How often do you clean & change the water dish?

[Lover of 8 legs]

To you who use water dishes, how often do you remove the water dish, clean it & refill it? I check mine several times daily & if necessary, I refill them using a turkey baster (I find the baster good because it is least disturbing to the Ts, keeps my hands out of the enclosures, and there's almost no wastage). I remove the dish, clean and refill it once per week, unless somebody has filled it with substrate. In the latter case, I remove it immediately, clean it & refill it. I use to remove & clean it as soon as I saw a bit of dirt in it but then I got a N coloratovillosus and with her it's a losing battle LOL.

 

[pinkfoot]

I check my water bowls daily, topping up whenever they are no longer filled, and change them twice a week. I must confess that I do not change simply due to substrate inclusion unless this is excessive.

Like the Turkey Baster tip!

 

[Fierce Deity]

I refill the water dish on a day-to-day basis, whenever it needs refilling. I actually take it out to wash it a lot less than that though...again whenever it needs to be done. If it is filled with substrate, I'll clean it out right away. If not, I'll just fill it back up. Constantly looking after water dishes can be a pain when youi have a large collection.

 

[recluse]

I fill them once a week.

 

[stubby8th]

I normally feed twice a week; at that time, water gets filled and debris gets removed. If your replacing the water in the water dish daily and the T is continually knocking it over/ filling with substrate, the water is going into the substrate and you run the risk of having your environment too damp.

 

[Zoo Keeper]

Food and water, once a week.

 

[tarsier]

top up when needed. replace and clean every week.

 

[syndicate]

weekly i change and clean

 

[metzgerzoo]

Water gets filled whenever it gets low and the dishes get cleaned out periodocially.

 

[lta3398]

I fill them every other day, and depending on the amount of substrate in the dish, I clean them once a week. Sometimes, though, I do have to do it more often if the dish is really dirty.

 

[Venom]

I check water levels at least every other day, if not every day. I only change and clean ( instead of just topping up ) the water dish if it is really scuzzy.

Now, here's something I've been wondering about for a while. Since peatmoss is acidic, and is my ( and many other keepers' ) substrate of choice, does the acidity added by peatmoss getting the dish affect the pH enough to cause unhealthy effects in T's, or is the amount of acid small enough that it doesn't matter? For that matter, how tolerant of acidity/ basicity are T's? Does anyone know?

 

[TarantulaLV]

I change and clean each probably once a week or so, but am more concerned with food contaminating the water-- or no water at all. Tarantulas in the wild do not always have sparkletts at their disposal. I mostly refill as necessary.

 

[MindUtopia]

I fill and clean mine once a week during feeding time unless I happen to notice it's empty in between and even then sometimes I'll just let it go until feeding day.

 

[Nightshade]

I change and clean at least once a week, and always after feeding. I don't trust those filthy crickets around my spiders' water. So on average, twice a week. I take the lids entirely off their cages when I do it. It might be disturbing to them, but they never seem really agitated about my hand being in there. Little Desiderius has gotten territorial with the dish a couple of times (following it as it's lifted out, clinging to it with her legs, that kind of stuff), but she hasn't done that in a while. Someone suggested the turkey baster to me, but I like to clean the dishes every time I change the water because they're on peat moss and it can get a little dirty. I suppose I'm lucky that mine are both Grammostola roseas and the worst they'll do if they don't want their water changed is cling to the dish with a few legs.

 

[SpiderZone2]

I also do my feeding and water cleanings once a week.