Last updated on February 1st, 2023 at 09:54 am
What do Rose Hair Tarantulas eat? In the wild, a little bit of everything that moves. In captivity, though, these spiders do well on feeder insects…
Rose Hair Tarantulas are found in scrub lands and desert areas of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. In these habitats, Rose Hair Tarantulas mostly depend on invertebrate animals such as insects and even other arachnids. Occasionally, they also eat vertebrates like lizards and small mammals. Fortunately in captivity they do fine on bugs alone.
Rose Hair Tarantula diet
The Chilean Rose Hair Tarantulas can be categorized as active predators and prefer to find their food at night. These tarantulas generally live on a wide array of invertebrates.
Apart from these invertebrate animals, the diet of the Rose Hair species of the Tarantula family even includes small vertebrates. So, if you keep this beautiful animal as your pet, you can offer lizards, frogs, mice, grasshoppers.
As the pinky mouse, waxworms, crickets, mealworms, beetles, moths, and cockroaches are a great source of nutrition for the Rose Hair Tarantulas, the diet chart of this species even includes the mouse.
If you keep the Rose Hair Tarantulas as pets, it is not necessary to feed nutrition supplements to the prey before they get consumed.
But, making these animals gut-loaded prior to getting consumed increases the nutritional value of the diet. You can even include 3-5 large crickets in the weekly diet of these tarantulas to ensure that they receive all the vitamins and minerals required.
If crickets are not easily available in your location, you can replace them with a similar amount of other prey animals. So, in a nutshell, the Rose Hair Tarantulas eat the following items:
- Invertebrate animals
- Pinky mouse
- Lizards
- Frogs
- Crickets
- Mealworms
- Waxworms
- Moths
- Roaches
- Beetles
- Grasshoppers
How often to feed your pet tarantula
If you keep a Rose Hair Tarantula as a pet, the diet chart of the animal should include gut-loaded crickets and other animals. Besides crickets, the diet chart can even include grasshoppers, locusts, and Dubia Roaches.
These prey animals are equally nutritious for Rose Hairs. However, the Tarantulas need to be fed 2 times a week if they mainly depend on gut-loaded crickets.
Rose Hairs can receive all the required vitamins and minerals for a week from 3-6 properly sized crickets. If you keep Rose Hairs as a pet, you may find an eating disorder in these animals which is completely natural.
In the wild, the Rose Hair Tarantulas often overfeed themselves to get prepared for the upcoming famine. So, the captive Tarantulas even feature such characteristics.
It is completely natural for the Rose Hair Tarantulas to get overfed or showcase a lack of appetite as well. The adult Rose Hairs do not need to be fed daily.
Maintaining a proper weekly diet is adequate to keep the pet healthy and support it to live longer. If your Tarantula is a new import, it can refuse to eat due to stress. It is completely normal.
However, the owners need to scrape away all the uneaten food from the shelter of the Tarantula to prevent the growth of fungus, mold, and decay.
How many times should I feed my tarantula?
In the case of adult Rose Hair Tarantulas, feeding the animals once or twice a week is enough to offer them proper nutrition, vitamins, and minerals to lead a healthy life. However, in the case of the young Rose Hairs, you may need to feed them more often.
Many Tarantula owners follow a misbelief that feeding the Rose Hairs every day helps them to grow fast. However, feeding the mature Rose Hair Tarantulas after every 4-7 days keep them healthy and prevents them from overfeeding as well.
But, the frequency of eating and quantity of the food can vary from one animal to another. It is better to consult with a vet to estimate the right frequency and quantity of feeding.
Furthermore, hydration is an important factor to keep the Rose Hair Tarantula healthy. So, you can keep a shallow pot of water to ensure the animal stays hydrated.
Buying food for your Rose Hair Tarantula
If you have Rose Hair Tarantula as a pet, you can include the small insects and worms in the shopping list for your Rose Hair.
Purchasing food for the Rose Hair Tarantula is quite a straightforward task as the diet chart of this animal mainly consumes insects that are smaller than the stomach of the spider.
