Housing a first time Avic. Versicolor sling.

[SpidaFly]

I purchased a A. Versicolor sling yesterday at Kenthebugguy's shop in Tucson, and I've spent some time today trying to get a little enclosure built. As I live in the desert, maintaining humidity while providing adequate ventilation is one of my biggest concerns, and the discussion below will address this element of husbandry.

First, a pic of what I have. Fairly shoddy work to be sure, but it's my first time doing this. Please note that the "haze" visible on some parts of the plastic in the photo IS NOT condensation. I attempted to remove goo from a price sticker from the box and the acetone I used did that to the plastic - but since I was in a hurry to get the T in something more comfortable/arborial, I decided to use it anyway. Don't worry, I made sure it was washed and thoroughly dry/free of fumes before I used it!

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/4909/img2146rb.jpg

Within minutes of being rehomed, the T took down a cricket. A couple hours later, I noticed the T doing some webbing. I'm extremely glad that it is comfortable for the moment - but I know there's a lot of things to be addressed.

Since I've heard so much about adequate ventilation, I was generous with venting holes. Of course humidity is my next concern.

First question: I wanted to drill 1-3/8" holes in two sides with a hole saw, but I've read that screen is very bad for Avics so avoided it. Is there some unwoven screen-like material that is safe? Such as "plastic canvas"? With holes that size I'm hesitant to offer flightless fruit flies or crickets that could easily escape through the holes.

Next topic: Humidity! Most advice I've seen scattered around (and indeed the advice coming from the keeper I spoke with at Ken's) indicates that I should moisten half the substrate, leave the other half dry, and allow the container to become fairly rather dry before re-moistening the substrate. Ok, I'm following that advice (but feel free to put in your thoughts). However, I'm now dealing with much better ventilation than I had in the vial I brought the T home in, hence humidity will fall. All advice on this topic is welcome.

I considered building a sort of DIY "humidor" box with a vent on the top so that I could control the humidity in the "humidor", and then placing the sling's container inside the humidor. (Humidor chamber humidified by either a container of water or bubbler, whichever allowed me to target the 70-80% ambient RH). Remember I live in the desert, and it is VERY dry here. Sub-30% humidity is common even indoors. Therefore this is a real issue for me, unlike if I lived in the Pacific northwest or the south east United States. I'm only content to implement this "handwavy" solution for so long - I don't rest until I'm taking precision care of all of my animals. So - is there any reason to NOT implement the mini-humidor idea? And should a little computer box fan running at a lower voltage (ie. slower air movement) be installed inside the humidor just to force the circulation of humid air through the T's container?

Next topic: Heat! In the near term I have the sling's heat covered. It is fairly steady around 80F both day and night (checked with IR temp gun). Don't worry - I know I shouldn't ever put a T on a heat pad.

Most of my life I've been strictly a herp guy and my wife has shared in this passion - and while I've had a life long love of arachnids, my wife hasn't "let" me obtain a T until recently (and it was under the stipulation that I was 110% responsible for it, and that she got to name it something "cute"... hey, don't ask me, I don't know what that was all about, but my T has an absolutely ridiculous name :: :laugh. Anyhow, I want to convert the cabinet next to my desk in my office into a rack for future T's. However, as I mentioned before I live in the desert, the entire house is on one AC. My herp enclosures battle the AC constantly, but they're easy! Digital thermometer, ceramic fixtures and basking lights - and done! However, since my office would be quite chilly to a T, is it reasonable to use Flexwatt to heat the BACK of the cabinet so that I could keep the inside around 80-90F?

This has been a bit too long already. I'll have more questions later, but this will get me pointed in the right direction rebuilding the T's setup on Tuesday if need be.

Thanks for your time.

 

[poisoned]

I haven't heard about vents being bad for avics, but I'm not very experienced anyways.

Currently I'm running a test setup without any inhabitants as a proof of the concept. I've put some gravel into enclosure, covered it with mesh and then covered it all with substrate (like a false bottom). I am keeping water level at about 1/4" all the time. Enclosure is almost all-screen on one side. I haven't done any measuring yet, but there's almost no earthy smell in enclosure (stale air) and I think it's quite humid. Of course, I don't live in a dessert.

 

[SentinelPokie]

Hello. Well first off, your enclosure looks fine. What you could do with the enclosure though, is drill some 2 inch holes (2 inch diameter) on the top and the sides, and place some tarantulacages.com vents in them. This design, is actually used by Robc and he has a few tutorials on how to create these sorts of enclosures. What's also great is that these kinds of enclosures use the same acrylic cube that you are using currently. For humidity, there are a few ways to maintain that. Since Arizona is a pretty arid state, maybe you can buy a humidifier for your room? This would then help maintain humidity in general. Other than that, I'm pretty sure you can also just manually mist the cage although a combination of that and the humidifier would help. What I feel is the most important thing to remember when keeping an Avic, is having very good ventilation (i.e. 2 inch vents), while also maintaining good humidity. Lastly about heating, I think the flex watt isn't really necessary. Unless Arizona is very cold, I wouldn't really think any sort of heating tape, heating pad, etc. is necessary.

Good Luck

Tarantula Cages Link: http://www.tarantulacages.com/index.html
Robc Enclosure Tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFH1IDXAkNU *I don't own this video.

 

[SpidaFly]

I haven't heard about vents being bad for avics, but I'm not very experienced anyways.

It's not that I'm implying vents are bad for Avics - quite the opposite! I'm just worried that in my climate (desert) the ventilation needs to be compensated with some extra source of humidity.

