tarantula health check

[fishy]

asking for advice on whether im taking good care of him :]
i feel like hes doing well, but im not an expert and hes my first ever tarantula

male grammastola pulchra, not rlly sure of his age lol i got him as a juvenile early march 2022, hes about 2 inches long with all his legginess
he has this weird faint metallic gold patch on his back, not sure if that's normal or not.

for substrate i used some coconut dirt moss mix thing i forgot what it was called but it was specifically for t's anyways
for plants, the vines are fake they just make it look pretty, and the moss is real, im not sure if i should give it water tho since his enclosure is supposed to stay dry
for water, i fill up a shallow dish with filtered water from my fridge. im a little worried about that water since ive been seeing tiny white flakes in it recently, but he seems to be ok. im gonna start giving him distilled water instead tho
he has a piece of bark for him to burrow under. it rests on the side of the cage, so i can see into his burrow. he keeps kicking the dirt out tho and sits at the bottom on the plastic, not sure if thats normal.
the rock in there is some fool's gold for ~aesthetics~

his behavior seems normal to me but im a spider noob so here we go
he likes to chill in his burrow most of the time but he goes for short little wanders around his cage, and sometimes stays out for a while. hes a bit of a weirdo, the other day he dipped his ass in his water like ???????????????
his temperament is [Chill Boi], he never attacked the paintbrush i used to test, or bit me when i held him. i had to stop holding him after a while tho since he started zooming around like a little toddler and almost escaped into the wilderness of my bedroom floor
whenever i feed him he always takes it. i feed him a large cricket abt the size of his abdomen at least once a week, or i give him crickets randomly whenever he'll eat them. i dont have much of a schedule, but im pretty sure thats ok??

his tank is on the top box of my weird bookshelf thing, he doesnt get too much light there and the minimal holes should shield him from my constantly blowing ceiling fan well enough. i have his burrow facing out so i can see him cuz im nosy like that.
im wondering if its all right to put more rocks in his enclosure, i want to put some cool sedimentary rocks in there ^-^

thats all im not good at writing hope this didnt hurt your brain too much, whoevers reading

 

[coolnweird]

I'm going to try my best to address all your concerns, so this might be a lot of info!

First, the faint metallic patch on his booty is totally normal, it's called a "mirror patch" and lots of species have them.

You don't need to water the moss.

The white flecks in your water dish are probably springtails, small detritivores who are attracted to moisture. They occur naturally in most soil and can appear seemingly out of nowhere! They're beneficial, and people often buy them to add to their enclosures on purpose.

Burrowing down to the bottom is completely normal, in nature there is no floor and they dig as deep as they want.

Behavior sounds normal, holding your T is strongly discouraged due to the risk of the spider falling and injuring their abdomen.

It's actually better not to feed on a schedule, judge feeding based off of abdomen size. Abdomen should be about the same size as the carapace, a little bigger is okay for slings and juveniles.

As for the rocks, not only would I not recommend adding more, I would remove the one currently in there. Tarantulas climb, and if yours was to climb up onto the ceiling and fall onto the pyrite, it could hurt itself. The rest of the enclosure looks great though!

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions!

 

[NMTs]

Welcome! Nice T - G. pulchra are beautiful and have a great temperament for new keepers (usually).

That goldish patch on his abdomen is called a mirror patch - it's completely normal and many species have one of some size/shape. Those are the urticating setae (abbreviated UrS) that they use to defend themselves when needed.

The enclosure looks fine. You'll probably need to rehouse into a larger enclosure after the next time it molts, and when you do that you can get one a bit deeper so you can provide more substrate for it to burrow in - the shallow sub is why it's sitting on the bare bottom of the enclosure. No harm there, just keep in mind they like to dig. As for the substrate, there's no need to spend $$ on tarantula specific stuff - regular top soil, coco coir, sphagnum peat moss, or a mixture of them works just fine. The sub you have is a little too chunky for my liking, but that's just my opinion. Keeping a full water dish and a moist corner of substrate is good for this species - mine appreciate the moisture and will hang out on the wet area sometimes, but they are usually on the dry side. You could put in a couple more small rocks, but if you do I would take out some of those clumps of moss just so it doesn't get too crowded in there. Use small rocks that don't present a hazard should your T dig underneath them.

