this guide, therefore, we’re going to take a …
So you’re planning to buy your very first tarantula? If so, welcome to the hobby! However, before you take that giant step to tarantula ownership there are a number of things you should carefully consider… Based on my experiences of chatting to new tarantula keepers over the years I thought it would be useful to …
Many common pets like cats and dogs learn to recognize their owners. They respond differently to the person they associate with the provision of food, water and shelter to other unknown people. An obvious question asked by those new to tarantula keeping is therefore “can tarantulas recognize their owners?” Tarantulas are very simple animals and …
There are over 600 recognised species of tarantula though typically only a tiny percentage of these are seen regularly in the pet trade. This huge reservoir of tarantulas can be divided up in a wide variety of different ways based on habitat, size, colouration and more so an article discussing the different types of tarantula …
For those in the know, tarantulas can be sexed from their skins from quite an early age. The moulted skin is turned inside out and the reproductive linings which are shed as part of the moult are examined under a microscope. With practise one can sex tarantulas from when they are only a few centimetres …
Whilst there are some rather expensive and specialist species available, the average tarantula is reasonably easy to care for once you understand a few basic concepts. Selecting A Species With around 800 species of tarantulas currently recognised there is a huge variety of species available in the pet trade. Luckily the average exotic pet shop …
While some species of tarantula grow far faster than others it is possible within reason to control just how quickly individual tarantulas grow in captivity. There are a number of reasons why it can be helpful to understand the concepts of making your tarantulas grow faster or slower. The first of these is that buying …
For many people, tarantulas are some of the scariest animals on the planet. As a tarantula keeper with over two decades of experience probably the most common questions I get are about being bitten. With that in mind, in this article I’ll try to answer the question “are tarantulas aggressive to humans?” In general the …
At first glance, some might mistake the Poecilotheria ornata for it’s cousin Poecilotheria regalis, but look more closely and you’ll find a whole host of differences. Firstly, the colour is subtly different; Poecilothera ornata may have a greenish or even purplish hue in some specimens. Then there’s the size. Poecilotheria ornata, commonly known as the …
With over 800 species of tarantula recognized from around the world there is an astonishing range of differences between them. From the tiny dwarf tarantulas to the huge Goliath birdeaters of South America, from dull brown tarantulas to brightly-colored species covered in blue, green and red hairs. And the same can be said for how …
Feeding tarantulas isn’t difficult, but there are a number of basic lessons that need to be understood. In this article we’re going to introduce the topic of feeding tarantulas, covering a range of different sizes and types of spider, so that you can apply these techniques to any species you decide to keep. What Do …
Even to this day there are a number of myths surrounding tarantulas and one of the most common of these is really just how dangerous they are. As someone who has kept tarantulas for over 15 years now I’ve heard it all from people asking whether my tarantulas are poisonous, whether tarantulas are deadly, whether …
