Spider-tarantula: maintenance and care
In some people, only one kind of spider causestrembling in the knees. Some are ready to watch spiders for hours, pick them up and play with them. Many Europeans refuse to keep aquariums in their favor spiders-tarantulas. They motivate their choice so that, firstly, the tarantulas are beautiful, spectacular and exotic, and secondly, they are very unpretentious and require small financial costs for their acquisition and maintenance.
Tarantula spiders are the largest spiders in the world, live in South and North America, Africa,Australia and Asia. Most of these arthropods are poisonous, some even deadly, but like all animals, they will never attack first if they are not provoked. Beginners usually start with small spiders (such as Brachypelma albopilosum, Brachypelma vagans, Avicularia, Chromatopelma, Acanthoscurria, Grammostola.).
Acquiring a spider, pay attention to its mobility, roundness of the abdomen (wrinkled abdomen indicates dehydration or underfeeding), the presence of all legs, if the spider is brought from nature - the absence of parasites. Never buy adult spiders, if you do not know, at least approximately, his age. The old spider is usually quite impressive in size, and it may turn out that there is very little left to live on.
To create the most comfortable conditionsexistence of a tarantula, it is necessary to know what kind of species it belongs to and what is characteristic of it. Ideally, of course, get expert advice, but in our country, unfortunately, there are no experts on spiders-tarantulas. Remember that Spiders are best kept not in the group, but one by one, as they sometimes eat each other.
Spider-tarantulas can be kept in transparent containers or terrariums. For terrestrial tarantulas, the terrarium must behorizontal type, and for wood - vertical. Absolutely all tarantulas are active in the dark, so special lighting is not required for them. A prerequisite is a tightly closed lid, because all the tarantulas move well on the glass.
For litter in the terrarium, you can use filter paper, gravel, peat (but it easily settles fungus), sphagnum and lichen, sawdust (preferably conifers with bits of bark). Most spiders contain at a temperature of + 23-28С. But they easily withstand a drop in temperatureup to + 15С. A very important condition is the correct humidity of the air. At low humidity, problems with molting occur. Spiders of tropical rain forests with a lack of moisture in the air simply perish.
Depending on the kind of your pets, humidity should be from 55 to 90%, so in the terrarium should be a bath with water or a container with wet moss. The main food of spiders is living insects of suitable size. Arthropods usually immobilize prey, enter into it digestive juice and after a while suck the contents. The process takes a long time, sometimes up to a day or more.
2-day spiders begin to feed crickets,fruit flies, newborn flour worms. Large spiders are fed by older crickets, grasshoppers, large species of exotic cockroaches, etc. Adults can give pieces of low-fat meat. The insect that you feed your spider must be 14 to 13 times the size of the spider's body. It is more undesirable to give more - this makes digestion more difficult. Small insects can be given on 2-3 pieces, the spider is able to eat them simultaneously.
Feeding frequency - 2 times a week for young, often moulting animals, and 1 time in 7-10 days for adults. More frequent feeding is necessary beforereproduction. Do not forget to take uneaten food, even if alive. Refuse to eat your pet can because of the coming period of molting, low temperature, stomach overflow.
