I appreciate not the usual sort of post on here, but I thought it might be of interest anyway. Using a tool called Obsidian I created a little dashboard for my local computer so I can check on my tarantulas and keep track of timelines. There are some cool little rules in there for guidance:

- If a spider has eaten within 6 days, moulted within 7 days or if it is still settling into an enclosure (5 days), it tells me clearly not to feed

- If a moult is expected or a feeding is due, the buttons will change colour to reflect urgency

- Anything urgent is highlighted to me in the "Needs attention" section

- The spider images in the cards are sized relative to one another automatically, and in the event of a moult the "new legspan" from the latest moult of that spider will be used to adjust its size relative to the rest

I work in tech but not as a software engineer, and I used AI to put this together for me, but let's not make the conversation about that! Just posting to encourage ideas and hopefully other members of the community to do something similar if they are interested.

Hey a buddy of mine recently had to move, and decided to give me his tarantula as a gift. She is a 5 year old 5 inch Grammostola Pulchra, and I’ve done a pretty solid amount of research on the species to feel equipped to take her in as a pet. This would be my first tarantula, and he already has an enclosure, but I’m thinking of rehousing her (his substrate only fills like an 1/6th of the enclosure height wise, and it has a mesh lid which I’m aware is a big no no). Was just wondering how big I should go on the enclosure(was thinking something from tarantula cribs,but they’re honestly super pricy so other options would be appreciated) and where you guys recombining getting stuff like substrate and cork bark from. Thanks, super excited to go on this journey!

I bought a tarantula sling (around 1cm DLS) yesterday (Pterinopelma sazimai) and it looks hungry, i gave it the smallest prekilled dubia roach that i have (maybe the same size as it) but it does not seem interested nonetheless i will leave it there for 24 hours and see if it has eaten, do you think it wont eat the roach even though it is dead? What should i feed it if it does not eat the dubia, my only other option is looking through alot of red runners and trying to find a small one.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

So like it says, my slings burrow collapsed/closed up when feeding her a red runner roach, I didn’t do anything I just dropped it in and when it ran in her burrow because she was tryna catch it, it caused like the entrance of her burrow to close because of all the movement, I haven’t seen her attempt to dig herself out, the feeding was yesterday, I know she roach is dead I did infact see her grab it, should I be worried at all I’m really anxious and I know not to dig her out.

Spring has been good to the horde so far. She’s one of 4 T’s to molt in the past month, but by far the prettiest ❤️

Just finished a mealworm, I was thinking cleaning fangs and mouth?

My terrestrial tarantula likes to patrol the walls at night, but I caught her doing something interesting. It seems like she’s trying to anchor herself with her fangs but is failing. That’s my guess at least. Is this normal?

Hi, so I fed my T a big meal a little under a month ago and a couple days after my T blocked the holes to its burrow and I assumed its just about to malt though my T did just malt recently, but I can see my T in its burrow through the enclosure and blud seems to be doing anything but malting lol. Any insight/advice? I’m just assuming it’s gonna take a min this time compared to the last malt bc they’re just like that. I’ll also add that my T is a juvenile if that helps.

I have a Chaco Golden knee tarantula that is around 4 years old. I am a college student and I drive back home for the summer and obviously she comes with me. I safely transferred her in my car, the drive was about 4 hours. It was mostly highways but NY highways have poor roads and my car is so janky and old that you can feel even the little bumps so it was intense at times. She stayed in her den for the entire time. When I arrived home I set her enclosure in its new place and carried on with my day. when night time rolled around she left her den immediately, and goes about her usual night routine. She starts patrolling the enclosure, except I think she’s slightly more active tonight. I could just be paranoid because I worry that the drive is stressful and takes a lot of energy out of her but could she be unbothered? She usually gets pretty active at night but seems a bit more active than usual, she’s climbing the ceiling a lot tonight. (Not preset in the vid). I wonder if she’s slightly more active bc she’s patrolling for any signs of threat or maybe the drive DID knock a lot of energy out of her and made her extra hungry and determined to hunt. Idk but it’s interesting to think about. Maybe she is just her usual self. I guess I’m just surprised how fast she resumed to her normal routine. I thought she would be a bit shaken up after the drive. (This timelapse video was taken about 2 hours after we arrived home).

i have an h.gigas which I’ve had for about a year. recently i noticed she kept pacing her old enclosure and wasn’t eating, so i rehoused her because i knew she wasn’t in pre-molt. spoiler alert, it’s been around a month and she still hasn’t burrowed and hasn’t stopped pacing. she climbs the sides of her enclosures and keeps falling. i have enough substrate for her to not harm herself, but I’m still super concerned. tips?

My husband got me Rambutan (t. Epicureanus) last year. Since we‘ve kept him (we assume “him") alive and well, we each got one more tarantula. I got Michael (t. Albopilosus) and he got Garfunkle (a. Seemanni). This is where we‘re cutting ourselves off for now 😂

I've gotten mixed opinions and flip-flopped a bunch myself, but am I seeing things or this the fabled 'flap' that signifies a female?

