- Joined
- Nov 17, 2004
- Messages
- 98
Hey Guys I have to do a speech in school and I did mine on T's.
Can you guys check if all these facts are accurate? 9Oh yeah, and lol, mr. Mcdonald is one of my teachers.)
Speech
What’s hairy, creepy, kinda cool and ferocious? Mr.McDonald back in the seventies? No. Tarantulas? Yes. Good morning/Afternoon Miss.Duggan and fellow classmates. Today I will be talking to you about tarantulas, specifically the Chilean Rose, where they live in the wild and how they live in captivity. I will also be talking about common misconceptions about tarantulas. I will talk to you about what they eat, where to get one, and molting.
Arachnids can be broken down into true spiders and primitive spiders. The spiders that you find in your garden that spin webs are true spiders. Tarantulas are primitive spiders.
Tarantulas are called primitive spiders because their jaws move side to side instead of up and down. They are also “primitive” because they don’t use webs to catch their prey. They wait for their dimwitted prey to walk by and they bite it. Then they spend several hours happily sucking away at it.
I have a Chilean Rose. She is my first Tarantula and her name is Mustache.
Like all tarantulas, she has 8 eyes, 8 legs and a pair of little mouth parts called pedipalps on either side of her mouth. The pedipalps are kind of like hands to handle her food. Some other commonly available species are Mexican Redknees, and the Pink Toe tarantula.
The Chilean Roses habitat in the wild would be in a rainforest in Chile. It would consist of a “home” which is where they go to eat their food and treat everywhere else as “hunting grounds”. In captivity my tarantula has a log for her to burrow under, a piece of cork bark to sit on, a big plant and one long log to climb on. She also has peat moss on the bottom of the cage. I keep all this in a 10 gallon vivarium. A vivarium is an aquarium with all the things a land animal needs. My tarantula eats around six live crickets a week. It takes her probably 2 days to fully digest and eat all her food.
True spiders are also found EVERYWHERE in the world except in Antarctica and the Canadian Arctic. Tarantulas only live in warm climates.
Some common misconceptions about tarantulas are that they are all deadly poisonous. They aren’t. No tarantula has venom that is lethal to humans. A tarantulas venom is produced in a gland between the two chelicerae (Fangs). Tarantula venom has digestive enzymes in it, so the tarantula dissolves the insect from the inside out and then makes a insect “milkshake” and slurps it all down. When the spider wants to inject venom into its prey its very fast and efficient. Another common misconception is that they are very fast and will always bite you. Tarantulas rarely bite humans because they know, however simple minded they may be, that they will not win the fight, and even if they did, it wouldn’t hurt you very much.
Adult tarantulas are not very fast and in fact are quite slow. Baby tarantulas however, are very fast and If you hold one it will run off your hand and poof, there goes your tarantula. Another common misconception is that males are always bigger. The fact is, males are always SMALLER.
Also, did you know tarantulas have four lungs? No, I didn’t think you would. These are called book lungs and are located in their abdomen.
Tarantulas will eat crickets, mealworms, baby mice, and even small lizards. I feed my tarantula 6 medium sized crickets a week and she is around the size of my hand with her legs stretched out. A good rule is you can feed your tarantula anything half it’s size. I would advise against feeding your tarantula anything caught from the wild because they might be infected with pesticides or other chemicals that would be potentially dangerous to your Tarantula. Another common feed insect is cockroaches.
If you want to get a tarantula you can go to pretty much any pet store. If you want one of the more exotic species then you can get it from an Internet dealer. I can recommend the Reptile Store in Hamilton because of nice, knowledgable staff and a huge selection. That store also sells reptiles, hence its name.
Molting is when a tarantula sheds its exoskeleton and grows another. Molting occurs when the tarantulas muscles and tissues get too big for its current exoskeleton so it pops open his carapace like a lid, and climbs out. You might think this would be messy and bloody but its not because the tarantulas exoskeleton is on the outside. When a tarantula molts it will make a bed of web on the ground and flop over on its back and try and wiggle out of its old exoskeleton . Sometimes this will take a day, sometimes only an hour depending on the condition and species of your tarantula.
In conclusion, I hope that you have gained an insight into the amazing world of tarantulas. I have covered their exotic lodging, their gourmet tastes, their decorating preferences, their ways of gaining new wardrobes, and how they are often misunderstood.
