Tarantulas of the World

How to set up your own feeder roach colony! As your collection of Tarantulas gets bigger and bigger you will notice that the need for feeding them does as well. Most of you end up purchasing large quantities of crickets as those are always readily available at any time at your local pet store. Crickets do not live long and it is a pain and heavy maintenance to keep them alive as you can imagine a small group of 5 grown tarantulas alone can end up taking you trips to the pet store weekly to buy more and more crickets! Your easier alternative is a simple feeder roach colony! Some of you might be thinking eew cockroaches! But in reality roaches will end up benefiting you a lot more in the long run then crickets every will!

As acknowledged by the A1 Bed Bug Exterminator | Charlotte North Carolina, your crickets will either: die easily, smell bad, create unwanted noise, jump and if they escape become hard to catch at times, chew through clothes and plastic and more importantly will not stand still for you to grab and give to your tarantula. All of this can make feeding your tarantula unpleasant at times.

Your cockroach however: are big in size and produce a more nutrient filled diet for your tarantula, do not produce much of a smell unless you stick your head directly into their enclosure, do not make noise, dont fly, cannot climb on smooth plastic or glass, are slow moving and can easily be picked up and given to your tarantula and most importantly live longer and are so much easier to breed.

So what do you need to get this colony started?

• Plastic bin with a lid that preferably clips shut
• Egg cartons, toilet paper rolls and or paper towel rolls
• Heating pad (optional)
• Roach food (such as vegetables, fruits, stale cereal, store bought cockroach food)
• water dish with water crystals

In this tutorial I used a 50 gallon clear plastic bin that I purchased at Target for $10. Now the only “labor intensive” part of this job which is how I ended up doing this and it seems to be working well is simply drilling small holes at the top of the lid and on the top sides shown in the pictures below.

As you can see very simply and standard. As for what is really needed in the bin you will need just your egg cartons, paper towel rolls and or toilet paper rolls. Position them nicely in a way that your roaches will have something to hide under as they love darkness. Make sure in the center of it all you will have enough space to add their food source and a water dish, I personally use water crystals as they have been working well for me but if you see just normal water does the trick for you then you can stick to that. As for food source I typically keep my cockroaches (in this case B.dubia roaches) on a steady nutritious diet of leafy greens carrots and on occasion a piece of fruit. Reasons why I normally stay away from fruits is that if left in there for too long it will surely be a source of mold which can easily kill your colony. Cockroaches are not picky with food and eat vegetables just fine. As you will see below you can set up the bin however is best for you.

As you can see at this point your bin is ready to be filled with B.dubia roaches. You can keep stacking up more and more egg cartons and paper towel rolls as you place more roaches in. You can buy a starter roach colony online for about $15 dollars. Within weeks you should have a healthy roach colony that will keep reproducing. What I like doing is buying two colony starters one from one company and one for another company to make sure they are different breeding families.

My roach colony is in a specific dark room where the temperature is high for my tarantulas, if that is not the case for you, you can add a heating source such as a heating pad but be cautious and make sure that your plastic bin is heat resistant to prevent a fire.

These simple steps will easily help you with your own roach feeder colony. It will end up saving you time by not making trips to keep purchasing crickets and in the long run will save you quite a bit of money. As always if you need help ask away, we will be more then happy to guide you with your roach colony 🙂

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The Brazilian Red and White Birdeater Tarantula also known as the Brazilian Striped Red Rump is a large species of New World tarantulas from the rainforests of Brazil and some parts of  Paraguay. A full grown species can reach a size of 9 to 10 inches with ease. Known in the pet trade due to their beautiful coloration which consists of black and white stripes on its legs and red urticating hairs on a very dark/black abdomen. It has a brown carapace, not to be confused with the A. geniculata which has a black carapace. The Brazilian Red and White Birdeater tarantula reaches adulthood in 3 to 4 years and can live to be about 11 years or sometimes older in captivity.