Currently I'm running a test setup without any inhabitants as a proof of the concept. I've put some gravel into enclosure, covered it with mesh and then covered it all with substrate (like a false bottom). I am keeping water level at about 1/4" all the time. Enclosure is almost all-screen on one side. I haven't done any measuring yet, but there's almost no earthy smell in enclosure (stale air) and I think it's quite humid. Of course, I don't live in a dessert.

I would enjoy learning about the results of your experiment! I have the day after tomorrow off work, and I'm going to build a test humidor+enclosure like I suggested above so I can see if it could work before I put my T in it.

 

[SentinelPokie]

Currently I'm running a test setup without any inhabitants as a proof of the concept. I've put some gravel into enclosure, covered it with mesh and then covered it all with substrate (like a false bottom). I am keeping water level at about 1/4" all the time. Enclosure is almost all-screen on one side. I haven't done any measuring yet, but there's almost no earthy smell in enclosure (stale air) and I think it's quite humid. Of course, I don't live in a dessert.

I too would like to know the results of your experiment. This is interesting.

 

[Formerphobe]

My A. versicolors are in similar containers with probably less ventilation than yours.

I added some 'forest moss' to the top of the coconut coir/peat moss substrate. All my versi enclosures are in a larger tank turned on its side with heat mat on the back (tank bottom) and the screened front (tank top) is mostly covered with plastic wrap. I keep a bowl of water inside next to the heat mat. Primitive, but seems to work.

I raised 4 A. versicolor in this type set up from 0.75 inch to ~3.0 inches. All appear to be thriving.
I'm in VA where the humidity is a killer in the summer, but with indoor climate control, the household RH hovers around 30%. I don't measure humidity in my T enclosures, that would send my OCD into overdrive.

 

[SpidaFly]

I'm in VA where the humidity is a killer in the summer, but with indoor climate control, the household RH hovers around 30%. I don't measure humidity in my T enclosures, that would send my OCD into overdrive.

Can you tell me - with the greatest detail you're willing - your routine for providing humidity?

 

[grayzone]

I usually get HALF the sub nice and moist, leaving the other half dry. I then spray the sides of the enclosure down lightly/maybe some of the webbing.. About 3 days later i repeat ON ONLY THE SIDES AND THE WEBBING... another 3 days go by i do the dirt and the sides etc again... if you have proper ventilation, the sub usually gets dry within the weeks span... its a cycle lol

 

[grayzone]

i house all my avic slings like this View attachment 103503 you can read lots of tips in my thread here > http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?228094-New-ts-arrived-today sorry alot of pics were deleted.. i ran out of space

 

[SpidaFly]

Thanks for all of the advice so far. Can anyone cover "safe" meshes for Avicularia? Do any exist? Or should I simply just using holes like I am and not feeding fruit fly/pinhead crickets?

Also, can anyone discuss lighting? I've read that arboreal T's have better eyesight than most other T's, and it is one of the features that led me to choose Avic as my first sling. As I said before at night when my house gets cold I actually put my sling in the warm box (~80-85F) that I have my superworm bins in. The heat doesn't come from underneath (rather from the sides) so there's no hot spot on the T's box. But since the INSIDE of that bin is insulated with Reflectix, I imagine that it's SUPER SUPER dark in there. During the day I put him on top of my australian water dragon's enclosure where it is ~80-90F, ambient light, but still no direct sunlight. So the question is, how much light do T's need to be active as desired?

Thanks again for all the feedback.

 

[grayzone]

all ts prefer super dark and warm to my understanding, but id be careful with the heat/airflow so the ts enclosure doesn't become too arid
as far as vents go, there are tons of options if ya browse around. type vents in the forums search bar and im sure youll see what im talkin about. Aside from that id take a look at the sling/juvie enclosure kits at jaimiestarantulas.com shes got awesome deals on cheap spiderlings WITH enclosures. She is very well reviewed

---------- Post added 05-14-2012 at 11:55 PM ----------

same acrylic boxes as above with the screen vents alot of people like. throw in a nice avic sling for all around 20$ and id call that a helluva deal

 

[SpidaFly]

all ts prefer super dark and warm to my understanding, but id be careful with the heat/airflow so the ts enclosure doesn't become too arid

Yeah the reason I ask is because every resource I read indicates that T's "require no lighting". That doesn't mean that they require complete darkness, or that it is even good for them. Even in the wild T's have moonlight and starlight to hunt by. The inside of the box I'm placing my T in at night is completely absolutely dark. That concerns me because it means that the T's night time might be WAY TOO dark.

I hate living in the desert, lack of humidity and killer heat (which means AC rattling on all the time) make raising any kind of non-mammal far more difficult than it would be elsewhere.

 

[Nikki1984]

I have an A. versicolor sling and battle AZs ability to suck humidity from everything as well.

My routine is to spritz one side of the tank every other day and make sure that the substrate is slightly wetter than dry. She has been eating readily and has webbed up nicely so I assume she is content. I have her along with all of my Ts in my snake room (aka my home office) and the temp in the room is 76 F pretty steadily.

I have about the same amount of vents that you have on your tank. I also keep my older Avics this way and all have thrived.

 

[grayzone]

The inside of the box I'm placing my T in at night is completely absolutely dark. That concerns me because it means that the T's night time might be WAY TOO dark.

I assure you that it will be fine... Im willing to bet your t is happier, more active, and feels safer in the complete, quiet, still darkness than it is in normal household ambient lighting.