My Pet Birdeating Spider

I have no basis on which to doubt you, but how do they eat? Do they just wait for animals to repeatedly win Darwin awards by walking through the front door?

Does. Not. Compute.

It's not like Britain where these come from, imagine if you turn on the light outdoors at night for a short time and you get a swarm of a huge variety of critters, and imagine having to raise your voice to talk over thousands of crickets, roaches, and other things. The vibrance and quantity of wildlife is staggering.

So yeah, they just come close enough and one dead critter.


What are you feeding the sling?

The most recent slings I've bought were raised on bean weevils. They're really easy to keep and a yoghurt pot sized colony should last the spider until it's big enough to take L1 dubias, although you could possibly use L1 Turkistans (not sure how small these are).

Micro silent crickets at the minute, got plenty in a plastic tub, I've given them grub and gel and I've seen a few having a munch so far. I've got a cricket keeper box, but it's vents are too large for the micro crickets. I guess I'll need to give the plastic tub tiny air holes? As its sealed at the minute, they have only just arrived.

Also, the humidity of the tank is only 52, and it needs to be up at 80, I've given it a spray, but might have a look for some plants or something. I've popped 3 micro crickets in with the spider, but I may have injured them in the process (don't have a dropper, tried my best with tweezers) so they are suddenly quite still (but alive). I haven't seen the spider take a bite yet. But he does like to jump! (to my dismay when attempting to put it into its small pot) The last thing I want is a blue tarantula spiderling running under my bed and getting injured.

(and pictures later, I just need to make sure the conditions are improving and it gets settled in the dark.)
 
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Micro silent crickets at the minute, got plenty in a plastic tub, I've given them grub and gel and I've seen a few having a munch so far. I've got a cricket keeper box, but it's vents are too large for the micro crickets. I guess I'll need to give the plastic tub tiny air holes? As its sealed at the minute, they have only just arrived.

I may have injured them in the process (don't have a dropper, tried my best with tweezers) so they are suddenly quite still (but alive). I haven't seen the spider take a bite yet.
Two questions there.....

1) Yes, the crickets will need air, so make sure you poke a few holes in the box.

2) If it's a tiny sling, then they do sometimes scavenge, rather than hunt. It's very subjective. Put thefood in, give them a chance to find it (maybe 24 hours) and remove it if they don't eat it. Try again the next day. Sometimes it might be a while before they eat, especially if they are in a new home - one of my slings didn't eat for over a week while the other was leaping on prey and wrestling them to the deck within minutes of going in his new enclosure :D
 
I'll try my best with this spiderling, but just so I know, is it common for newbies to get the conditions wrong and causing er.. death?

Meh, decent sized tub, some coconut fibre thats dried, some log thing so they can hide under it, small pot of water / bug gel.

Add crickets when needed, done :)

Try and get it a half decent sized enclosure otherwise the poor thing will never be able to shed its skin. That or put it in a small one when its a babeh then upgrade it.

EDIT: Oh and we feed our crickets fish flakes :p
 
Crickets's tub have lots of air holes slightly smaller than their body size now, but they are less active. I've put more water gel in, as they seem to like it a lot.

Tarantula is sitting quietly with 3 crickets, will leave him for a bit to socialise.

and I'll move the spider out of the pot and into a small tub in a couple of days. I'm using google calendar to keep me organised.

=]
 
I have no basis on which to doubt you, but how do they eat? Do they just wait for animals to repeatedly win Darwin awards by walking through the front door?
Pretty much, yep. Some spiders "hunt" (huntsmen, wolf spiders, wandering spiders) but generally tarantulas just laze about until something strays past.
 
wrbz81.jpg
 
OK, 1 week on and my spider is settling in. It's made a neat web at the top of his tub and I braved handling it for the first time, which I done over a dry bath for containment. His web is different from any house spider I've seen, it seems to put down many strands at the same time and it's thick but not too sticky, so it can walk on it easy.