Any comments will be appreciated.
Can you guys check if all these facts are accurate? 9Oh yeah, and lol, mr. Mcdonald is one of my teachers.)
Speech
What’s hairy, creepy, kinda cool and ferocious? Mr.McDonald back in the seventies? No. Tarantulas? Yes. Good morning/Afternoon Miss.Duggan and fellow classmates. Today I will be talking to you about tarantulas, specifically the Chilean Rose, where they live in the wild and how they live in captivity. I will also be talking about common misconceptions about tarantulas. I will talk to you about what they eat, where to get one, and molting.
Arachnids can be broken down into true spiders and primitive spiders. The spiders that you find in your garden that spin webs are true spiders. Tarantulas are primitive spiders.
Tarantulas are called primitive spiders because their jaws move side to side instead of up and down. They are also “primitive” because they don’t use webs to catch their prey. They wait for their dimwitted prey to walk by and they bite it. Then they spend several hours happily sucking away at it.
I have a Chilean Rose. She is my first Tarantula and her name is Mustache.
Like all tarantulas, she has 8 eyes, 8 legs and a pair of little mouth parts called pedipalps on either side of her mouth. The pedipalps are kind of like hands to handle her food. Some other commonly available species are Mexican Redknees, and the Pink Toe tarantula.
The Chilean Roses habitat in the wild would be in a rainforest in Chile. It would consist of a “home” which is where they go to eat their food and treat everywhere else as “hunting grounds”. In captivity my tarantula has a log for her to burrow under, a piece of cork bark to sit on, a big plant and one long log to climb on. She also has peat moss on the bottom of the cage. I keep all this in a 10 gallon vivarium. A vivarium is an aquarium with all the things a land animal needs. My tarantula eats around six live crickets a week. It takes her probably 2 days to fully digest and eat all her food.
True spiders are also found EVERYWHERE in the world except in Antarctica and the Canadian Arctic. Tarantulas only live in warm climates.
Some common misconceptions about tarantulas are that they are all deadly poisonous. They aren’t. No tarantula has venom that is lethal to humans. A tarantulas venom is produced in a gland between the two chelicerae (Fangs). Tarantula venom has digestive enzymes in it, so the tarantula dissolves the insect from the inside out and then makes a insect “milkshake” and slurps it all down. When the spider wants to inject venom into its prey its very fast and efficient. Another common misconception is that they are very fast and will always bite you. Tarantulas rarely bite humans because they know, however simple minded they may be, that they will not win the fight, and even if they did, it wouldn’t hurt you very much.
Adult tarantulas are not very fast and in fact are quite slow. Baby tarantulas however, are very fast and If you hold one it will run off your hand and poof, there goes your tarantula. Another common misconception is that males are always bigger. The fact is, males are always SMALLER.
Also, did you know tarantulas have four lungs? No, I didn’t think you would. These are called book lungs and are located in their abdomen.
Tarantulas will eat crickets, mealworms, baby mice, and even small lizards. I feed my tarantula 6 medium sized crickets a week and she is around the size of my hand with her legs stretched out. A good rule is you can feed your tarantula anything half it’s size. I would advise against feeding your tarantula anything caught from the wild because they might be infected with pesticides or other chemicals that would be potentially dangerous to your Tarantula. Another common feed insect is cockroaches.
If you want to get a tarantula you can go to pretty much any pet store. If you want one of the more exotic species then you can get it from an Internet dealer. I can recommend the Reptile Store in Hamilton because of nice, knowledgable staff and a huge selection. That store also sells reptiles, hence its name.
Molting is when a tarantula sheds its exoskeleton and grows another. Molting occurs when the tarantulas muscles and tissues get too big for its current exoskeleton so it pops open his carapace like a lid, and climbs out. You might think this would be messy and bloody but its not because the tarantulas exoskeleton is on the outside. When a tarantula molts it will make a bed of web on the ground and flop over on its back and try and wiggle out of its old exoskeleton . Sometimes this will take a day, sometimes only an hour depending on the condition and species of your tarantula.
In conclusion, I hope that you have gained an insight into the amazing world of tarantulas. I have covered their exotic lodging, their gourmet tastes, their decorating preferences, their ways of gaining new wardrobes, and how they are often misunderstood.
Any comments will be appreciated.