Habitat:

As full grown adults we recommend an enclosure of about 15 gallons or sometimes even bigger depending on how big yours grow. They are terrestrial burrowers and so you should add anywhere from 4 to 5 inches of substrate. A hide can be added as well just in the event your tarantula does not burrow. What we have seen work best is to bury a hide under the substrate with an opening leading to it so that it can be used as a pre-made burrow. As for specific substrate, coconut fiber should do the trick just fine. Your substrate should be damp to dry. You can overfill its water dish to keep humidity levels for your tarantula correct as this will need about 75 to 80 percent humidity. Temperature wise you are going to want it to be at about 75 degrees. You can add an additional hide on the substrate or even plants. Spraying the enclosure is not required but can be done once a week.

Feeding:

Your Brazilian Red and White Birdeater Tarantula though named a birdeater will actually eat a steady diet of insects such as large crickets, large cockroaches, large mealworms and can also eat small rodents such as small mice. A steady diet of insects should be just fine as we do not recommend feeding them rodents, mice can end up supplying your tarantula with too much calcium which can harden its exoskeleton to the point where it can cause issues with its molting.

Attitude:

Due to their size we recommend this species to only be handled by experienced keepers. Its a very skittish and large tarantula that comes equipped with urticaing hairs and at times a bad attitude. We recommend only an experienced keeper to handle these tarantulas to prevent a fall which can certainly cause great injury if not death of your tarantula and to prevent mishandling of your tarantula which can induce him or her to bite. Though their venom has a mild toxicity level and is not lethal to humans it does come equipped with large fangs which can cause medically significant damage if they do bite.

All in all it is an excellent tarantula for that experienced hobbyist who would like to add an interesting tarantula to his or her collection. Do you have a Brazilian Red and White Birdeater? Tell us your story and comment down below!

The Peruvian Pinktoe tarantula, also known as the Peru Purple or the Peruvian Giant Pinktoe is a species native to South America and Peru. They are loved due to their purple colors that are of a light sheen purple as juveniles that will slowly turn into a more dark purple as adults. They tend to grow to be about 6 inches in length and are usually bigger then the common Pinktoe Tarantula. Females mature at a much faster rate then males with most females maturing after 1 year to 1.5 years. Males tend to take a bit longer as they can take up to 3 years to fully mature. They are fast growers and can easily molt 6 times in their first year. Males grow to be about 4 years old while females can easily grow to be 12 years old.

Habitat:

This is an arboreal species and spends most of its time above the ground floor on either plants, or trees. For a full grown adult an 8 to 10 gallon enclosure would be best. Make sure your enclosure has more height then it has crawl space. We recommend about 3 inches of substrate which should be a mixture of coconut fiber and vermiculite moss. This should be damp to the touch to produce the needed humidity levels for your tarantula. You should have a steady humidity level of about 80 percent for your tarantula. In addition a shallow water dish should be added with clean water for your tarantula. You can overfill it from time to time to keep humidity levels where they need to be, this will also prevent you from having to spray/mist the enclosure. Your enclosure should either have a plant or bark (placed vertically with the length of at least 8 to 12 inches ) for your tarantula to climb up on. They web the top or inside the bark and use that to live in. A steady temperature of about 80 to 85 degrees should be maintained.

Feeding:

The Peruvian Pinktoe tarantula grows fast and has a good appetite. When smaller you should try feeding it flightless fruit flies and small crickets (never feed your tarantula a prey bigger then its body). As they grow to be bigger you can switch their diet by feeding them medium to large crickets or even b.dubia cockroaches. Feeding should only happen once a week and give your tarantula a good two weeks before you feed it should it have finished a molt. As always never leave prey in its enclosure if it has not been eaten after 24 hours.

Attitude:

The Peruvian Pinktoe tarantula is skittish and just as most Pinktoes will rather jump and run away other then stand and fight. For this reason handling should be done with care as to not startle your tarantula. A jump/fall from your hands can most certainly cause your tarantula severe injuries if not death. They do come with urticating hairs but they rather flick them on your hand then into the air. Avicularias also have a poopcannon that they use as a defense mechanism and as adults have great aim. Last but not least when all else fails and they have no other choice they might bite (though rare). Their venom has low toxicity and would only be a threat to humans in the event of the person having specific pet allergies (such as a bee allergy).

In all this is a great tarantula and recommended for pretty much any hobbyist, though we do not recommend you handling them if you are a beginner keeper. Its a nice display spider due to its great colors and a must have for any collection.

Tell us about your Peruvian Pinktoe tarantula, we’d love to hear from you! Comment down below.