Pets

Pet desert spiders come in many varieties, with some being harmless and others quite venomous. Due to their particular habitat requirement, pet desert spiders need a little more maintenance than ordinary spiders. Also, many localities do not allow certain varieties of desert spiders as pets, so check your local laws before opting for a pet desert spider.

One of the most common varieties of pet desert spiders is the desert tarantula, also known as Arizona Blonde tarantula. Not suited for beginners, the desert tarantula is slightly more aggressive than most tarantulas. You can house your pet desert tarantula in a 5-10 gallon fish tank, ensuring that the height of the tank equals the leg span of the spider. Now desert tarantulas very often dig deep burrows, so you will need to put in a thick enough layer of substrate in the tank.

Apart from that, décor can consist of anything from wood to cork bark, as well as a small clay pot for a hiding place. You will need to maintain a temperature of about 75 to 80? F, and humidity of about 60%. Desert tarantulas live to the age of about 20 and grow slowly. They will eat everything from crickets to moths and even enjoy small mice from time to time.

Some other species of pet desert spiders are the Black widow spider, the Funnel-web spider, the Giant crab spider, the Wolf spider and Brown recluse spider to name a few. To keep a pet black widow spider, you need to take some extreme precautions, mainly due to the highly venomous characteristic of this species. Pet wolf spiders from deserts are quite large in size, but are generally harmless, making them ideal pets for beginners as well. A pet giant crab spider, is once again quite large in size, and unlike a pet wolf spider has been known to bite, though it is harmless.

Pet funnel-web spiders from deserts are the smaller variety of desert spiders, and like most are quite harmless. These spiders can be easily kept and require similar temperature and humidity conditions as the pet desert tarantula. A pet wolf spider will in particular need a thick substrate as they are also burrowing spiders. Most spiders eat insects smaller than themselves making crickets, moths, flies and roaches good options for feeding.

You will have to make sure that the insects you feed your pet desert spider have not been treated with any pesticides as this could harm your spider as well. Also, you need to make sure that all insects are well-fed before they are fed to the spiders; this is known as gut loading and can be done with a lot of commercial products available in the market. All these precautions and steps will ensure that you are able to keep your pet desert spiders healthy and happy.