If you’re ever lucky enough to end up with a pregnant tarantula, CONGRATULATIONS! Going through the mating process successfully is a huge milestone for a tarantula keeper. Some of us are even lucky enough to buy a tarantula that is already gravid (“pregnant”) by accident! If this happens to be your situation and you’re expecting a bunch of tarantula eggs, here are a few things you should know about the process!

The first thing is that tarantulas give birth to a lot of baby spiders. Like, a lot a lot. It depends on the species of tarantula of course, but many tarantulas can give birth to HUNDREDS to THOUSANDS of tarantula eggs – so having a plan for what you’re going to do with or how you’ll care for all those slings is very helpful.

A pregnant tarantula, much like a pregnant woman, will be very fat and hungry – you should feed her as much as she likes because she’s going to be giving birth in ___ weeks. Before giving birth, you may notice that she is a little more temperamental than usual and is displaying nesting behavior in her enclosure.

In preparation for a giving birth, you may notice your gravid tarantula laying a LOT of web – similar to how tarantulas web a thick mat of web when they are about to molt however this will look a bit different. Many tarantulas make more of a “hammock” when they are about to lay eggs. Eventually, your tarantula will be ready to give birth, and they will start to lay their eggs in a clear fluid. Once the fluid and the eggs have been laid, the new tarantula mama will web up her tarantula eggs to keep them safe in their new egg sac. You’ll notice that as this process goes on, your new tarantula mama’s butt will start to look more deflated. Here are some amazing videos of this process:

This is a great video that shows a few different species laying eggs – note the differences in egg sacs and webbing:

After a new tarantula mama has laid her eggs, you will notice that she may be very protective and defensive. It’s also important to know that sometimes the egg sac won’t make it because some tarantula moms eat the egg sac. I’ll go more into that in a part 2 to this topic in the future, but just wanted you guys to be aware of that!