G. pulchra are like 8-legged garbage disposals and will rarely (if ever) refuse a meal. That said, you need to be sure not to overfeed them - obesity in T's is an actual thing and can lead to other health issues like molting troubles and drag-wounds on the abdomen. It looks like it's a healthy size in these pics, so I would just feed it a maintenance diet until it molts again - which would be one medium to large cricket every 10 days or so. After it molts, you can feed it a bit more heavily until it gets some size back, then reduce feeding frequency and feeder size again for the rest of the molt cycle.

I know you said you've stopped, but I'll reiterate - don't handle your T. They don't get any kind of enjoyment from it (it is actually a source of stress for them), and all it would take is for it to bolt or bite once - then it's splat goes the T. I would encourage you to continue to treat it like you would an aquarium fish, look but don't touch.

Hope this is helpful/reassuring.

 

[Cmac2111]

The above advice is really great from both! If you have the time, read through this source and the others linked in it, Its fantastic for first time keepers and may answer other questions you have... Good luck with the pulchra they're awesome spiders: https://arachnoboards.com/threads/tarantula-information-for-beginners-and-more.318718/

 

[fishy]

I'm going to try my best to address all your concerns, so this might be a lot of info!

First, the faint metallic patch on his booty is totally normal, it's called a "mirror patch" and lots of species have them.

You don't need to water the moss.

The white flecks in your water dish are probably springtails, small detritivores who are attracted to moisture. They occur naturally in most soil and can appear seemingly out of nowhere! They're beneficial, and people often buy them to add to their enclosures on purpose.

Burrowing down to the bottom is completely normal, in nature there is no floor and they dig as deep as they want.

Behavior sounds normal, holding your T is strongly discouraged due to the risk of the spider falling and injuring their abdomen.

It's actually better not to feed on a schedule, judge feeding based off of abdomen size. Abdomen should be about the same size as the carapace, a little bigger is okay for slings and juveniles.

As for the rocks, not only would I not recommend adding more, I would remove the one currently in there. Tarantulas climb, and if yours was to climb up onto the ceiling and fall onto the pyrite, it could hurt itself. The rest of the enclosure looks great though!

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions!

ty for the advice! i guess im doing better than i thought- i'll take the rock out as well

Welcome! Nice T - G. pulchra are beautiful and have a great temperament for new keepers (usually).

That goldish patch on his abdomen is called a mirror patch - it's completely normal and many species have one of some size/shape. Those are the urticating setae (abbreviated UrS) that they use to defend themselves when needed.

The enclosure looks fine. You'll probably need to rehouse into a larger enclosure after the next time it molts, and when you do that you can get one a bit deeper so you can provide more substrate for it to burrow in - the shallow sub is why it's sitting on the bare bottom of the enclosure. No harm there, just keep in mind they like to dig. As for the substrate, there's no need to spend $$ on tarantula specific stuff - regular top soil, coco coir, sphagnum peat moss, or a mixture of them works just fine. The sub you have is a little too chunky for my liking, but that's just my opinion. Keeping a full water dish and a moist corner of substrate is good for this species - mine appreciate the moisture and will hang out on the wet area sometimes, but they are usually on the dry side. You could put in a couple more small rocks, but if you do I would take out some of those clumps of moss just so it doesn't get too crowded in there. Use small rocks that don't present a hazard should your T dig underneath them.

G. pulchra are like 8-legged garbage disposals and will rarely (if ever) refuse a meal. That said, you need to be sure not to overfeed them - obesity in T's is an actual thing and can lead to other health issues like molting troubles and drag-wounds on the abdomen. It looks like it's a healthy size in these pics, so I would just feed it a maintenance diet until it molts again - which would be one medium to large cricket every 10 days or so. After it molts, you can feed it a bit more heavily until it gets some size back, then reduce feeding frequency and feeder size again for the rest of the molt cycle.

