My nephew got spooked and dropped my Chilean rose tarantula, will she bite me if I pick her up now

[EducateMe]

Let me start by offering my condolences...Its always painful to lose a parent, I lost my father many many years ago and I can't imagine if he had died and laid there a full week...my heart truly goes out to you.





That enclosure is already very large for her, I would downsize before I upsized...they just don't require that much room.

The one thing to remember though when setting it up fresh, is that that particular enclosure will need to be filled 3/4 of the way with sub to make it a safe place..as you know, falls are quite dangerous for them and doing all you can to discourage climbing is a good start. Also remove that rock, rocks are just something to fall on.

You have to be careful with regards to what wood you use...most wood you find outside will hold some degree of moisture within, and thus be a haven for molds. IME the best wood to use is driftwood...or just go buy a cork bark hide.

The plus is that this species is kept bone dry, which will reduce molding chances...so you might get away with it with her. Having a hide is a good idea, but frankly its not a species that typically uses a hide at all. Its been well over a decade since I have seen mine even near the hide.



They have ridiculously low food requirements...not eating for a week is nothing, in fact, not eating for a month isn't even something to blink an eye at. Literally one or two crickets per month would keep that t plump. Feeding a dozen crickets in a sitting is literally like feeding 9 months of food in one single sitting.

Because of this crazy low food requirement, they are almost always over fed in captivity, and as a result, long long fasts are incredibly common...as mentioned, they can fast for 2 years.


The general inactivity of the species does make them a great species to get over arachnophobia as they typically don't do any of the things that cause one to freak out...handling should be discouraged for the nephew...its better to teach him that spiders are like fish, for looking at, not holding.....there are plenty of small mammals available to satiate that handling need.



Ha....Many (myself included) speculate that they can live in excess of 40 years...I know for a fact that 30 is no issue, as mine is at least that age. Slow growth has its advantages



Ooooh! Toads do have large poison glands and are pretty much a poor food choice for any animal as mentioned by vespers earlier...but I thought it important to mention again. As mentioned, any wild caught food is quite dangerous as pesticides are everywhere nowadays and winds can bring them from far distances even of you think your area is ok.

If you ever have any questions, feel free to send me or another member you trust a private message

Best of luck with your new critter

Incredible, useful information here.

 

[mconnachan]

If you can get over the gross-out factor of roaches

There's nothing gross about Dubias, they don't smell like crickets, they are silent unlike crickets (black Ones) the only gross part is the bolus left after the T has finished its meal.

 

[Ungoliant]

There's nothing gross about Dubias, they don't smell like crickets, they are silent unlike crickets (black Ones) the only gross part is the bolus left after the T has finished its meal.

I don't think dubia roaches are gross. I was speaking to the aversion that many people have to roaches in general, because they are primarily familiar with the pest species.

 

[mconnachan]

I don't think dubia roaches are gross. I was speaking to the aversion that many people have to roaches in general, because they are primarily familiar with the pest species.

Ah now I get what you mean, the B.Dubia we use are not the pest sp. of roach these guys are real cleaners in the wild.

 

[Ungoliant]

Ah now I get what you mean, the B.Dubia we use are not the pest sp. of roach these guys are real cleaners in the wild.

It took over a year for me to warm my husband up to the idea of replacing the crickets with dubia roaches. I had to convince him that they would not escape and establish an infestation in the home. I have had zero dubia escapes, which I definitely can't say about crickets. (Almost every time I added new crickets to the keeper, I would lose one. Sometimes others jumped out of my feeding cup while I was trying to pick the size I wanted for a tarantula.)

They're actually pretty interesting in their own right, but come feeding time, I don't feel bad about culling the colony.

 

[mconnachan]

It took over a year for me to warm my husband up to the idea of replacing the crickets with dubia roaches. I had to convince him that they would not escape and establish an infestation in the home. I have had zero dubia escapes, which I definitely can't say about crickets. (Almost every time I added new crickets to the keeper, I would lose one. Sometimes others jumped out of my feeding cup while I was trying to pick the size I wanted for a tarantula.)

They're actually pretty interesting in their own right, but come feeding time, I don't feel bad about culling the colony.

I've never had an escape either, their so easy to take care of, the meat content compared to a cricket is almost double, I've got a breeding colony and have had for over 2 years, no pet shop cricket smell for me, no thankyou!

 

[Ellenantula]

I keep checking in for updated photos of that poor T finally in a proper enclosure set-up. Has she posted them in a new thread I missed?

 

[Kayti]

I don't know about you, but I've been noise conditioning my Tarantula, and she knows she's going to get food when J make a certain noise.

she also notices when I get into her tank and mess her "room" up by cleaning the water dish or picking up used feeders. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like my T is really smart.

That's often repeated but untrue. Tarantulas have memory and some very, very basic learning is possible. Memory and habituation has been proven in about every invertebrate ever tested, so I doubt Tarantulas are an exception.
This is about jumping spiders, but pretty impressive http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1636/JOA-ST06-61.1

Learning behaviour in tarantulas is not well investigated but considering all the other invertebrate learning research out there I'm sure they are not the one exception of an invertebrate that cannot learn.