IMG_2186.jpg


I watched some videos of this species as an adult, the handling videos terrified me, if it can move anywhere as quick as it is now when it's an adult... I'll need to grow a new pair of balls.

Edit: oh, by the way, this spider pictured above is a spiderling and is no bigger than a penny coin including the legs.
 
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Crickets's tub have lots of air holes slightly smaller than their body size now, but they are less active. I've put more water gel in, as they seem to like it a lot.

Tarantula is sitting quietly with 3 crickets, will leave him for a bit to socialise.

and I'll move the spider out of the pot and into a small tub in a couple of days. I'm using google calendar to keep me organised.

=]

Just to note, the "water gel" isnt really any good for spiders, as they cant actually drink from it, and it could house some nasties, you are best off with just clean water, i put mine through a britta filter first :)
 
Ok noted that, I put in a few gel's to begin with (on his web) just in-case, I'll clear them out next time. The spider doesn't go on the floor at all, its a tree dwelling spider I believe, so I was concerned it wouldn't see the water on the ground. It did have a go at all the gel blobs quite keenly, I'll put a cola cap's worth of water at the bottom.

IMG_2227.jpg

^ I've set up the habitat like a burrowing adult tarantula's, but since this is tree dwelling, I might turn the tank on it's side (and seal up some of the holes) for a taller habitat when it's ready. In the meantime, having the substrate in even though the spider isn't using it, has helped the humidity a lot. Initially I was looking at 40-50%, now after a spray I'm easily at the 80% that's required.
IMG_2228.jpg

Here he is in the tub with some redundant water gels pending removal. Also, the reason the tub is upside down is because the spider always climbs up and nests at the top. If I have the lid at the top I have to continually disturb it, so It's at the bottom, however, this means I can't have any substrate inside the actual tub. I might add some leaves or sticks to climb on.

I also noticed the crickets are growing which is nice, saves me some food costs =p
 
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Any spiderling advice?

Yes, kill with fure then nuke from ****ing orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

I hate to be *that guy*, but don't some of these spiders deserve a little more space then they're getting?

The spiders don't deserve life IMHO

Terrified of spiders, but find myself curiously interested in keeping one as a pet.

I had this a week ago. Nearly ordered one.

Then I had... The incident *cue dramatic music*
 
Ok noted that, I put in a few gel's to begin with (on his web) just in-case, I'll clear them out next time. The spider doesn't go on the floor at all, its a tree dwelling spider I believe, so I was concerned it wouldn't see the water on the ground. It did have a go at all the gel blobs quite keenly, I'll put a cola cap's worth of water at the bottom.

IMG_2227.jpg

^ I've set up the habitat like a burrowing adult tarantula's, but since this is tree dwelling, I might turn the tank on it's side (and seal up some of the holes) for a taller habitat when it's ready. In the meantime, having the substrate in even though the spider isn't using it, has helped the humidity a lot. Initially I was looking at 40-50%, now after a spray I'm easily at the 80% that's required.
IMG_2228.jpg

Here he is in the tub with some redundant water gels pending removal. Also, the reason the tub is upside down is because the spider always climbs up and nests at the top. If I have the lid at the top I have to continually disturb it, so It's at the bottom, however, this means I can't have any substrate inside the actual tub. I might add some leaves or sticks to climb on.

I also noticed the crickets are growing which is nice, saves me some food costs =p

If that is an avic versicolor mate then you will be best sticking some holes down each side of the cup as well, you really need some cross ventilation with avics :)

When feeding, are you making sure the prey gets all the way down to the web, because its very unlikely the spider is going to come off its web all the way down to the bottom to feed :)

Turning an exo faunarium on its side is a brill idea, you dont need that much substrate in there anyways, plus then you have the door on the top for feeding etc so never really need to disturb it. If it is an a.versi though that may not be big enough for it for its entire life, but should last a couple of years at least, best bet for an avic is something like a cereal tub :)
 
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