Getting Started with Tarantula Keeping: Essential Tools and Substrate for Beginners
What tools are needed for keeping tarantulas? What substrate is best for tarantulas.
Essential tools for keeping
1. Enclosure: You can choose an "acrylic box" or a "plastic enclosure", or even buy a "storage box" and drill holes in it. Basically, the size just needs to be 1 to 2 times the tarantula's leg span; there is no need for excessive space.
2. Water dish: A water dish for the tarantula to drink from; you can use a "plant saucer", or buy a "reptile water dish" from an aquarium shop or reptile shop, or a "drink bottle cap" will also do. Remember when choosing one to make sure the dish is not too deep, to avoid the tarantula drowning; if it is too deep, it will also make drinking inconvenient for it.
3. Substrate: Tarantulas, unlike ordinary spiders, do not spin webs to catch prey. Tarantulas rely on the fine hairs on their bodies and the silk laid on the ground to sense changes around them or catch prey, so substrate is essential for tarantulas, so that they can lay silk on the substrate to sense the location of prey. For substrate, you can buy "coconut brick substrate" at a garden store or flower shop; it is not only cheap, but after soaking in water and expanding, it can serve several enclosures' worth of tarantulas, cheap and economical.
Gravel sand or reptile sand
Sand has strong water absorption, but poor moisture retention (water dripped into sand easily evaporates), easily leaving the overall environment in a dry state. In addition, sand particles are small, making it easy for the silk laid by the tarantula during molting not to adhere well, which may lead to molting failure
Wood shavings or bark shavings
Many people use wood shavings or bark shavings as substrate, but in reality they are just wood, and in a humid environment they easily become moldy, and some also have the problem of silk not adhering easily. So they are not recommended either