As some of you may already know, I run a few different blogs, groups, and Facebook pages about tarantulas. One of the most common questions I get asked on these platforms are about the elusive appetite of the rose hair tarantula.

I’ve had my grammostola rosea, Spidey, for several years and I have come to accept that this species of tarantula just loves to fast and go through weird starvation periods. But I will admit that at first, it was really scary and it caused me a lot of stress. This first time Spidey started to fast in my care was within her first year, and she just randomly stopped eating for over 6 months. I would try to feed her every week with no success. To be honest, I too thought my beautiful rose hair tarantula who I loved so much was going to die or something was seriously wrong with her. But, she ended up molting and resumed a healthy appetite like nothing had happened. And then a few weeks later, she was back to fasting again.

While that starvation period may have been connected to a molt, i’ve learned that sometimes it isn’t. Spidey regularly goes for a few months without food, randomly decides to eat again, and then goes right back to her old games. I will admit that sometimes it’s annoying to be buying food for no reason and then acquiring “pet” crickets, worms, or roaches, but luckily tarantula food is pretty cheap.

I should note that Spidey is an older spider (likely into her grandmother years), she her appetite is understandably less active than a younger spider. However, rose hair tarantulas of all ages have a reputation for being finicky with food – it’s just something the species is notoriously known for.

Sometimes to calm a new tarantula owner’s fears, I will tell them that Spidey has gone over a year and a half without food before, just to show that tarantulas are very hardy and do not necessarily need a strict feeding schedule if they don’t feel like eating. This usually shocks and comforts them. It’s something I learned to relax into over time, through getting to know Spidey and her weird eating cycles. While it was very anxiety-inducing to go through with her, I now know that if Spidey doesn’t eat for a while, she will be absolutely fine as long as she has water.

So, my main point is – if your rose hair tarantula is refusing food for a while, it may be molting but it may just be fasting. As long as your tarantula has access to water and their abdomen isn’t shriveling from dehydration or anything, there is likely nothing to worry about. Even a fasting tarantula like Spidey will still take a drink of their water frequently and act completely normal otherwise, so try not to lose too much sleep over it! After a few of these weird fasting cycles, you’ll learn to relax and trust your spider’s body signals. This is just something that rose hair tarantulas do!

I hope you found that helpful!

By the way, I am creating a tarantula magazine – if you’d like to be a part of that, you can visit the magazine’s Patreon page to subscribe or make a submission! You can also contact me at theavenmag@gmail.com for more info!

If you want to learn more about tarantulas, feel free to check out my big tarantula guide (I talk about lots of tarantula facts and enclosure/care tips). You can also get free tarantula tips by signing up for my newsletter or subscribing to my YouTube channel! I release new tips every Tuesday for Tarantula Tuesday! And I also sell some pretty cool tarantula t-shirts, if I do say so myself 😉