Kittiekat9
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2021
- Messages
- 0
Okay, so on August 28, my husband and I went to Petco and bought this Brachypelma Emilia. We brought him home and set him up in a critter keeper and after posting in some tarantula groups on Facebook, we decided to move him to a larger home since he was deemed too large for the critter keeper. His new home is shown in the photos it's a pretty large sterilite bin with plenty of ventilation and substrate depth in case he wants to burrow.
The piece of cork bark in the corner is where he has stayed since we put him in there. We've tried feeding a few times and he's refused and slapped the cricket away. We even called Petco (not for advice) to find out what sort of schedule they have their tarantulas on and was told they feed them 2-3 medium to large crickets 2 to 3 times a week and when my husband mentioned ours was being stubborn, the guy proceeded to inform us that our "heat was too high" in the enclosure. My husband immediately said we don't use heat and then the guy told us that we needed more heat or the spider will protest until he dies.
I am pretty confident in our husbandry as we also have a G pulchripes sling we've had for about 6 months now that is a little ball of sunshine. This Brachypelma is our first juvenile, but I am constantly researching.
Is this normal behavior for the Brachypelma emilia? I know they can apparently go on hunger strikes but he's my first juvenile and I want to make sure there isn't something I'm not doing.