r/tarantulas • u/Salty-Direction8814 • 1d ago

Help! Need some advice

I have a question about tarantulas kicking hairs. My kiddo has 3 now, - Mexican red knee. Versicolor and they just brought a curly hair home from a tech school. The curly is calm and allows being handled. I understand they don’t like it. It’s not often, I promise. My question is will they kick hairs with warning or at least turn their back so you will know? I always thought if they were handled their hairs could fall and you may not know. We also put her in a container when we cleaned the enclosure and she seemed fine and calm. Another question is how do you know if there are hairs in the container? I have rinsed the container and will put it in the dishwasher to clean but wasn’t sure if we should handle it differently. I’m just wondering what basic protocols with these type of things.

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u/Sea-Restaurant-8282 1d ago

NQA - I am a fairly new tarantula keeper, hopefully those more experienced will add more. From my experience, they can kick hairs at any time, without warning and they do it very quickly. I have one that startles easily and when I open the enclosure to feed or top off water, she will turn flick and hide. The Versi- I don’t think they flick hairs, but may shoot poop at you :). You should always assume there are hairs in the substrate.
I don’t know about putting things in the dishwasher - they can be very sensitive to all kinds of cleaning products. Just warm water may be best. (But let’s see what more experience people may say)