How Do You Take Care of a Tarantula On Vacation?


How Do You Take Care of a Tarantula On Vacation?

Parting with your pet can be somewhat difficult, even if it’s only for a few days. A question that constantly bugs tarantula parents planning a vacation is how do you take care of a tarantula while away on a vacation?

Tarantulas don’t need special care every time you go on a vacation. Since they’re capable of surviving for months or years without food, you can safely leave them behind without your spider dying of starvation. If the vacation will be abnormally long, you may want to consider getting a sitter.

If you’re planning a vacation, you don’t have to take your tarantula along. This article will show you how long your tarantula can survive with your help, and how to care for it if you’re planning to be away for much longer.

Is It Easy to Care for a Tarantula?

How Do You Take Care of a Tarantula On Vacation?

If someone wants to have you sit a tarantula, you may want to learn about how difficult the task will be, and that’s what this section sets out to teach.

Caring for a tarantula is almost effortless, as they take up a minuscule amount of space in the home. In addition to that, they also require little or no attention, except when you feed them, which isn’t regular.

Tarantulas are also mostly docile, which is why you’ve probably seen hundreds of videos of them walking on someone. They aren’t completely harmless, however, as tarantulas do bite when they sense any threat.

While a tarantula bite isn’t lethal, it is somewhat painful. The toxicity of a tarantula’s bite is on par with that of a bee’s sting, and the symptoms may range from mild pain to swollen joints, depending on the species.

How Do You Take Care of a Tarantula On Vacation?

If you own a pet tarantula, you don’t have to worry too much when going on a vacation, as they handle starvation well. If you can find a way to keep your spider hydrated, you can enjoy your vacation, while letting your tarantula enjoy its stay at home.

However, if your vacation will be incredibly long, the best option will be to find someone to help you care for your spider while you’re away. There aren’t a lot of people willing to pet-sit a spider, but you’ll find someone if you search hard enough.

When leaving your spider with someone during a vacation, you may want to show them a couple of things about caring for a spider, the most important being the food.

The main source of food for tarantulas are crickets and roaches. But you should always serve them their meals alive, which is something that most people who don’t keep tarantulas may not know.

You should also ask them to feed the spider with gut-loaded insects. Gut-loaded insects are those that have already ingested healthy food that the tarantula can benefit from after eating. It also helps to warn against feeding them with crickets from a garden, as they may carry hazardous chemicals.

A full-sized spider can eat a couple of crickets per week, but missing it for a week or two isn’t a big deal. Your pet-sitter should also always remove the insects that weren’t eaten by the spiders as they may potentially injure your tarantula.

However, all of these won’t be necessary unless you’re leaving for more than a month. And if you’re working at a regular company like everyone else, there’s no way you’ll be taking a vacation for a full month.

How Long Can I Leave My Tarantula Alone?

How Do You Take Care of a Tarantula On Vacation?

The answer to this depends on a couple of factors, but the most important is how long your tarantula can survive without access to food.

Expectedly, tarantulas can survive for a surprisingly long time without eating, with some species able to survive for up to two years without any food. However, your tarantula may not be able to survive two years, but it should be able to endure several months.

However, spiders will need a constant water supply throughout their fasting term, as water keeps them going when there is no food available. Their ability to depend on the water when food is unavailable is one of the reasons why they can survive without food for so long.

The metabolic system for a spider is also relatively small. When you narrow it down to the tarantula, you get a spider that may take several days to digest a single meal.

However, the fact that tarantulas don’t need food very regularly doesn’t mean you should leave them without food for so long, especially if you feed them regularly when you were around.

The frequency with which an animal feeds affects its rate of metabolism. Since your spider is already used to having access to food every couple of days, suddenly leaving for months without feeding it will be harder on it than on a regular tarantula.

In short, you shouldn’t worry about your tarantula dying from starvation unless you’re going to be away for so long. You may want to feed it heavily immediately before leaving and after you’re back to make the food break a bit easier on the spider.

Can Tarantulas Starve to Death?

At this point, it’s clear that tarantulas have an amazing endurance in terms of starvation. However, will they die if they don’t get any food for extended periods?

If you lock your tarantula in an enclosure where it can’t escape to hunt for prey, it will eventually die of starvation if it doesn’t feed for an extended period. However, the possibility of this outcome is so low that it’s almost impossible.

Young tarantulas can’t go without food for as long as adult ones can, but they’re no slouch either. A young tarantula can only survive for a couple of weeks before dying of starvation. Just try to imagine what will happen if you go without food for a whole week.

On the other hand, adult tarantulas can last for months without any food. While stories of tarantulas lasting for years without food aren’t rare, you shouldn’t expect your tarantula to last that long, as they’re mostly outliers.

As I’ve advised several times above, it’s best to find a pet-sitter for your tarantula if you’ll be away for over a month. If you can’t find one, it’s best to simply let your tarantula go.

Gui Hadlich

Hey there, I'm Gui! These are my 2 good pals Ozzy and Luna. I've gone through the headache of figuring out what to do when either traveling with them or leaving them behind, and I know it can be a pain. I created Pets Travel Guide to make your life a bit easier when you love your pet but also love to travel!

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