Recently we have had requests for information on keeping tarantulas communally. Now that Jon is doing the majority of the emails I will hopefully have more time to more photos, articles, videos and blog posts to fulfill the requests. Thank you everyone for your patience and support!
Communal Terrestrial Juvenile Enclosure - Poecilotheria sp. "Lowland"
The Poecilotheria sp. Lowland have been popular and I was only able to get a limited number of slings. Before they were all spoken for I saved a lucky group of 13 from the original communal enclosure of about 36 to set up a communal for my personal collection.
We rehoused that bakers dozen of our Poecilotheria sp. "Lowland" spiderlings into a Terrestrial Juvenile enclosure kit. Today they are enjoying their first meal in their new home!
It is fun to watch the Poecilotheria sp. Lowland take prey. They will touch the prey before attacking it to make they're not accidentally going after a sibling.
Although they were just rehoused into a new enclosure these Poecilotheria have been living together peacefully for about six months now.
Some basic communal tips:
-Not all tarantulas
species can live communally. In fact most can not (you'll just end up with one, big fat tarantula) I am currently keeping communal enclosures of M. balfouri, N. incei & Poeilotheria Lowland.
-If possible start your communal with tarantulas already familiar with each other/living in commune.
-Bigger isn't necessarily better when doing a communal enclosure. You want the tarantulas to share a common borrow/tube web structure rather than try to steak out their own territory.
-Make sure they are fed and watered (light mist) often but not so much there are feeders constantly running around the enclosure (This will only make them stressed!) We feed our Poecilotheria sp. Lowland communal about once every five days only as much as the slings can catch in a few minutes. Not all tarantulas
in the commune will want to eat every meal.
