Tarantula Enclosure
Many people are scared of spiders. Definitely, it is a good idea to be careful from the poisonous ones. On the other hand, many people enjoy keeping spiders as pets. As they are pretty, low maintenance, and can be entertaining. Tarantulas by far the most popular pet spiders and can be bought at pet stores.
In case you want to pet a spider, try to choose the one that’s right for you. Of course, you will want to provide your pet with a safe, comfortable home and keep him healthy. To get that, you should have a tarantula enclosure!
Make your own enclosure
Let’s assume that you are capturing a small tarantula. You might want to consider a homemade enclosure for your tarantula. Let’s get into the newest setup for an inexpensive tarantula enclosure for your new pet.
What will you need?
- 2.5 Gallon aquarium.
- One piece of Lexan. (cut it to fit the opening and leave about 1.5″ for a piece of scrap acrylic or plastic for the water catch)
- Three one inch vents.
- Two acrylic hinges and one hasp.
Tools:
- A drill with a one-inch spade bit.
- Rotary tool “Dremel” with sanding bit (for fine-tuning the doors and the scrap water piece).
- Acrylic cement glue.
Step 1:
Cut the air holes into the Lexan piece. Drill out the holes using the drill with the 1″ spade bit. The result will be a bit tight, so once this is done, sand out the air holes with the Dremel tool while frequently checking to see if the vents will drop in easily.
Step 2:
Cut the aquarium trim plastic and sand down to the glass where you will place the hinges, use the Dremel and sanding bit to do this work.
Step 3:
Take the Lexan door, peel off the two sides, and set it in place. Measure the location of the hasp and apply a couple drops of the acrylic cement where the lock piece is going to sit.
Step 4:
After you situate the lock piece and glue it, turn the aquarium on its side and attach the hasp itself using just a few drops of cement.
Note: The acrylic cement bonds really fast; you will have less than 30 seconds to correct things before it sets. So prepare all of the positioning work before using it.
Step 5:
Now it is time for the hinges. Follow the steps that you did to cement the hasp. If you do the plastic trim-side first. This enables you to easily apply a few drops to the Lexan side with less worry about dribbling on the plastic if something were to slip around. Let things bond for about thirty minutes before moving on.
Step 6:
Open the door and let it hang away. This is to prevent you from gluing the door shut.
Get the scrap piece and apply drops of cement around the aquarium. Put the trim piece into place and apply firm, even pressure. Notice that the glue darkens around the area, that is why you need very little of this stuff to do its work. Let this bond/cure for another 30 minutes.
Step 7:
Now put in the vents and tilt down the tabs to ensure that everything stays in place.
Finally, you are ready to do the normal decorating with the substrate, water dish, cork bark as something for your tarantula to hide under.
Now it’s time to put your pet into a tarantula enclosure that you are proud of making . Close up the lid and let your tarantula have some time to acclimate. Once she acclimated, kind of made herself at home, done a little remodelling, then she will be happy and healthy in her new enclosure.
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