5 Steps to Build the Perfect Diet for Your Cobalt Blue Tarantula
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As a proud owner of a cobalt blue tarantula, you must be concerned about its health and diet. This article can help you with that.
Cyriopagopus lividus, commonly known as cobalt blue tarantula, is one of the most enchanting creatures out there. Their striking metallic blue color makes them stand out from the rest.
These tarantulas are intermediate-level pets, who need to be owned and handled by owners having earlier experience with arachnids. You might be tempted to adopt one because of its lovely appearance and color, but caring for a cobalt blue tarantula is a big job. You won't need to observe it 24/7, but you have to ensure that it remains healthy.
You must understand how to properly care for your tarantula, particularly how to feed it. We'll lead you through five simple steps for making the perfect diet for your Cobalt blue tarantula so it can stay happy and healthy. Let's get started!
Things You Should Know About Cobalt Blue Tarantulas
Before getting to the diet, let’s discuss the nature and characteristics of these tarantulas. The length of an average cobalt blue is about six inches, although they may grow up to nine inches in the wild. The average leg span of a cobalt blue is around five inches. The growth of the male tarantulas is quite fast and may attain their maximum size within the first year of life. Males can live for about 10-12 years, but females can live about 20-24 years.
The spider is known to have an aggressive nature and could bite if they feel scared or threatened. Their venom is not fatal or dangerous, but their bite can be very painful. So, before getting a cobalt blue tarantula, ensure that you know what you are doing.
However, if you can handle them properly, they are low-maintenance, quiet pets, and don't require much guidance and grooming.
Significance of the Perfect Diet for Your Cobalt Blue Tarantula
Ensuring a nutritious and balanced diet for your tarantula is the basic requirement to ensure a happy and healthy life. Proper nutrition can significantly enhance the quality of their life.
Moreover, a well-balanced diet is essential for their survival in confinement. They can hunt and survive on their own in the wild. But when they're in captivity, you need to build a diet similar to their dietary habits of the wilderness to make sure they get the best quality of their life.
How to Build the Perfect Diet for Your Cobalt Blue Tarantula
Here are the steps you need to take to ensure that your eight-legged friend lives a happy and healthy life:
Step 1: Know the Kind of Food It Prefers
These tarantulas are carnivorous animals which means they enjoy eating insects. The diet of your cobalt blue tarantula should include crickets, dubia roaches, silkworms, king worms, wax worms, mealworms, cockroaches, baby mice, and beetles.
Tarantulas are predatory creatures, so is the cobalt blue. Therefore, it prefers live animals and insects to feed on. It does not relish the food if it is dead or not moving. Live prey stimulates the cobalt blue tarantula's predatory senses and makes the food more palatable.
Adult cobalt blues can consume big crickets and other large insects like Dubia cockroaches. Hungry matured spiders are capable of eating up to five large crickets in a day. However, in the case of baby spiders or spiderlings, you should avoid adult crickets as they have a hard exterior. Instead, feed them pinhead crickets and other smaller insects.
Some people think cobalt blue tarantulas can ingest berries and other small fruits. But, not all of them can digest fruit properly. While some of them may not face any problems consuming fruits, but, others may have digestive issues. Therefore, it is recommended to go with an insect diet. You can catch the live animals and insects yourself or purchase them at your local pet shop or online.
Step 2: Prepare the Food
Before feeding the live insect to your tarantula, make sure it is gut-loaded. Gut-loading or gut-feeding is the process of feeding live insects with food and water so that your pet can get maximum health benefits from them.
Generally, insects are loaded with nutritional elements but most of them only have one or two types of nutrition. For example, crickets are a great source of fiber, vitamins, and minerals, but they lack calcium. Also, it is not wise to feed live insects directly as they may contain pesticides, which can be harmful to your spider.
To ensure that your tarantula receives all sorts of nutrition in the correct amount, you need to prepare the insects and gut-feed them. You can do this with mealworms, super worms, crickets, and other common insects.
Step 3: Ensure a Water Source
Usually, tarantulas don’t drink much water and derive the required moisture from the insects they consume. Insects such as hornworms are rich in water content, which is typically sufficient for the spider.
However, cobalt blue tarantulas originate from a tropical environment, for which they require more water than the other species of spiders. Hence, it is recommended to provide a dish of water in the enclosure. Do not forget to refill it with clean and fresh water daily.
Step 4: Follow a Feeding Schedule
The best part about cobalt blue tarantulas is that they do not need to be fed daily. Usually, feeding them once or twice a week is sufficient to support their growth and development.
Baby spiders or spiderlings need to be fed every two days as they are in their development stage and need the maximum amount of nutrition during this period.
Adult cobalt blues can survive up to two months without food. They are natural burrowers and enjoy maximum time beneath their burrows. Also, they like to fast for months at a time. Therefore, do not worry if you find your tarantula is staying underground and not eating for a while. It will come up on its own and enjoy its meal once it gets hungry.
Step 5: Do Not Feed During Molting
Cobalt blue tarantulas have a hard exoskeleton that protects their internal organs. Molting is the process by which they shed this exoskeleton and form a new one. It is necessary for their regular growth. A cobalt blue tarantula molts several times until it grows to its full size.
Molting is the most vulnerable and weakest stage of a tarantula as its organs remain exposed during this period. If you feed your spider during molting, live insects can attack and harm it. This can even cost the life of your beloved pet.
Also, the digestive system remains very weak during this time. Therefore, it is recommended to wait for at least 7-10 days before feeding after they have molted. After this period, you can return to your regular feeding schedule.
The Bottom Line
Cobalt blue tarantulas are a unique pet to own, not to mention beautiful. Their growth mostly depends on what they consume regularly. Fulfilling their dietary requirements are simple and cheap in comparison with many other pets. If you're experienced in managing exotic pets, a cobalt blue tarantula can be your next best friend. Good luck!
