Feeding a Brazilian black tarantula (Grammostola pulchra) requires understanding its slow growth rate, calm demeanor, and specific nutritional needs. Unlike high-metabolism reptiles, this heavy-bodied terrestrial spider doesn't need constant meals, but providing the right balance of live insects ensures a long, healthy life that can span decades.
Understanding Nutritional Needs by Life Stage
Your tarantula's dietary requirements change dramatically as it grows from a tiny spiderling into a robust adult. Adjusting your routine to match these developmental stages prevents malnutrition and overfeeding.
Spiderlings (Slings)
Baby Brazilian blacks are tiny, fragile, and growing at their fastest relative rate.
- Frequency: Feed small spiderlings two to three times a week.
- Prey Selection: Offer pinhead crickets, flightless fruit flies, or pre-killed micro mealworms.
- Safety note: Because slings are so soft, any live prey left unattended can harm them. Crushing or pre-killing food for very tiny slings is often necessary.
Juveniles
As your spider enters its juvenile phase, its growth rate moderates, and it develops a hardier exoskeleton.
- Frequency: Feed once every five to seven days.
- Prey Selection: Small crickets, small Dubia roaches, or small mealworms work best.
- Rule of thumb: The prey item should never exceed the length of your tarantula's abdomen.
Adult Tarantulas
Adult Grammostola pulchra specimens are famous for their velvety black coloration and docile temperament, but they also have notoriously slow metabolisms.
- Frequency: Feed once a week or even once every ten days.
- Prey Selection: Large crickets, adult Dubia roaches, and occasional superworms or hornworms.
- Obesity watch: Adult Brazilian blacks love to eat and can easily become overweight. If the abdomen swells to twice the size of the carapace, stretch out the feeding interval.
Best Food Items for Your Spider
Providing a varied diet ensures your pet receives essential proteins and fatty acids. Stick to commercially bred insects rather than wild-caught bugs, which often harbor dangerous pesticides or parasites.
- Crickets: The classic staple. They are widely available, active enough to trigger a predatory strike, and readily accepted.
- Dubia Roaches: Excellent, clean-gutted feeders that don't jump, smell, or make noise. They provide high meat-to-shell ratios.
- Mealworms and Superworms: Great treats or staples, but keep an eye on them. Mealworms love to burrow into the substrate and can chew on a molting tarantula if left unmonitored.
- Hornworms: Hydrating and nutritious, but feed sparingly as they can cause loose stool due to high water content.
For official husbandry frameworks and invertebrate welfare standards, check guidelines from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums or consult reptile husbandry manuals published by the Smithsonian National Zoological Park.
Critical Safety Rules During Feeding
Feeding a tarantula is straightforward, but ignoring basic safety guidelines can lead to severe injury or death for your pet.
- Remove uneaten prey: If your spider ignores food for 24 hours, take the insect out of the enclosure. Live crickets will turn the hunter into the hunted, chewing on a resting or molting spider.
- Watch for premolt signs: Refusing food is the number one indicator that your tarantula is preparing to molt. Its abdomen may look dark, shiny, or bald. Stop feeding immediately.
- Post-molt waiting period: After a molt, your spider's fangs remain soft and white for days. Wait at least one to two weeks after a complete molt before offering any food. Feeding too early bends or breaks soft fangs, rendering the spider unable to eat.
- Water access: While solid food intake drops, fresh water is mandatory. Keep a shallow, clean water dish filled at all times so your Brazilian black can drink whenever it needs to.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my Brazilian black tarantula refusing food?
Fasting is normal. Brazilian blacks are notorious for going on long hunger strikes, especially during cooler winter months or right before a molt. Check your enclosure temperatures (keep them between 72°F and 78°F) and inspect the abdomen size. If it's plump, your spider simply isn't hungry.
Should I use feeding tongs?
Yes. Using long metal or bamboo feeding tongs keeps your fingers away from sudden strikes and allows you to gently tap the prey near the spider to stimulate its hunting response.
Can I feed my tarantula pinky mice?
While some keepers occasionally offer frozen-thawed pinky mice to large adult tarantulas, it's generally discouraged. Mice are high in fats and calcium that tarantula digestive systems aren't evolved to process regularly, often leading to foul excrement and a higher risk of mite infestations in the enclosure.
Do I need to dust insects with calcium powder?
No. Unlike reptiles, tarantulas extract all necessary minerals directly from the internal fluids of their insect prey. Supplement powders do not stick well to chitin and can foul the enclosure substrate.
