You may have been wanting a tarantula for a while. You’ve been scouring forums, tarantula sites, and calling your local pet stores to know when they’re getting their next shipment in when suddenly, you see “tarantula for sale” and it’s your favorite species – let’s just say you can’t click “add to cart” fast enough! It’s only after the high of purchasing your own tarantula that your doubts about the condition of the animal and your ability to take good care of it start to catch up with you. But don’t worry – this article is meant to help you avoid overlooking some important details and to make sure that your journey into the tarantula keeping world gets off on the right spider paw!

If you’re buying a tarantula online from a reputable breeder, you have more of a chance of getting a tarantula in good condition (and many sellers will refund you if your tarantula arrived dead or injured if they have a LOA guarantee). But if you’re going to the pet store, this could be an entirely different story. Now, exotic pet shops might not be a problem, but general local pet stores are. These places have no idea how to actually treat or take care of their tarantulas and know very little about the history (age, sex, last molt, etc.) so you’re going to have to do more work to ensure that the tarantula you pick up is in good condition. Here are some things to look for:

Hydration

A healthy tarantula will have an abdomen that looks full. While tarantulas’ abdomens do shrink in size right after a molt, they should never look shriveled or extremely disproportionate to the spider. If you see a tarantula that has a shriveled abdomen, this could be a sign of severe dehydration. If you choose to purchase this tarantula to nurse it back to health, that is your choice (and a noble one) – but be aware that this tarantula is not healthy and you may not be able to save it.

Unharmed

Make sure you examine your tarantula all the way around if possible. If you can, walk around its tank and note each angle of the spider. Look at each of its legs. You can even ask an employee to open the enclosure so you can take a closer look. If you are buying online, you might be able to ask for pictures of the tarantula for sale, from all angles (don’t forget the underside!). You want to look for any injuries such as broken limbs, wounds, growths, (yes, even tarantulas can get tumors), or unnatural markings on the tarantula. As a side note, tarantulas do regenerate their limbs with molts, however you may run the risk of overlooking a deeper issue if you buy a tarantula who has an injury or deformity and you don’t know the history of the issue.

Clear glands

This one’s a little weird, but make sure you check out the tarantula’s butt and spinnerettes. These areas should be clean and free of any clumps or buildup. What you are looking for is to make sure its anal glands are free of discharge, because anal impaction (aka tarantula constipation) is very serious and can cause death.

Clean fangs and mouth

If you can, take a look at the tarantula’s underside and mouth area. A healthy tarantula’s fangs will be clean and so will its mouth area. Look closely – you want to beware of any white objects or movement because this could signify a parasite or nematodes (worms), which there is no cure for.

You also want to make sure the fangs are intact (or even there). I know this sounds crazy but you would be surprised how many tarantula owners purchase a spider only to find out that its fangs were broken OR NOT THERE when they get home!!! Trust me, handfeeding a tarantula until its next molt is NOT fun so don’t put yourself in this position!

Healthy fur

Tarantulas are a lot like cats – the healthy ones like to groom themselves a lot. A tarantula that takes care of itself will usually have clean fur unless they’ve been digging or spending time in their webs. You may notice a bald spot – this is usually nothing to be concerned about – tarantulas tend to kick hairs when nervous or threatened or experience baldness when preparing for a molt. Just be aware of how large any bald spots are and see if anything looks abnormal.

Not obese or underweight

Obese tarantulas with extremely fat abdomens are more prone to injury and more fragile when they fall. Under weight tarantulas are at severe risk of dehydration. You want a tarantula whose abdomen looks full and healthy – definitely not shriveled, and definitely not engorged and ready to pop.

Movement

If you can, take a look at the way your desired tarantula moves. Can they move all limbs fine?

Molt, mating, and birth history

While you likely won’t get this information from a local pet store (they usually know NOTHING about their tarantulas), you should be able to gather these details from a breeder or exotic pet store. Details such as knowing when the last molt was, if there have been any problematic molts, if the spider has been successfully mated or laid eggs before can be extremely useful in determining a tarantula’s age, health, and making lifetime predictions about how the tarantula might fit into your life and goals as a keeper. Knowing if your potential tarantula has had a history of problematic molts is always a good thing to know.

I hope this helps your to feel more prepared for when you finally see that “tarantula for sale” sign and take the plunge into the world of tarantulas! It’s easy to overlook these details when you get excited and have so many other things to remember and think about – but ultimately, it all starts with your tarantula’s health so knowing these things could save you a lot of trouble! If you want more info on tarantula health, you can read more here.

By the way, check out my new tarantula magazine for more cool spider stuff:

I’m putting out issues every 2 months! 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 😉