How To: Tarantula Slings


My Two Tarantula Slings

Kiev, Ukraine

When I left Thailand I had to leave behind my colony of Asian Forest Scorpions. One of the first things I looked for when I arrived in Kiev was a suitable replacement. In Thailand scorpions are fairly abundant and I was able to catch all of my pets, here in Ukraine, there are no naturally occurring scorpion species so I needed to look for a good place to buy them. While looking for scorpions online my dad (fluent Russian speaker) came across a beautiful blue tarantula for sale. My parents were kind of against scorpions as they wanted a display animal that wouldn't spend most of its time hiding. The tarantulas were the best option price wise, and color wise, and they were both sold immediately. I had lots of experience with scorpions, but had never tried keeping tarantulas before. We ordered two of the tarantulas and the lady that was selling them agreed to meet us at a bank in a few days. That meeting didn't work out (which was annoying because we found that out at the bank) so we set up a new time. 10:30 pm at a little cafe in downtown Kiev. We met the dealer at the restaurant, we got the goods and she got the money. I found out that my new pets were babies, only a month old, as opposed to the adults I thought I was getting but that was no problem. We left the restaurant right as it closed (11 pm), and remember this was in Late February, in Kiev. Not the warmest time and place. I put the two vials deep in my coat to keep the Ts (tarantulas) from freezing to death in the cold. After what seemed like forever, are uber pulled up to the curb and we were home free. After much deliberation, I decided to name my spiders Aragog (yes, from Harry Potter), and Saphira (from Eragon). 


Poecilotheria metallica, The Gooty Sapphire Ornamental

The tarantulas I had purchased were Gooty Sapphire Ornamental Tarantulas, scientific name Poecilotheria metallica. P. metallica Ts are spiders that originate from a small area in Southeastern India and are critically endangered in the wild. Despite this, there is a fairly large population of this species in captivity, and several breeding projects are currently increasing that population. Very little is known about them, and their habitats and behaviors in the wild. We do know however that they are an arboreal species of tarantula, and that they live in cavities in old trees. They come from a place that is hot and humid in the summer (30-35 degrees C) and cooler and drier in the winter (25-27 degrees C). 

The vial Aragog came in next to the Jar I put "him" in.

Caring for Arboreal Tarantula Slings

Housing

I housed both of the slings in small jars. Every tarantula needs a few basic things when it comes to housing, somewhere to hide, and space outside of the "hide" to move around. One thing to remember is to make sure that the enclosure is well ventilated, stale air can kill a tarantula, and will increase mold growth. First of all, I added an inch of substrate in the bottom to make it more natural, and to give me something to anchor the hide to. Because these tarantulas are arboreal (meaning they like to climb), I put them in an enclosure that had more vertical space than horizontal space. Because these tarantulas live inside crevices in trees, I made them each a kind of verticle tube out of bark (It is wise to bake your bark in the oven before you use it to kill any bacteria, parasites, fungi, etc.). You can either buy a cork bark tube, or make your own. I found several pieces of bark outside, baked them, and broke them into smaller pieces that I could use to make the hide. If you want to you can hot glue the pieces together, but mine fit together well enough that they stayed together after I buried the bottoms in substrate. I also included a small branch outside of the hide for them to climb and web on, and a small water dish. Many people say that tarantulas won't drink water, that they don't need water, and that they could drown in the water dish. All of these are false. Tarantulas do need water, they will drink from the dish, and tarantulas exoskeletons and hairs are hydrophobic, meaning they won't drown in the water dish. Water dishes are not required for slings, but they won't do any harm, and they might save the spider's life. I always have given these spiders water dishes and always will. The best water dish for small slings, in my opinion, is a bottle cap. Make sure that it is clean, and put it in their enclosure. DO NOT GIVE YOUR SLINGS TAP WATER. Bottled Water is best for Tarantulas (and any other pet for that matter) but I have used filtered water with no problems. 



Feeding Your Slings

Feeding slings can be very easy and stress-free as long as you do it correctly. You will need to buy crickets, mealworms, or cockroaches (or some other feeder insect) for your spiders. Since tarantulas are long-term pets, it would be a good investment to raise your own feeder insects. I recommend keeping more than one feeder insect to increase variety in your spider's diet. I feed my slings every 3 days or so. Tarantula Slings will scavenge for food, and don't need to eat live prey yet. When I first got them, I fed my Ts pre killed, baby red runner cockroaches. I dropped it at the top of their web in the evening, and by morning it had disappeared. Other options include cricket legs, a small piece of mealworm, etc.  If you feed your sling live crickets, be aware that crickets can eat your tarantula while it molts, so be sure to remove any uneaten prey. It is always a good idea to pre kill crickets if that is what you are giving your slings. If you wake up in the morning and the prey item is still there, don't worry. Remove the piece of insect and try again in a day or two. If your tarantula repeatedly doesn't eat, again, Don't Worry. Your spider has probably gone into premolt.  

(Left: Aragog eating a cockroach. Right: Saphira eating a small mealworm) 


Molting

There are several signs of premolt. The first thing that should indicate premolt is if your tarantula starts to reject food. Another thing to look for is a fatter, shinier, darker abdomen on your spider. Lastly, look for weather or not your tarantula has either closed itself off inside its hide, or constructed a web hammock or "molting mat". If you notice that your tarantula is in premolt, it is time to leave it alone. Don't disturb it at all, don't offer food, don't do anything. Most importantly, don't dig it out of its burrow, or open up its hide. It will come out when it is ready, and anything you do might end up causing the stress-induced death of your tarantula. Premolt can last up to several months, so again don't worry if it does. If you ever see your tarantula lying on its back, it is molting. IT IS NOT DEAD. Too many molting tarantulas are thrown away because of owners who thought that they had died. Watch if you want (although it may take several hours) or don't but now more than ever it is important to not disturb the tarantula. No bright lights, no moving the enclosure, no loud noises. Do whatever you can to make sure that it gets to molt in peace. The next morning (it probably molted at night), remove the molt if you can (I highly recommend that everyone who owns a tarantula, scorpion, or other invertebrate to get a pair of reptile tongs as they will make maintenance and feeding way easier!) and if you can't, don't worry about it. Usually the Tarantula will put the molt outside of their hide, making it easy, other wise, leave it there. 

A picture I took of Saphira Molting. She is flipped over on her back.

I have had my two slings for just over 5 months and they have both molted 3 times and grown quite a bit. They were also grey when I first got them, and now if the lighting is good you can see the blue and yellow on their legs. Aragog spends most of his time outside of his hide at the top, or on the walls of his enclosure. Saphira is much more secretive, and only appears at night. Even then, she stays at the top of her hide, ready to bolt at the first sign of danger. These tarantulas are super fast, and pretty unpredictable so it is important to always be careful while feeding, or doing maintenance on the enclosure. On top of their speed, P. metallicas are also one of the most venomous tarantula species. No tarantula has strong enough venom to kill you, but it would suck to be bitten by one of these, and handling is not recommended. As always thanks for reading and I hoped this post taught you something about tarantulas. Feel free to enjoy some of the pics I took over the past 5 months of owning these slings.

What Aragog looks like under a bright light. 

I recently gave them a bigger enclosure

Their first two molts in the vials they came in


Aragog eating his first mealworm



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