Curly Hair Tarantula Care Sheet (Skittle Bunny Edition)

[SkittleBunny]

Arachnoboards users feel free to add your own tips if I forgot anything. This care sheet is based on my successful experience keeping 8 curly hair tarantulas (currently).


Curly Hair Tarantula Care
(Brachypelma Albopilosum)

Curly Hair Tarantulas are considered extremely docile, many believe they are the number one beginner tarantula and I completely agree. I own a few of them myself, and they are without a doubt the best tarantula for someone who has never owned a giant spider. (Trust me, you need one in your life!)

Now, let me teach you how to keep your new little friend alive and happy! If you purchased your curly hair tarantula as a spiderling (or baby spider..) you can expect to own a good large specimen in about 2 years. They are very adorable and will gain their dark adult coloration and incredibly curly hairs when they are around 1.5-2". This species will max out at around 5-5.5" diagonal leg span, though my mature male curly hair tarantula has reached 6".

If your tarantula is female, it will live in your care for over 10 years for this species and many others. Males however, will live only for around 2-5 years depending on the species. My mature male is 4 years old.

For a 3"+ tarantula, I use sterilite bins with latching lids purchased from Walmart with holes drlled in them. They are 12.7L, and 15"x11"x6" (LxWxH).

I put about 3.5" of ECO EARTH substrate in the bottom of the bin, which can be purchased at your local pet store. My adult curly hair tarantulas do not burrow or use the hiding area, which is a plastic cup buried halfway in the substrate. My spiderlings do burrow, and it is fun to watch! For burrowing species I recommend more substrate, but this is for Curly hair tarantulas and based on my experience.

For spiderlings under 1", I use 2oz deli cups with thumb tack holes in the lid and sides and filled more than half way with ECO EARTH substrate.

For spiderlings over 1.5", you can use 16oz deli cups with thumb tack holes in the lid and sides and filled more than halfway with ECO EARTH substrate. Or if you prefer, you can purchase small acrylic enclosures for nice displays.

Humidity for this species can be kept up easily by gently misting a corner of the substrate until damp, NOT SOAKED, every few days. Usually one or two trigger pulls from a spray bottle achieves this. This applies to spiderlings as well, and the area misted will change in size depending on the enclosure.

This species will do fine at room temperature, and up to 85 degrees. Do NOT use any heating pads or lamps as this has been known to put tarantulas to their graves. They can handle night time low temps' of 60's , but 50's and below are dangerous, if not fatal. Do not place your enclosure in direct sunlight.

Every few days to a week drop a pre-killed cricket (or just a leg for small spiderlings) to your tarantula if it is under 2". Some people will disagree but I am a person of extreme caution. At 2" the spiderling can handle live small crickets, and it is very ammusing to watch them take down prey. Adult tarantulas can eat large live crickets. NEVER leave live prey items in your enclosure , if your tarantula has not eaten it within 10 minutes remove the prey and try again next week.

A tarantula that does not eat for weeks at a time may be in pre-molt, and will eventually flip onto it's back and shed its exoskeleton. Do NOT disturb the tarantula during this fragile process, but I do encourage you to watch as it is incredibly interesting. For more information on tarantula molting, search this website or look at videos on YouTube to learn more.

For a water dish, I recommend a 2oz deli cup filled halfway for adults. For spiderlings under 1", misting a corner of the substrate/wall of the enclosure every few days will be plenty. They will also get hydration from prey. For spiderlings 1"-2.5" a clean bottle cap filled halfway works great. Keep the water clean by changing it every couple of days or as needed. My tarantulas mess the dishes daily, but all spiders are different.

For more details on specific parts of this care sheet search this site or check out YouTube, Thank you for reading and good luck with your new eight-legged friend!

 

[The Grym Reaper]

If your tarantula is female, it will live in your care for over 10 years

Females of this species can live to around 25-30 years.

Humidity for this species can be kept up easily by gently misting a corner of the substrate until damp, NOT SOAKED, every few days. Usually one or two trigger pulls from a spray bottle achieves this.

Spraying is practically useless for raising humidity and does little other than annoy a tarantula or kick up any previously discarded urticating setae, soaking an area of the substrate by pouring water directly onto it or by overflowing the water dish is a much more effective method of providing additional moisture.

There's a common misconception floating around that this species needs to be kept almost "bone dry" as you would with G. rosea/porteri, that's poppycock, their natural habitat is actually quite moist (they are found near rivers, under tree trunks and in areas of cleared rainforest in the wild) and they certainly appreciate a little extra moisture in the substrate.

Do NOT use any heating pads or lamps as this has been known to put tarantulas to their graves.

While I agree that heat lamps should not be used as they quickly dessicate enclosures, the only reason that heat mats kill tarantulas is because people use them incorrectly. This only seems to be an issue in America as scores of keepers throughout Europe (myself included) use/have used them without issue.

If you have to use a heat mat then the safest way to do so is to run it off of a reliable thermostat (attach the probe directly to the mat so that it cuts out once it reaches the desired temperature) and to attach the mat either to the side of the enclosure (not underneath, a tarantula's instinct is burrow when hot which results in them tunnelling towards the heat source) or to a vertical surface next to the enclosure.

I used to run the whole setup off of a surge protector for good measure.

Every few days to a week drop a pre-killed cricket (or just a leg for small spiderlings) to your tarantula if it is under 2". Some people will disagree but I am a person of extreme caution. At 2" the spiderling can handle live small crickets, and it is very ammusing to watch them take down prey. Adult tarantulas can eat large live crickets. NEVER leave live prey items in your enclosure , if your tarantula has not eaten it within 10 minutes remove the prey and try again next week.

Mealworms, morio worms, locusts, roaches and wax worms are other suitable alternatives.

I crush the heads of mealworms and morio worms if I know they won't be taken straight away as they will burrow and then later emerge as beetles which can injure/kill a moulting/freshly moulted T, live prey is removed immediately if clearly refused and any pre-killed prey removed after 24hrs.

 

[SkittleBunny]

Holy crap my attempt at a care sheet to link my customers COMPLETELTY failed. Can someone make an easy to understand one for people in my town who are mostly dog and cat people??? I dont want people to kill the tarantulas I sell them. I just want a simple care sheet with borderline "keep your tarantula ALIVE and happy" for this species because the last six people who called wanting to buy a spider had no idea on a single thing to do to keep one alive and I was sick of that.

Someone help im just trying to get somewhere in the hobby locally since I am too afraid of shipping tarantulas (I suffer from depression/anxiety) and I just want people in my town to have a link better than a pet store care sheet. I use a heat pad correctly for my tarantulas but I didn't include that information because I didnt want a long intimidating care sheet that would possibly turn someone off of tarantulas.

I'm trying to become my citys local tarantula dealer (lol) and i want to do it right. And with every species I put up for sale I wanted to link a PROPER care sheet for that species, this was my attempt at a curly hair T sheet based on success.

I feel it in my soul it's a great idea that can help me fund the hobby if i can just not scare dog and cat people away with a long complicated care sheet when they can be simple and short and still be effective at educating beginners.

I have business cards in the works and pages online about to be up and running. I just need a proper curly hair tarantula care sheet that wont scare potential customers away with fear of a high maintance pet when curly hair tarantulas are not.

I'm probably just rambling, but heck I thought my care sheet was really good for what I was intending on it to be.