I know you said you've stopped, but I'll reiterate - don't handle your T. They don't get any kind of enjoyment from it (it is actually a source of stress for them), and all it would take is for it to bolt or bite once - then it's splat goes the T. I would encourage you to continue to treat it like you would an aquarium fish, look but don't touch.

Hope this is helpful/reassuring.

ty! it is alright to add extra small smooth pebbles then? also, i never held him any more than once a month before, although i planned to stop entirely until hes bigger and slower. would it still be too stressful to take him out every once in a while? i like to take pictures outside of his enclosure better, since my camera is too big to get a good shot. i scoop him out gently in a cup and hold him on my hand no more than 3 inches above the ground inside a large box and then put him back. im not doing it anymore now, but in the future would that still be bad for him?

 

[Gilligan]

ty! it is alright to add extra small smooth pebbles then? also, i never held him any more than once a month before, although i planned to stop entirely until hes bigger and slower. would it still be too stressful to take him out every once in a while? i like to take pictures outside of his enclosure better, since my camera is too big to get a good shot. i scoop him out gently in a cup and hold him on my hand no more than 3 inches above the ground inside a large box and then put him back. im not doing it anymore now, but in the future would that still be bad for him?

Welcome to the hobby! Still not advisable to hold them as adults. In my experience they don't really slow down at all. The risks that could harm them from handling as slings don't disappear as they age, like dropping them, loosing them, reflex reactions, and so on. If you handle that is up to you but I do not suggest it as it poses many unnecessary risks.

 

[NMTs]

ty! it is alright to add extra small smooth pebbles then? also, i never held him any more than once a month before, although i planned to stop entirely until hes bigger and slower. would it still be too stressful to take him out every once in a while? i like to take pictures outside of his enclosure better, since my camera is too big to get a good shot. i scoop him out gently in a cup and hold him on my hand no more than 3 inches above the ground inside a large box and then put him back. im not doing it anymore now, but in the future would that still be bad for him?

Welcome to the hobby! Still not advisable to hold them as adults. In my experience they don't really slow down at all. The risks that could harm them from handling as slings don't disappear as they age, like dropping them, loosing them, reflex reactions, and so on. If you handle that is up to you but I do not suggest it as it poses many unnecessary risks.

See this^^. If you want to take it out of the enclosure for photography, use a catch cup to pick it up, then put a piece of cork bark in a large Rubbermaid tub (or something similar) and release it onto the bark so you can take pics. You can get beautiful pics of your T in a more natural setting than your hand, and it'll be much safer for you and your T. For example:

Heteroscodra maculata

Adult Female

arachnoboards.com

 

[Smotzer]

never held him any more than once a month before, although i planned to stop entirely until hes bigger and slower. would it still be too stressful to take him out every once in a while?

It’s best to not handle them at all, tarantulas are not pets that enjoy this and it’s actually quite hazardous for their health and can spell death if they were to fall and rapture their abdomen. They are better left enjoyed and treasures through the walls of the enclosure!

 

[fishy]

one year update

hello! i havent posted in a year. i forgot about this place. heres an update on my g. pulchra and his tank. he got too big for his old tank, but this one should last him quite a while. his name is onyx
hes done a lot of digging so his burrow is quite spacious. sometimes i see him wander around.
he is little fat so i am holding off on feeding for a few weeks

 

[fcat]

He's adorable, but since he's a wanderer you want to make sure he can't fall more than about 1.5x his leg span.

My little idiot likes to climb the ceiling 🫣

 

[freedomisle]

My G.Pulchra's used to climb, but it was mostly when I overflowed their water dish during the refill/clean - so I cut back on how much water I would add to the substrate and they no longer climb - will be dependent on the humidity of where you live.

It's nice to see yours using it's hide, as mine have gotten bigger they stopped using the hide, haven't seen them use the hide in over a year, they sit out like pet rocks. Been tempted to remove the hide to provide them with more floor space, but then I think what if they decide they want a hide one day