tarantula science

[maddog1219]

hey guys ive just been wondering this lately. Are tarantulas a warm blooded or cold blooded animal because they can't survive in below freezing like warm blooded but they don't need an external heat source like cold blooded??
Also I have seen people saying you should never handle your tarantula, and I completely understand never holding an old world but is it really so bad if you hold your friendly new world every once in a while??

 

[vicareux]

They are cold blooded.


Tarantulas arent handled for two reasons:
-your safety
-spider's safety
Your safety is obvious.I wouldn't consider any tarantula 'friendly',just more or less tolerant. They are unpredictable. Any bite can hurt,nevertheless of the tarantula's origin,you never know how your body reacts to the venom. And even the mechanical bite itself is enough to draw blood.
Tarantula's safety: They hate the feel of human skin (Therefore no reason to make the spider do what they dont want to for your own pleasure) ,and they can bolt or jump off your hand onto the floor,and that can be fatal to a tarantula. Search around this forum. You'll see plenty of threads "Help my tarantula fell from my hand and is bleeding".

 

[HeartBum]

Just to add on from Vicareux's spot on reply, a T's abdomen can rupture VERY easily as they're super fragile. I've heard it compared to a water balloon being dropped, not nice.

 

[Smotzer]

Also I have seen people saying you should never handle your tarantula, and I completely understand never holding an old world but is it really so bad if you hold your friendly new world every once in a while??

Yes it really is that bad, new worlds are not ‘friendly’ no tarantula is, no tarantula is also ‘aggressive’ they are in more varying degrees of defensiveness and tolerance to disturbances, some NW’s being defensive and not tolerant of disturbances and retreating instantly.

when tarantulas fall, from not even that great of heights, this can happen inside of an improperly set up or inadequate enclosure let alone falling from standing height they can easily die and if luckily only injure themselves.
Really if you want to handle, and know the risks, and you do it anyway then a part of you really doesn’t care about the living life you have taken on to care for. Risk vs Reward doesn’t match up in handling equation.

 

[viper69]

hey guys ive just been wondering this lately. Are tarantulas a warm blooded or cold blooded animal because they can't survive in below freezing like warm blooded but they don't need an external heat source like cold blooded??
Also I have seen people saying you should never handle your tarantula, and I completely understand never holding an old world but is it really so bad if you hold your friendly new world every once in a while??

Cold blooded

Lots of dead Ts due to holding- good luck

Get a new pet for holding

 

[Craig73]

Today my buddy told me his new Avic Avic M6 threw him a threat pose and tried to strike when he was feeding it. So even though a species can generally be considered docile, it comes down to the individual and circumstances in any given moment.

Can‘t do much when holding and it throws a threat pose...or decides no threat pose and just strikes...at that point you’re just going along for the ride. And if it does bite or gives you a jump scare just hope your knee jerk reaction isn’t flinging it across the room to its death.