All about keeping spiders at home

Recently, the popularity of exotic pets has increased markedly. Quite often, instead of the usual fluffy, baleen and tailed, rare fish species act in this role, terrifying reptiles, as well as unusual insects, frightening one with their species. And in this row of exotic pets are spiders. Someone disgusts them, someone panic, and someone sincerely admires. And if you are one of the latter and want to see such an eight-legged creature as your friend, then it will be useful for you to find out what the content of spiders at home is.

Choose a pet

Since a pet should definitely play the role of a pet, it will certainly be an eye-catching specimen, respectively, and the version with our almost "native" haying spider will immediately recede into the background. And why bother the cute eight-legged “neighbor” by driving him to the terrarium, moreover, these creatures are already domestic and probably huddle in one (in most cases several) of the cozy corners of your house. We’ll leave them there, but for home maintenance we’ll choose someone more sympathetic, for example, a tarantula. By the way, representatives of this particular species are the most common and popular spiders for home maintenance. And there are several reasons for this:

• firstly, they are very beautiful - bright colors, large sizes, furry body;
• secondly, it reproduces well in captivity, and accordingly, can be bred;
• thirdly, lives for a relatively long time;
• fourthly, this species includes several hundred subspecies, which opens up a huge selection.

On a note! The poison of a tarantula spider is not fatal for an adult healthy person, but for other pets, its bite can become fatal, for example, for cats, dogs, etc. In addition, tarantula venom can pretty much undermine the health of a small child and a person with allergies!

However, tarantula spiders are far from the only representatives of their squad who are chosen for home maintenance. In addition to them, demand is also wolf spiders, often tarantulas, spider-crosses, and even baby horses.

Criterias of choice

Arriving at the pet store, say, for a kitten, we roughly understand what requirements are put forward for it: clean eyes, ears, a wet nose, etc. And what about the spider? What parameters should this creature advise?

So, we examine the attracted spider. It should be:

1. Active. If he is absolutely not mobile for a long time or moves very slowly, then, most likely, this instance is sick.
2. Healthy. The state of his abdomen speaks about the health of the spider: when dehydrated, it becomes wrinkled, in healthy arachnid, on the contrary, it is even and smooth. You should also pay attention to the condition of the hairs in this area - in a sick spider, they will be of unequal size and combed in places.
   

   On a note! When the spider is disturbed by pain, it scratches the abdomen with its hind legs, while tearing off some villi!

3. Small. A particularly large spider may turn out to be old, therefore, it will not illuminate your life with its presence for long.Also, remember that males are always slightly smaller than females.
4. No visible damage to the body. However, here it should be borne in mind that some species of spiders may have broken limbs that grow after molting.

Equipping a terrarium

In order for your new pet to live happily ever after, no special conditions are required - a modest terrarium is enough. Spiders belong to gloomy ascetics and spend most of the time allotted for themselves in sitting in one place, only occasionally making “runs” - so, stretching their legs. A cozy spider house with optimal sizes is a terrarium for two lengths of the full range of its legs, that is, even the largest spider will feel great on a living space of 40 × 40 cm.

But do not forget that spiders are able to move fairly well on vertical surfaces, so the main thing is a reliable lid that will close well and hold the poisonous pet in its rightful square centimeters.

We proceed to create optimal conditions for the spider.

1. Substrate. “Cover the floor” in the spider’s dwelling is necessary with a special flooring. Vermiculite is considered an ideal option - a special mineral rock that is used in crop production. The layer is from 3 to 5 cm. If you cannot find one, then you can also use coconut substrate or regular peat. By the way, the latter is recommended to be mixed with sphagnum moss. In an extreme case, when there is nothing at all, garden soil (only from a flower shop and in no case from the nearest flower bed!) Is suitable or the soil used to grow indoor plants. However, it is advisable to use this option for a short time and try to quickly replace the substrate with a more acceptable spider.
2. Temperature. Spiders are thermophilic and prefer to stay in the temperature range, which will be close to +22 ... 28 ° C. These pets are insensitive to a slight short-term decrease in temperature, but it is undesirable to abuse such situations. But at the same time, it is not recommended to overheat the terrarium. This situation is especially dangerous for well-fed animals, in which the processes of decay of undigested food can begin in the stomach.
3. Lighting. The spiders that are nocturnal residents, it is enough that the natural lighting that is present in the room. No additional sources are needed. Moreover, direct light from a lamp can quickly destroy this fragile creature.
4. Humidity. To ensure its optimum level, the drinker and the correct substrate help to some extent. If the readings on the hygrometer are too low, then from time to time you will have to irrigate the terrarium with spray water. But again, increased humidity is dangerous, so when buying a spider, immediately find out from the seller what humidity is needed specifically for this species.
5. Filling. For a spider in a terrarium, the main thing is a shelter in which he can hide in the daytime, and if you have a normal look, then a “house” is simply obligatory for him. Without him, such a pet will be in constant stress. To arrange such a shelter is very simple - you can lean against a wall a piece of bark, coconut shell, put in the corner an inverted half of a flower pot, etc. Everything else, for example, decorative driftwood, artificial plants and other similar elements, is superfluous. Spiders are completely indifferent to them, so you purchase and install such accessories exclusively for yourself.

Feeding

And the last thing to feed the spider at home. In fact, these pets are very convenient in terms of feeding, because, firstly, they eat absolutely any living creature, which will be smaller than their size, and secondly, if you do not have time or you forgot about feeding - it's okay, it's quite can be done tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, or in a couple of days. The spider will not be offended, since in the wild it is able to do without food for several weeks.

At home, spiders are most often fed with crickets, flour worms, Drosophila, cockroaches. Adults may well be offered chicks, frogs and mice. At the same time, it is desirable that the victim be alive - in this case, when moving, it will definitely interest the hunter. Although there are sometimes specimens that are quite willing to eat pieces of beef or fish fillet, everything is individual here: one spider will have a “dead” food to taste, the other will turn its nose.

The nutrition process in spiders is long and takes about a day, sometimes more. Adults usually eat once a week, during the breeding season - more often. In this case, food debris should always be removed from the terrarium.

In general, spiders are almost perfect pets: feeding is infrequent, they don’t need to clean, in fact, they don’t leave their hair on furniture, they don’t mark their territory, they don’t exude odors, and their house takes up very little space. This is a perfectly acceptable option for busy people who want to have a pet, but are not able to devote a lot of time to it. Of course, you will not receive love, affection or at least some kind of return in terms of feelings from spiders, but for decorative purposes and the realization that someone is waiting at home, they are exceptionally good. And here everything is honest, since he also does not need much from the breadwinner.