Psalmopoeus cambridgei
Trinidad Chevron Tarantula: Advanced Care Guide
Keeper Snapshot: A fast-growing New World arboreal with Old World attitude and serious speed: adults reach about 5-6.5 inches across.
Group: TarantulasDifficulty: Spice 3: IntermediateSetup: Semi-arborealHandling: NEVER
Use This Guide Safely
- Confirm the exact animal. Match this guide to the species, locality, size, and life stage on your label. If the ID is uncertain, use the more conservative part of the range and ask before changing the setup.
- Change one thing at a time. Treat temperature and humidity as target zones, then watch posture, burrowing, drinking, feeding, and molt behavior before making another adjustment.
- Respect the handling boundary. If the guide says no handling, fast, defensive, or medically significant, plan transfers with catch cups, locked lids, and no bare hands. For serious bites, stings, or symptoms, seek emergency medical care.
Quick Snapshot
| Temperature | 75-82°F |
|---|---|
| Humidity | Moderate ambient (60-75%) with cross ventilation; lightly damp lower substrate, dry cork faces |
| Setup Type | Semi-arboreal |
| Substrate | Lightly moist substrate + vertical cork |
| Feeding | Weekly; strong feeder |
| Care Difficulty | Spice 3: Intermediate |
| Handling | NEVER |
Humidity zones: Very Low under 30% - Low 30-60% - Low-Moderate 40-70% - Moderate 60-80% - Moderate-High 70-85% - High 80%+ - Very High 90%+
Enclosure Format / Size Class
- Compact secure enclosure while it's a tiny sling
- Vertical bark setup with a burrowable substrate base for juveniles
- Taller semi-arboreal build for the adult
Warnings First
- Very fast
- Can jump/bolt
- Defensive when cornered
- Semi-arboreal means two microclimates in one box: a lightly damp burrow layer and dry cork above it. Only cross ventilation keeps them separate.
Simple Care
- Tall enclosure, cork tube, cross ventilation.
- Vents low on one wall and high on the opposite wall so air rises past the cork.
- Keep lightly moist but not wet.
- Shallow water dish with pebbles in it so slings cannot drown.
- Use catch cups during maintenance.
Advanced Keeper Notes
Enclosure & Microclimate
- Psalmopoeus cambridgei is semi-arboreal: in the hobby that means it thrives in an enclosure that allows both climbing and burrowing. Give it a vertical cork slab/tube for climbing plus enough substrate depth to dig, and it will use both.
- Fast arboreal manners apply: the enclosure should open in a way that does not encourage immediate bolting toward your hands.
- Use vertical cork, anchor points, and foliage to encourage webbed retreats.
- Because it uses both the ground and the cork, you are running two microclimates in one enclosure, and ventilation is what stops them collapsing into one. Put vents low on one wall, at or just above the substrate, and high on the opposite wall, so air enters across the damp lower layer and exits above the cork. That keeps the burrow layer lightly humid while the cork faces and the webbed retreat stay dry. Lid-only venting gives you the reverse and leaves stale damp air sitting exactly where the spider burrows.
- Ventilation and ambient humidity trade against each other. Hold 60 to 75% by keeping the lower substrate lightly damp and running a water dish, then let the vents flow freely. Do not seal the enclosure to hold a reading; a fast semi-arboreal in a stuffy box is a husbandry problem you will notice too late.
- Judge by hand and by looking at the cork. Lower substrate should be lightly damp with no free water when squeezed, while the cork faces and the upper webbing read dry. Condensation on the walls means it needs more air.
- Keep a shallow water dish with pebbles or coarse grit so the waterline sits below the rim. Slings drown in open dishes, and this species grows fast enough that the same dish often stays in through several sizes.
- Mist the substrate at the base of the cork rather than the retreat or the upper webbing. That recharges the damp ground-level microclimate this species digs into, and lets moisture rise through moving air while the retreat stays dry.
Feeding, Growth & Maintenance
- Humidity should be moderate with airflow. Stagnant wetness is worse than a dry-out cycle with water available.
- Feeding schedule: slings 2×/week; juveniles weekly; adults every 1-2 weeks. Keep prey smaller than the abdomen, feed more often if it looks thin, less if it's plump. Strong feeder, fast grower.
- Molting: a premolt Chevron turns sluggish, seals into its retreat, and stops eating for days or even weeks. Normal. Pull uneaten feeders, leave it alone, and wait 5-10 days after the molt before feeding again.
Possible Origin / Range
- Likely native range: Trinidad and Tobago.
- Habitat translation: Warm, humid semi-arboreal setup: vertical cork for climbing, substrate deep enough to burrow, anchor points, and airflow.
Advanced Keeper Details
- Design openings so bolting sends the spider into the enclosure or catch cup, not toward your hands.
- Rehousing should be planned with a catch cup and prebuilt retreat, not improvised.
- Adult size ~5-6.5 in DLS; a fast grower; females ~10-15 years, males ~2-4.