Tarantulas are quite popular as pets. These spiders can be a great choice who loves spiders and arthropods. However, being solitary creatures, Tarantulas usually love to remain alone. Often pet wonders ask if a tarantula will become affectionate and will form a bond with them. Find all of the answers here.
Do tarantulas bond with owners? Tarantulas do not bond like other animals or pets. But, if they remain with you for a long time, they may consider you as a “safe” being and let you hold it or care for it. They may also come closer when you approach their hand. But, this cannot be called bonding as the tarantulas do not have a developed brain.
Why is it impossible with a pet tarantula?
As primitive beings, Tarantulas have a simple brain that can possess primitive feelings like hunger, threat detection or fear, and alertness. However, these small creatures cannot hold complex emotions like affection, love, and so on.
Often tarantulas consider bigger animals as possible threats. Their eyes consider these larger creatures as predators, and the spider becomes alert. But, they have another way to find who is safe for them and what a threat is.
Tarantulas have special chemical receptors in their hairs. They can find the chemical clues from their environment. Hence, if you regularly come closer to your pet tarantula, it might become familiar with your chemical scent and consider you as “safe”.
Due to this marking, pet owners can handle their pets or touch them in need. On the other hand, tarantulas usually do not care a lot about when you handle them. Often they treat their owners as a part of their environment. Hence, they interact with you as part of their cage and treat you or your hand as a landscape. They can also treat your hand as a tree branch and can climb onto it.
Another interesting fact is that a tarantula literally has no memory of past events. Their brain is very small and is not capable of memorizing complicated events. Despite being more intelligent than other spiders, it is still a primitive being. Hence, your pet tarantula will not remember you because it does not have the capability.
How to handle your pet Tarantula?
You can use tools to handle your pet. However, it will continue to consider you as its threat for the initial days and may even attack you if provoked. Hence, take care and use different techniques to help your spider. After a few days, your spider may pick up your scent and treat you as safe. But, one should always keep the handling tools handy for emergencies.
Final Words
Bonding is not possible with a pet tarantula. Since they do not have any feeling like trust or love, they may also not show affection towards you. But with time, your body’s chemical scent will become familiar to it. Hence, the spider will start to treat you as a part of its cage and will let you approach it. But, as a pet tarantula owner, you need to wait for days to achieve this goal.