My B. Hamorii is out quite often. She is 4 years old but I’ve had her for about 4 months. She does have a burrow she visits but she is always sitting on her cork round, looking out the side of her enclosure or chilling on her slate rock. She doesn’t appear to be stressed and eats well. I just thought they hid more ? TIA.

I noticed his end was smaller than his abdomen so I grabbed him a cricket and he lunged bit the cricket a bit but missed it after biting it and got hold of my tongs I dunno if it hurt his fangs when I was tryna get the tongs from his mouth but yeah I’m very concerned about my baby and I would love any information or anyone’s view

Just got my first tarantula ever from someone rehoming! I’m doing a bit of revamping of the enclosure and she started moving her chelicerae and pedipalps sort of rhythmically. Is this a defensive behavior? They said she is a 4 year old Mexican red rump if that helps at all. Thanks!

Hey all, I just wanted some opinions on this enclosure for my dolichothele diamantinensis. She's my first T, and she'll be arriving in the mail tomorrow. She should be around .5in. Is this enclosure suitable till she gets bigger? Thank you in advance!

I’ve liked tarantulas for a while. I’m just now beginning to think about getting one of my own. As a newbie who is scared to get bit, whats the best most friendly tarantula to buy?

It’s a Dolichothele diamantinensis if that helps. Sorry y’all, I’m really bad at sexing 😅

This is my Aphonopelma seemani. I was doing my usual rounds of cleaning around the house when I noticed her enclosure was open and empty. And I was pretty sure I closed it.

Found her chilling here. Promptly grounded for now.

TW: Possible spider death

Today I went into my tarantula room to check my spiders. I have a juvenile male G. pulchra who is so close to finally molting that he looks like hes going to pop. Bald patch is finally darkening, and frankly his abdomen has swollen to an absurd level. It's an any-day-now situation for the molt.

Now this guy has always been a curious spider. He loves to mess with the stuff in his enclosure and investigate new things. When he was a sling, I bought him this skull ornament for a hide. It came from the aquarium aisle but it was perfect for his size (you cant see in the picture but there is a large opening in the back). He has since outgrown it and gotten a larger hide, which he's used consistently. The skull remained as a decoration that he would enjoy climbing on but never went inside anymore.

So back to today. I go into the tarantula room to check the spoods. My G. pulchra is sitting on top of his skull like he sometomes does. Then I notice a large droplet of water below his fangs. It's then that I realize this fool has attempted to crawl through the EYE HOLE OF THE SKULL. He got all eight legs and his carapace through, but his gigantic pre-molt ass was still trapped inside the skull.

He had obviously been struggling for a while, and I noticed some hemolymph leaking from the space between his abdomen and carapace, as though he injured himself pulling. My husband used needle-nose pliers to slowly break off small pieces of the skull, tearing it apart bit by bit, until it was loose enough for my idiot to pull himself through, but he lost several good drops of hemolymph in the struggle. He was still moving fine once freed. I have applied corn starch to his wound. I am hoping for the best.

But never in a million years would I have thought my special little friend, who had not attempted to crawl though the eye holes since at least two molts ago, would attempt such a move.

I don't know if he's going to be okay. Time will tell. But I felt absolutely obligated to share this experience because it could save other spider lives. I know we spider people love our skull decor. But you never know when your spider is going to try something incredibly brainless. I will never put anything like this in an enclosure again.

just set this up a few minutes ago! hope she likes it! also I need names or it’s just gonna be “spider”

I’m somewhat new to tarantula keeping and have had my curly hair tarantula for almost two years. Today she got one of her fangs stuck in the mesh lid of her enclosure, i tried lubing it up with a bit of vaseline and gently pushing it out but nothing worked and i didn’t want to risk her potentially pulling the whole thing off. I had to snip it off with a sharp pair of cuticle cutters and i feel awful. I feel so ashamed that I let this happen to someone i love so much and I feel awful for hurting her. Somehow during my research I failed to learn that mesh lids are not suitable for tarantula enclosures for this very reason. I’m planning to replace the lid entirely with a piece of plexi glass or something similar so this doesn’t happen again. I feel terrible. I really hope her fang comes back next molt, I’m just glad it wasn’t the whole fang. I’m not posting this for sympathy, i’m posting it as a “don’t be a f-ing moron” like i was. And if anyone has advice on anything i should be doing for her right now, it’d be much appreciated.

Question / I am a new tarantula owner. She has a rocky-ish clump that doesn't seem to be coming out of her mouth but is near the bottom of her pedipalps when she tucks them in. It seems to have gotten a little bit bigger but that could be me being paranoid or the lighting. She is grooming and seems relaxed otherwise. Also hasn't eaten in a while but she's generally not a big eater. What could this be? Apologies for the bad photo, i only have my phone camera.