- What should I look for when buying a tarantula?
If you are buying a spider from a pet store, the signs of a healthy spider are:
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A rounded abdomen, not a small wrinkly looking one. This is a sign of dehydration
- If the spider has been there a week, it should have webbed up a little spot, in a burrow or otherwise, or dug into the ground. A spider huddling in a corner of a tank after a week is a sign of a stressed, ill, and unadjusted spider.
- The spider should be comfortably sitting in it's living area. Constant roaming around and climbing the walls of the enclosure indicate stress and that the spider is not happily settling into it's home.
Keeping tarantulas as pets is an international hobby. In Australia, it is only a relatively new hobby, but more and more people are becoming aware that Australia does have its own tarantulas and they can successfully be kept as pets.
Save Our Tarantulas only promote keeping captive-bred tarantulas as pets. The wild-caught tarantulas, often have spent 5+ years in a burrow, never seeing a human in their whole lives. When these are caught and placed in a small tank in a pet store, these animals often suffer from much stress and it is not uncommon to hear of them dying soon after. The combination of this, and the lack of information about how they should be kept, has made many wild-caught tarantulas meet their demise. It is very sad.
The captive-bred tarantulas do make excellent pets. Being captive-bred, they are used to people and their captive environment. All the owner has to do, is ask or research how to look after these animals for total success in their captive environment. As well as the information on our website on keeping spiderlings as pets, we provide a full, comprehensive four page caresheet on how to keep the baby tarantulas with every purchase, and are also available at anytime for any questions and concerns via email. We am committed to the success of captive-bred tarantulas as long-term pets, and we do hope that one day, the number of people keeping captive-bred spiders will be more than the ones that are keeping wild-caught ones.
The captive-bred tarantulas adapt immediately to their environment. When they are placed in their new enclosure, overnight they will burrow and web and settle in to their new home. After this, they usually have no desire to escape. They are cute little things, usually with a large appetite to meet their growing needs. At night, you can watch your little baby spider venture out in search of her prey. It is amazing to watch the babies grab their cricket and carry it around with them, usually webbing at the same time. They make a fun, interesting and highly enjoyable pet to own. And when your baby does grow into a huge adult tarantula, you can have the satisfaction of knowing that you raised that spider yourself.
The many benefits in buying a captive bred tarantula are:
- You know exactly which species of tarantulas you are buying;
- You know that the breeder is committed to tarantula conservation, and therefore has put the utmost effort and care into raising your little spiderling;
- You can feel assured that you are not contributing to the demise of the wild population of tarantulas;
- You can raise your tarantula yourself and watch it grow month by month.
What price are adult tarantulas?
We don't promote the purchasing of adult spiders from pet stores, as they are usually bought from a distributor who has bought their spiders from a wild collector. Whilst there may be acceptions to this with adult spiders, we have never come across any. If a pet store is claiming to be selling captive bred adult tarantulas, it is important to ask who their breeder was, as we have heard from our customers several pet stores claiming falsely that they are selling captive bred adult spiders when in fact, they have been supplied wild caught stock from a distributor. This practise is often heard of from marketers of native Australian fauna, particularly reptiles. Breeders of Australian tarantulas are not common in Australia- as far as we know, there are only 2 or 3 that sell to the general public. This is because of the hours of work raising hatchling spiderlings to the 6 month old period that they are established enough to go to new homes. And also, the amount of working packaging them safely and sending them to their new homes.
Save Our Tarantulas occaisonally sells spiders to pre-approved pet stores and we take into consideration the store's condition of their animals, if they are willing to set up suitable enclosures, if they let the spiders settle in before they sell them and if they are actively promoting the purchase of captive-bred spiderlings by not selling wild-caught adult or juvenille tarantulas. All the pet stores Save Our Tarantulas has sold to has a certificate on their wall indicating they support the conservation of Australian tarantulas by only selling captive bred spiderlings.
Save Our Tarantulas does not sell adult spiders. This is due to that all our adults are breeding stock, and we usually keep a few dozen of spiderlings to raise to adults every year, but they get used in the breeding programme. We also do not like freighting adult spiders, as the stress and danger to them is far far greater than to a spiderling (which is virtually no risk, this is why we guarantee live arrival)
Another big plus to buying a captive-bred spiderling is that they are far cheaper to buy than a wild caught adult. Prices of adult spiders have been observed from $90 up to $650. Save Our Tarantulas prices for spiderlings range from $20 each for common species to $40 each for rare species. We raise our spiderlings until they are 6 months old or over before we send them to new homes. We do this because we want to ensure the spider is well-established eating and moulting on a regular basis. The first 6 months has the highest mortality rate for spiderlings, as as hatchlings they are extremely delicate. We start them on tiny maggots, and by the time of selling, they are usually eating small to medium crickets. We take into account when pricing the spiderlings not only the rarity of the species, but the amount we have to sell and feeding costs. The basic rate of $20 for each spiderling covers each spider's food, heating and housing. We don't take into account the tremendous amount of hours we spend feeding, watering and raising them. Save Our Tarantulas is a largely non-profit based organisation, and any profit that is made is put back into our breeding stock and education of these beautiful creatures, and our other native animal conservation efforts.
Where can I get a captive-bred tarantula from
Save Our Tarantulas has spiders for sale often mid-late year. The tarantulas are usually hatched around Christmas time, and we spend the next 6-8 months raising and establishing them so they are happy and healthy and ready to be part of a new family. We often wait until August/September to advertise the spiderlings, as it has started to warm up at that time of year and we don't like subjecting the spiderlings to cold temperatures whilst they are travelling to their new home.
When we have spiderlings available, we advertise on this website, and often put advertisements up on reptile websites. If you ever want to know if there are spiderlings available, please submit a question to us.
During the season of 2003-2004, 700 captive bred spiderlings from Save Our Tarantulas went to new homes in Australia. Unfortunately, the breeding season 2004-2005 was not very successful for us due to relocating and the spiders having to reclimatize, we decided not to pair up many tarantulas. We successfully hatched around 160 spiderlings, a very rare form of the genus Selenocosmia, and known to be the second largest tarantula in Australia. The current batch we released of 50 spiderlings have been sold within the first week, and we are hoping to offer another 50 in spring time this year. We just like to be sure they are a good size and established and happy first, hence the delay this year.
There are other Australian tarantula breeders, and from time to time, they advertise on reptile forums. Please support these people in their conservation efforts and help stop wild collecting by only purchasing captive-bred tarantulas.
