Tarantulas are the largest animals of the Lycosides, their name derives from the Italian city of Taranto, a place where these animals are very abundant. They are famous for their large size and especially for their prominent tusks.
They are insectivorous animals which indicates that their diet is based on eating insects. If you have a pet tarantula, you will not be able to go to a pet store and ask for some kind of concentrate to feed it, you will have to ask for insects to do it.
In this article on our site we explain everything about the feeding of the tarantula, an extremely fascinating animal that many people choose as their pet. Be sure to read the information that we present below.
What do tarantulas eat?
As we mentioned before, tarantulas are animals that feed on insects, so the food will be relatively cheap. When feeding them, you must consider the size of the prey, this insect must be at most 1/4 the size of your tarantula
Among the insects that are in the diet of tarantulas are crickets, cockroaches, lobsters, grasshoppers, worms, among others, however crickets are the preferred food. Something fundamental but no less important is to highlight that we should not offer animals as food that can harm your tarantula, such as bees and wasps.
If you place the food and see that it does not devour it, remove it from the terrarium and wait a day to repeat the process, it may reject it again so you will have to wait longer to feed it. It could be that he is shedding or simply that he does not have an appetite.
Remember that tarantulas eat once a week and can even fast, it is also important to keep in mind that the insects have to be alive for your pet to devour them.
Very important: don't forget to put water so that the tarantula can drink, you can do this using a 1-inch plastic bowl. high if it is an adult arachnid or depending on the size of your pet.
How to feed them?
When you go to feed your tarantula, the first thing you should do is locate it. If you see that the tarantula has climbed into the terrarium and is very close to the lid, you should gently push it with any instrument that works for you and does not hurt it.
Using tweezers, grab one of the prey you will feed your spider and quickly place it in the terrarium. If your food source is crickets, an adult tarantula consumes two to six crickets a week.
If the tarantula does not consume everything, the prey and remains should be removed if possible. With worms, for example, you have to be careful because they can dig and later attack the tarantula during its moulting season. It is also good to remove the remains so that the terrarium is kept as clean as possible.
The best time to feed a tarantula is at night, don't even think of handling it while it is feeding. Also don't forget to close the lid when you do the whole process, since it can escape when you least expect it.
Where do I get the food?
When providing a food source for your tarantula you have two options, the first and easiest is to purchase the insects at the different pet stores, where you can find crickets and tenebrios for example. This option has the economic drawback, since you will always be spending to buy your pet's food.
The second option is to create your own food source, you can choose for example start a colony of crickets or cockroaches to feed your tarantula, in this case you will have the advantage of always having fresh food on hand and you will reduce costs. Even if you have friends who have pet tarantulas, you can sell these insects to them.
You should never feed crickets or any insect you find at home or on the street, in urban areas, as these may have different insecticides or chemicals, which can be lethal to your pet. You can look for insects but in places far from the city and farm fields.
Some final considerations
- Don't worry too much if your tarantula doesn't eat, a tarantula in excellent condition can go a long time without eating.
- Always check the opisthosoma of your tarantula, which has to be round and chubby, it doesn't have to be flattened.
- The opisthosoma is what indicates whether your tarantula is he althy or not, but it doesn't have to be very fat either, remember that they are animals that eat only to survive.
- If you feed your tarantula dark food, make sure it eats it. These can bury themselves and come out later, to become your pet's predators.
- Remember that tarantulas cannot be treated like dogs or cats, you should handle them only if necessary as you can stress them.
If you liked this article, we recommend you visit the emperor scorpion as a pet, care for aquarium shrimp or curiosities about butterflies.
