A. Chalcodes Small Abdomen

[dopamine]

My adult Chalcodes eats like a garbage disposal. She's only refused food once in the 2 months i've had her. Definitely one of my favorite spiders. She's also my most active by far.

 

[Tanner Dzula]

also i have a question, how often should i feed her(i know it's like 3-5 crickets a week).. yesterday i offered twice (7 hours apart) and she instantly snatched at it both times like she was starving or something haha, today i fed her and she also snatched immediately. i don't want to "overfeed". and i'm keeping a Feeding Log

depending on the size, if its already a juvenile/subadult or adult then id limit to once a week.

they really are great eaters, and almsot never refuse food(the one time mine did a few weeks again, she imediately refused a cricket, so i figured id let it sit for a minute, and by the time i walked to my kitchen and back to fill up my Water bottle, she had snatched it up!) anything more then 1 a week, especially with a wild caught, can really fatten them up quick, and it can really be an issue becuase these guys can really Climb if they are in the mood for it.

Id suggest a good sized water dish, though ive noticed with some wild caughts they wont even pay attention to it.
Mine personally, no matter what type of dish i use(everything from plastic Condiment cups to A nice stone water bowl) will completely ignore it, and insteads seems to prefer i dampen a corner of the enclosure, ill take some pictures when i get home and post them, but like, basicly in the corner i dampened she dug down to the very bottom, making a huge slope and seems to prefer when that corner is flooded.
i thought this was strange until i noticed, with the slope, it almost resembles the "washes" found throughout the sonoran desert. basicly dried out sandy riverbeds then tend to flood in the rainy season. so i think just years and years of instincts have had more comfortable with that type of water source, then a constant dedicated water bowl (as naturally there are very few atual standing water sources in the desert)
now with this i have no idea if this is accurate or if i just have a very odd tarantula, but it does seem to be a bit of a coincedence for a species that was Wild Caught here natively to be drinking from a source that almost exeactly mimics the natural sources of water here.
i plan to get many more in the near future so i will probably psot more info with the more i know!.

but i agree with the other posters, deffnitely give it plenty of substrate(id say atleast 4+ inches) and try to limit the height of the open space as they are very active climbers.

 

[Aline Lassala]

My adult Chalcodes eats like a garbage disposal. She's only refused food once in the 2 months i've had her. Definitely one of my favorite spiders. She's also my most active by far.

hahaha! yeah someone once said that they were known to fast so i was worried but apparently they were wrong lol! and yes definitely active, i thought she was going to be a "Pet Rock" T, but she's always exploring her tank and doesn't really use her hides but she does hide behind one haha

 

[Tanner Dzula]

hahaha! yeah someone once said that they were known to fast so i was worried but apparently they were wrong lol! and yes definitely active, i thought she was going to be a "Pet Rock" T, but she's always exploring her tank and doesn't really use her hides but she does hide behind one haha

i guess "fast" is all releative.
i mean compared to My B. Albo and some of my other terrestrials she is pretty fast. she could literally run laps around my B. Albo(unless food in involved, by Albo goes straight hulk mode when a cricket gets near)
But compared to say an OBT, Pokie or Tappy? shes bascily a statue in comparison.
so its all just a matter of perspective and the type of T's you compare it too

 

[dopamine]

hahaha! yeah someone once said that they were known to fast so i was worried but apparently they were wrong lol! and yes definitely active, i thought she was going to be a "Pet Rock" T, but she's always exploring her tank and doesn't really use her hides but she does hide behind one haha

I feed mine a roach or large cricket about twice a week and she's good, never refuses lol. And mine doesn't use her hide either. This is actually her favorite spot

 

[Aline Lassala]

i guess "fast" is all releative.
i mean compared to My B. Albo and some of my other terrestrials she is pretty fast. she could literally run laps around my B. Albo(unless food in involved, by Albo goes straight hulk mode when a cricket gets near)
But compared to say an OBT, Pokie or Tappy? shes bascily a statue in comparison.
so its all just a matter of perspective and the type of T's you compare it too

oh by fast i meant not eat for long periods of time.. haha but cool!

 

[Tanner Dzula]

oh by fast i meant not eat for long periods of time.. haha but cool!

Ahh, i totally misunderstood that then xD
as for that type of fast, yes id totally have to disagree with that, as i have yet to see mine fast, though ill have to wait for her to fully mature to get an idea of what she's like as a MF to truly know haha.

 

[Crone Returns]

Hecky poo mine has fasted since I got her a few months ago, but her abdomen's plump. She ate a cric and a super I decided to try on her.
She freaked me out I was so stunned. Then she proceeded to go into her burrow for a day. Oh, great I think. She's gonna molt.
Today she's out and roaming around.