Tarantulas are increasingly popular invertebrate pets, but their welfare needs vary enormously by species and many are still wild-caught - ethical sourcing and appropriate husbandry are essential.
Tarantula welfare requires species-specific husbandry - a one-size-fits-all approach fails across 900 species with vastly different ecological niches. Wild-caught specimens suffer transport stress with high mortality rates and often carry parasites. Inappropriate substrate depth prevents burrowing behaviour, causing chronic stress in fossorial species. Many keepers handle tarantulas regularly despite evidence that this is stressful for the animal and provides little enrichment benefit. Ethical keeping requires captive-bred specimens, species-appropriate environments, and interaction limited to necessary maintenance.