Pet Tarantula Care Sheet

Once you decided on the fact that you’re buying a tarantula, you now need the proper equipment to give it a decent and healthy life.

Luckily, you’re in luck! Tarantulas are some of the easiest animals to take care of and they don’t need much of your time.

They’re really cheap to maintain too.

Below is a list of things any tarantula will require. Keep in mind that there are some species specific things you need as well. But this general list is a must for any species.

Care Sheet

A tarantula needs:

• A habitat 
• Substrate
• A water dish
• Appropriate food
• A place to hide in
• Some plants
• A heat pad
• Tweakers 
• A soft brush
  

Habitat

Tarantulas don’t need a lot of room. Generally they need a terrarium of about two by three times their leg span.

For arboreal species you will need a terrarium which is tall enough for them to climb a bit.

Terrestrial tarantulas need a terrarium that has about 10 centimetres of substrate and about the same height filled with air.

Burrowing tarantulas need about 3/4th of their habitat filled with substrate.

Don’t buy a terrarium that is overly heigh, for the tarantula can injure himself if he falls.

Check out our guide on terrariums for tarantulas or check out the latest prices for good tarantula terrariums at Amazon.

Substrate

There’s different kinds of substrate you can use for your tarantula habitat. 

Some people use wood chips, but every tarantula owner agrees that coconut fiber is the best tarantula substrate because it consists of smaller parts that are easier for the tarantula to burrow in, and doesn’t have sharp edges that can hurt the tarantula.

Check the price of coconut fibre at amazon.

A water dish

While some people will tell you that you need to put a sponge in the tarantulas water dish, you don’t have to. It is a myth that the tarantula will drown if you water it without a sponge.

Just get a shallow water dish and you’re fine!

Tarantula food

It is cruel to feed mice to your tarantula. Luckily, you absolutely positively don’t have to. It’s even bad practise to do so, as these large critters can easily hurt or kill your tarantula.

So stick to feeding them small insects. The most popular and best food for tarantulas are crickets.

You can buy crickets cheaply at Amazon.

Make sure your crickets are gut loaded, which means they have eaten properly themselves. That way they will be nutritious to your tarantulas and you will be able to keep them longer. 

Check the price of gut load at Amazon.

Feeding (and watering) your tarantula a cricket or cockroach once a week is enough. Only juvenile tarantulas may need to eat up to twice per week as they are still growing a lot.

If your tarantula doesn’t want to eat, remove the cricket or cockroach from the habitat. Your tarantula might molt soon, and tarantulas don’t eat before molting. Moreover, crickets are know to attack and kill tarantulas that are molting, so make sure every cricket gets eaten or else removed.

Lastly, don’t worry if your tarantula doesn’t eat for a while. Some may refuse to eat for up to 6 months. Don’t force a cricket into its burrow, as your tarantula might be molting. It will come out eventually when it’s hungry. Just let it do it’s thing and don’t worry too much!

A place to hide

Your tarantula will be thankful if you give it a place to hide in. Treebark from a hollow tree is a wonderful way to provide your tarantula this hiding place.

Cover it up with a little bit of substrate and leave enough room for your tarantula to enter it. That should be more than enough for its needs!

If you care about looks, there’s these fancy looking hideouts as well.

Plants and decoration for your tarantula terrarium

This is somewhat optional. Arboreal species such as the avicularia avicularia will need some branches in their terrarium. Terrestrial tarantula species don’t, but it will make your terrarium look nicer and provide your tarantula with a more natural habitat.

Heat pad

Generally, if your comfortable in a room, so will your tarantula be. But when your room gets cold or for the winter times, it is advised to get a heat pad for your tarantula terrarium. 

Just make sure you don’t put the heat pad below the terrarium, but put it on the side. And make sure your tarantula has plenty of room to move away from the heat pad, so it can find a place where the heating suits his wants.

Check out cheap heat pads over at Amazon.

Tweakers

Whenever you need to move something in the terrarium or feed your tarantula prey, a tweakers comes in super handy. It’s a quite necessary tool for tarantula pet keepers. You want to minimise having your hand in the terrarium with the tarantula as much as possible.

Get a long tweaker, because that’s simply the safest.

Brush

Whenever you need to check the mood of your tarantula or when you need it to move because you’re doing some work in the terrarium, you need a way to touch the tarantula that won’t hurt him.

When you get a soft brush, you’ll have the perfect tool to do this. Simply stroking the tarantula over its back leg will eventually get him to move without being harmed the slightest.

There are some brushes with harder hairs. These can be suboptimal for handling your pet tarantula. So get a cheap soft brush like this on I found on amazon and you’re settled.

So there you have it! That’s basically all you need for taking care of any pet tarantula. Make sure you look up species care information for your species as well to make sure it has everything it needs. But with everything we said in this guide, you can’t go wrong in taking care of any kind of tarantula.

Good luck and enjoy your journey as a tarantula pet owner!