So, primarily you can consider purchasing average-sized crickets to feed the Tarantulas. Apart from that, Dubia Roaches, small lizards, mealworms, and Pinky Mouse can offer a wide array of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients to maintain speedy growth.
Do Rose Hair Tarantulas bite?
Yes, the Rose Hair Tarantulas can bite like all other specimens of the Tarantulas. The bites of these Tarantulas can even contain a slight amount of venom.
But, the venom delivered by the Rose Hairs is not that strong. It can lead to the symptom of burning and itching.
However, some people can develop an anaphylactic reaction.
Rose Hair Tarantula size
The Rose Hair Tarantulas are usually slow-growing species that can take even 4 years to reach the mature size and length. However, the adult Rose Hairs feature 4-5 inches long which is their average leg span.
Although the size of the adult Tarantulas can vary, the female spiders can get larger than their male counterparts occasionally. If the tarantulas stretch tier legs, they can reach the length of 5 inches while their bodies are only 3 inches long.
Rose Hair Tarantula temperature
The perfect temperature for the Rose Hair Tarantulas is between 75-83 degrees Fahrenheit. If you want to keep your pet Tarantulas fit and healthy, maintaining an ideal temperature is essential.
So, you can even place a pad under the tank to maintain proper heat and temperature in the spider’s enclosure. However, overheating the terrarium can degrade the health situation of the animal.
I recommend that you do not use a heat mat unless you live somewhere very cold. If you do, only place it on the side of the enclosure, otherwise it can dry out the substrate so much that it will kill your pet through dehydration.
It is better to place a thermometer in the tank to constantly monitor the temperature. It will even help to prevent the tank from overheating.
For more information on heating, check out my Rose Hair care guide.
How long do Rose Hair Tarantulas live?
In the case of all the specimens of the Tarantulas, the female ones outlive their male counterparts. The male Rose Hairs usually live up to the time when they acquire sexual maturity.
They start to feature the physical characteristics of physical sexuality after the final molt.
At this point, their lives are nearly over. Since the Rose Hair Tarantulas acquire sexual maturity even before 3, the lifespan of the male Rose Hairs is nearly about 4-5 years.
On the other hand, the female Rose Hairs can live even up to 20 years. Overall, the average lifespan of female ones is probably 15 years.
However, the tarantulas achieve their sexual maturity even at 2-3 years of age. Due to the short lifespan of the male counterparts f the Rose Hairs, the animal acquires the ability to reproduce at a such young age.
The breeding procedure of this spider is quite straightforward. The male Rose Hair Tarantulas create a sperm web to allure the female ones.
If you have the tarantulas as pets, you can place the male and female ones opposite to each other. It will facilitate the breeding process.
Right after the male Rose Hair disengages the female one, it needs to be removed from the female’s shelter. Otherwise, the female Tarantula can kill the male counterpart.
After the completion of a successful mate, a female Rose Hair Tarantula can deliver an egg sac a few weeks later. A single egg sac can reproduce up to 500 baby Tarantulas.
The male Rose Hair Tarantula can die naturally after a successful function of mating if the female counterpart does not consume it.
FAQ relating to what Rose Hair Tarantulas eat
The most frequently asked questions regarding the eating habit of Rose Hairs are what you can include in their diets.
How long can a rose hair tarantula go without eating?
According to some experiments, the Rose Hair Tarantulas can survive even up to 2 years without having food. It seems adult Rose Hairs possess the capacity to live from a few months to 2 years without accessing food.
Are Rose Hair Tarantulas good pets?
The Rose Hair Tarantulas are so easy that even a beginner can keep them as pets. These Tarantulas are low-maintenance and do not tend to bite (most of the time). Overall, they are a good pet tarantula, if not quite the most docile.
How do you feed a rose hair tarantula?
A Rose Hair Tarantula needs to get fed at night, once or twice a week. 3-6 gut-loaded crickets are enough to keep the adult Tarantulas satisfied. Always remove uneaten crickets as they can annoy your spider.
What do baby Rose Hair Tarantulas eat?
The diet chart of the adult and baby Rose Hair Tarantulas is not different. However, while feeding the baby tarantulas, make sure the food is smaller than the spider’s abdomen.
