I have been keeping spiders for about 5 years now, and in this time i have heard a number of people say a big cage is bad for your tarantula.

I just don't see how it can be bad? and why? they live in nature which is huge lol

I keep my 15cm female Nhandu chromatus "Brazilian red and white tarantula" in a 40Wx50Lx20H (cm) cage it quite big.

Is this to big for her?

1) you spider wont find food, but they do iv seen
2) they get lost or wonder around.
3) waist of space.

these are the 3 main reasons people say its bad.

But what if you like big cages?

My question is, is it it really honestly bad for your spider?

From a noobs perspective I cant see why it is bad. As long as they can find their food or their food finds them... then all should be ok.

I suppose the bad thing is when you have lots of T's because space might become a problem then. But that surely isnt a bad thing for tarantulas itself.

Sent with Uncle Charlie's Pokie machine

Uncle Charlie, that's what im thinking don't see why its bad? Ull see how many people say its not good, and if you have the space then why not

If you have the space for big tanks, then why not go big!

I feel, a spider that is in the wild will only get food every other day or month/s.
It is not often that a bug will fall into a spider burrow every day, unless the spider goes hunting.
Some locations around the world might have more prey than others, climates and seasons are different.

You basically have the spider in a big glass burrow anyway. No chance of the spider getting lost.
If you tap or open the enclosure the spider bolts directly to he's hide, they no where it is.
On the other hand, you might have some spiders that like a small enclosure, and thrive.

My first spiders were kept in 300L X 220W X 220H (15L), and I put them into the tank at 3cm and they matured in the very same tanks.

But, I will only put a spider over to a bigger tank when that spider is a curtain size.

It does not help you put 1cm sling into 15 liter tank.(300L X 220W X 220H) (I think we need to start using liters when we describing tanks), that would be a bit to big and all the issues that people have with big tanks will come true.

Good example, my H.incei communal tank is a 112 liter tank, and the slings are all doing fine, moving about, webbing, making burrows and catching food with out an issue.
I through the prey Items close to them though.

It helps with self control (well in my case anyway), if I use bigger cages.

If I see an "open space" on the shelf, I immediately want to fill it with another tarantula.

So to prevent T over indulgence, we rehoused all our T's in (much) bigger enclosures. That way they can grow into the bigger enclosures and I'm not tempted to "buy buy buy" again!

Other than not giving them enough food or water (or maybe the boogey man hiding somewhere in the tank), I don't see any down side to this.

spinnerkop wrote: I have been keeping spiders for about 5 years now, and in this time i have heard a number of people say a big cage is bad for your tarantula.

I just don't see how it can be bad? and why? they live in nature which is huge lol ...

"Back in the day" we objected to large cages because newbies tended to go absolutely, hysterically wild with cages that rivaled some big league zoo exhibits. Or, once they had a huge cage they decided to try to keep 12 tarantulas together in a little colony. Or, wanted to divide the cage into little apartments for 16 tarantulas. For newbies at least, and distressingly often for experienced enthusiasts as well, such efforts very often ended in disaster. These people wasted a lot of money, lost a lot of good pets, and left the hobby because they were completely disenchanted by the whole experience. "Bummer!"

And yes, all the reasons you list have some merit. There are instances, for instance when newbies have complained that so many of their crickets were dying uneaten by their tarantula in a 300L aquarium. And yes, that same 300L aquarium did waste a lot of space in their living room. And, there have been reports of tarantulas pacing endlessly in larger cages, but which settled down immediately in a smaller one.

And, we've all pontificated endlessly (or at least I have :blush: ) about it, but perhaps with no small justification. Trying to get the newbie to forget all the wrong "stuff" (I'm not using the four letter Anglo-Saxonism I ordinarily would because this is supposed to be a family forum) they'd been force fed all their lives was hard enough. But, trying to get these people to concentrate on learning how to really take care of a tarantula was lost on them as they ran astray trying to learn how to care for a small chunk of the African Veldt or Amazon forest instead. It was easier for us to focus them if the cage was relatively small and simple.

And, the concept isn't so much that large cages are BAD as it is that they're vastly suboptimal. Nobody goes to Hell for keeping their tarantula in a large cage. That's not one of the Ten Commandments. But, wasting a lot of time, effort, and money on huge cages maybe isn't the smartest maneuver, unless the enthusiast has a specific reason for doing so other than that they're a still-wet-behind-the-ears newbie and don't know any better but think it's a cool idea. Sometimes I think that a lot of people shouldn't be let out of THEIR cages without adult supervision!

But then, it's a free world. If you can handle a huge cage, why not? After you've gained several years experience maybe you can teach the rest of us something!

[BTW, that part will probably be changed in TKG4 to reflect more current opinions and experience. Thanks for the heads-up!]


Enjoy your little, 8-legged, palatial estate owner!