Chilean+Rose+Tarantula

toc //Grammostola rosea//

Order: Araneae

__ **Husbandry Information** __

Housing Requirements

 * Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium: We house them in a 10 gallon aquarium with substrate on the bottom. We offer at least one hide area and have plastic plants in the tank. As secure fitting lid is important, as they can climb. If you purchase the compressed bedding that needs soaked, try to make it a couple day ahead of time. They do not like the soil when it is excessively damp.

Diet Requirements

 * In the wild, Chilean rose tarantulas eat grasshoppers, beetles, moths, woodlice, millipedes, and other spiders.
 * In captivity, they are fed crickets.

Notes on Enrichment & Training

 * Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium: While we typically house them on eco-earth soil, we will alternate with repti-bark or similar beddings. We will also rotate in different plastic plants and hide boxes.

=__Programmatic Information__=

Tips on Handling

 * There are many opinions on if tarantulas should be handled. In general, limiting handling seems to be a wise approach. Be attentive to signs of irritation in the tarantula - shedding urticating hairs, increasing movement usually means that the animal is agitated and should not be handled. Also, a very short fall for an invertebrate can be fatal so do not handle the animal in a way that could cause this happen.
 * After the tarantula molts, it should be given some "time off" from handling. No handling the week after molt is a good guideline, but some institutions will rest their tarantulas for longer than that. Fresno Chaffee Zoo will not handle their tarantulas for 2 weeks after a molt, and Zoo Atlanta leaves their tarantula alone for 3 weeks after a molt.
 * Nashville Zoo limits handling to no more than 30 minutes at one time and no more than once per day. Other institutions will allow multiple presentations in one day (as many as four, at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo) but the length of time the tarantula can be handled at each presentation is much shorter: typically, 5 to 10 minutes.
 * Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium will handle in short, 10 minute intervals with a limit of three times per day. They can also be displayed in a small to medium clear plastic tank that allows visitors to see from all sides without concern of agitating them or if you have a more sensitive tarantula.

Potential Messaging


=__Acquisition Information__=
 * Recently, there has been some concern that tarantulas are entering the pet trade from unsustainable collection from the wild. However, this is not well documented but nevertheless if captive bred specimens are available, that would be preferable.

=__Comments from the Rating System__=
 * Seneca Park Zoo: good spider for holding
 * Buffalo Zoo: prevalent in the pet trade
 * Zoo New England, Stone Zoo: tarantulas are great to have, if only to teach folks about spiders. However, different individuals can have greatly varying handle-abilities.
 * Natural Science Center of Greensboro: do not allow volunteers to handle

=__Natural History Information__=

Range and Habitat
This tarantula is found in the deserts and scrubland of Chile.

Physical Description
Overall, these tarantulas are medium brown in color, but they have pink highlights. There are eight tiny eyes located on top of their bodies, but the eyes don't see very well; mostly, they just detect changes in light and dark. Instead, like all tarantulas, they have tiny hairs all over their bodies that are very sensitive to vibrations, so they are able to feel for their prey. The jaw of a tarantula is different from other spider jaws; tarantula jaws move up and down while other spiders' jaws move side to side.

Chilean rose tarantulas can grow to be up to 5 inches long.

Life Cycle
Sexual maturity is reached anywhere from 3 to 10 years of age. A female spider can lay up to 3,000 eggs in her lifetime. Eggs take two to three weeks to hatch.

Behavior
In order to kill its prey, the tarantula spears the animal with its long fangs to poison it. Next, the tarantula crushes the prey in its mouth and adds a special fluid in order to reduce the prey to a pulpy mush that the spider can suck up.

Tarantulas are solitary, terrestrial, and long-lived (females live longer than males). They are very calm animals, and will only attack when provoked. For this reason, this species is one of the most common spiders kept as a pet.

Threats and Conservation Status
The tarantula's biggest enemy is the pepsis, a spider-hunting wasp that is smaller than the tarantula, but can paralyze it with just one sting. The tarantula is then fed alive to the wasp's larvae.

=__Did you know…__=


 * The sex of the spider cannot be determined until after the final molt when it reaches sexual maturity.

=__Photographs__=

=__Contributors and Citations__=
 * The Philadelphia Zoo
 * AZA Program Animal Listserv
 * ZooAmerica