When people think about the fact that some have a pet tarantula, a lot of them probably shudder at the idea. But I truly believe that this is just because they don’t know how rewarding and interesting the tarantula hobby can actually be! The average person might look at a tarantula in its enclosure and either be grossed out or completely perplexed because to the uneducated eye, a tarantula just sits there. WRONG!

I have learned A LOT from observing my grammastola rosea (chilean rose hair) Spidey since I got her several years ago. Even though Spidey is well into her adult years, I am constantly finding myself laughing at how silly and ridiculous some of her actions are! And while a lot about tarantula behavior and cognition has yet to be scientifically studied or documented, I believe there’s much more to tarantulas than meets the eye.

I started doing my own little observations and experiments with Spidey to see how she would interact with certain items in her enclosure. It all started with a ping pong ball – and let’s just say that was a surprise! Not only did I catch her periodically rolling this thing around, one time I even caught her PLANKING on it! She will also often dig a ditch and roll the ball into it or move it cross the tank. Sometimes she’ll even lean on it. She also loves putting the ping pong ball in her water dish lol. I’ve seen reports of other tarantulas even treating the ping pong ball like an egg sac! And while I don’t think tarantulas have the ability to necessarily “think”, something MUST be going on in there, because I’ve literally seen Spidey stack her ping pong ball very specifically on top of other “toy” or objects in her tank to get somewhere! She’s even used her ping pong ball to climb onto other things in the tank. I can’t help but wonder if we’re actually wrong about tarantulas not having brain activity after seeing this stuff!

Another thing I have given Spidey for “toys” is a bottle cap from a soda bottle. With this, I’ve seen her fill it with dirt, sit on it, or even turn it upright and move it across her tank. I should note that Spidey doesn’t play with these “toys” all the time and sometimes she will go months or more without touching them or acknowledging them. But occasionally, she will go on a little playing spree and interact with these things quite often.

One of my favorite memories of Spidey involves a little empty tea cup I had given her. After months of ignoring the tea cup in her tank, one day I randomly noticed her filling it up with dirt. She worked on filling it up the entire day, and at night I realized why when I caught her laying in it! She’d made herself the most precious spider bed I’d ever seen!

I’ve also given her several other objects to see what she’ll do with them since it seems she’s got quite a creative streak. I gave her a fake spider once, and she must have absolutely hated it because she decided to bury it – but only its head lol! I also gave her a little pink bunny once and she didn’t like that either – she dragged it across the tank and threw it in a ditch she’d made! Anyone with a pet tarantula will attest to the fact that they are VERY particular about their space and will not hesitate to tell you when they don’t like what you did to their home!

I should also mention that I believe tarantulas play with dirt. Spidey and my new sling Blinky (A. chalcodes, Arizona blonde) just LOVE putting dirt in their water dishes and re-arranging the dirt in their tank for hours. I think it’s their form of interior design or art – either way, they never get bored of it! They especially love to play with dirt right after the water dish has been cleaned and changed, I’ve noticed!

So will your pet tarantula play with toys? I don’t know if your tarantula will do the same things mine has done, but I’d say it’s worth exploring because you never know what they’ll do! As long as you make sure that anything you put in your tarantula’s tank is safe (no sharp edges, no chemicals, keep it clean), there’s no harm in observing. I think observing our pet tarantulas is so important since we still have so much to learn about these creatures. We rely on each others’ experience and observations, so who better than us to be at the forefront of cracking tarantula behavior and uncovering new possibilities and theories?

What has your pet tarantula done? Share with me in the comments!