A. Avicularia & the lid

[bness2]

My A. avic (Nijinsky) spends 95% of his time clinging to the lid and has even laid down a little webbing on the lid. This makes it rather difficult to open the lid for feeding, misting, etc. I'm always afraid I'm going to trap a leg, or worse, in the lid when I close it. He is also very jumpy, although typically gets crazed only when I dangle a cricket in front of his face and he isn't interested. He is about an inch long at this point.

My question is, how can I get him to leave the lid? I have a stick propped up against the side of the enclosure, but he prefers the lid. I have heard the suggestion that a hide off the floor would give him a place to make a web and he would then spend more time there, but considering his size and the size of the enclosure, what should I use? Any ideas out there? What has anyone else done?

Bryan

 

[Brandon]

Bryan,
Are there enough holes in the lid?, is there enough water in there. Is it in premolt, all things to consider. Or maby the t' is to big for the cage? Or he just likes it there. When opening and closing just be carful look through the glass.

Sincerely,

Brandon

 

[bness2]

Originally posted by Brandon
Bryan,
Are there enough holes in the lid?, is there enough water in there. Is it in premolt, all things to consider. Or maby the t' is to big for the cage? Or he just likes it there. When opening and closing just be carful look through the glass.

If anything the container, a critter carrier, is too large, so space is not a problem. There should be ample air. I did tape over a number of the holes because they are long slits and I'm pretty sure he could squeeze out if I left them as is. There are still a lot of air holes left. As for water, I put water on the side of the container whenever the humidity drops below 80%.

I think he does like it on the lid, but I still fear for him. As jumpy as he is sometimes, he has come close to getting a leg caught, in spite of me using extreme care when closing the lid. I hear they like to make nests in a tube anyway, but with his small size I'm not sure what to use.

Bryan

 

[conipto]

Though I've never cared for one of these, logic points to this possible conclusion:

I am told that Avics, (versicolors in the case I read)need lots of ventilation to properly adapt in captivity, and survive. Does your enclosure have air holes anywhere other than on the lid? If not, that might be the reason he or she prefers to hang out up there. Take your avic out and perhaps drill/poke holes in the side of the container, and see what happens? (Think air flow patterns, not neccessarily just quantity and freshness of available air) Also, I've heard commonly reccomended to fasten something to the side partway up one of the walls, that the T can retreat to.

Again, I have absolutely no experience, but I do read alot

Bill

 

[Botar]

Try turning the enclosure on it's side, in effect making the lid, "the side". Then when it webs at the top of the enclosure, you can still access it from the lid, which is now on the side. Someone posted a picture of two such enclosures made with kritter keepers just not too long ago. Stand it up on end for height, as opposed to width.

I'm currently using a rubbermaid plastic gallon sized jar. The top is a screw top. I drilled holes in the top, a ring of holes around the top and at about substrate level of the plastic jar to provide cross venitilation. The sling is about 1" and I've got substrate in the bottom with a silk plant in the middle of the enclosure. The sling has a tube web near the top at about the "canopy level" of the silk plant. I can unscrew the top w/o destroying the web or endangering the T.

Botar

 

[JacenBeers]

I have the same problem with my Avic spiderling. It is in a deli dish with a twist on lid. It always sticks to the top of the lid right along the edge of the container. My H Maculata spiderling does the same thing. What i do when feeding and misting is I open the lid very slowly. The spinning usually scares the spider into the bottom of teh container. Then when i put it back on I just make sure it is out of the way.

 

[Gail]

Try the silk plant and turning the petpal on the side as Botar suggested. Also, as conipto said, avics need air flow and hanging out at the lid may be a sure sign he's not getting enough of it. You can keep the humidity up by misting and a water dish, don't plug up all of your holes. (hum, that sounded bad, but you know what I mean )

Gail

 

[Code Monkey]

Sideways containers are the way to go if you've got issues with the lid. I house mine in a mini kritter keeper on its end which avoids the problems of their top oriented tendencies:

 

[bness2]

Looks like placing the container on its end is the winner in this one. I really don't think ventilation is a problem as even when I have taped a portion of the slits, the holes that are left are still about 50 in number. Still, there is no cross ventilation, which might be good. Putting the container on its end may be my attempt at dealig with the problem. Once it gets bigger I have a nice tall aquariaum I plan to use.

Bryan

 

[Kenny]

hi...)

Hi..

I have my Avics ( 1 A.Avic and 2 Versicolors, and 1 Suntiger ) in Pet Pals standing on the "short"- side with the opening lid "aiming" towards me.

I have also a piece of wood standing towards one of the corners in the cage giving some space between the wood and the cage corner and all my Avics have made a web between the peice of wood and the corner of the cage.
All my Avics are on/about their 3:d molt and doing fine and no troubles with "lid-connections".

I do have a lot of Usambara s'lings and some of them do web "links" with the lid in their vails and that's a pain when feeding...

Kenny

 

[The_Phantom]

Does anyone have a picture of a female avic.avic's female parts ?

 

[Phillip]

for starters...

It will help if the stick or bark doesn't come all the way to the top but sometimes they just seem to prefer the lid. When feeding try cracking the lid and blowing in there usually this will cause them to run down to get away from the disturbance allowing you to water and feed easily.
Phil

 

[Lasiodora]

They web so close to the top because its the highest point. just keep distroying its webbing at the top when you open the lid and it will notice that the lid is not a good spot to lay webbing. I do this with all my avics and they get the picture.

 

[bness2]

Re: for starters...

Originally posted by Phillip
It will help if the stick or bark doesn't come all the way to the top but sometimes they just seem to prefer the lid. When feeding try cracking the lid and blowing in there usually this will cause them to run down to get away from the disturbance allowing you to water and feed easily.
Phil

Phil,

Nijinsky just seemd to like the lid. The stick I had in there ended well below the lid. The blowing trick did get him to move down, but sometimes he would rush back up almost as quickly, and I hated blowing on him. I didn't want him to become even more skittish than he already is. Yesterday I did a switch into a new container with the lid on the side and that seems to have sloved the problem.

Thanks,

Bryan

 

[bness2]

Originally posted by Lasiodora
They web so close to the top because its the highest point. just keep distroying its webbing at the top when you open the lid and it will notice that the lid is not a good spot to lay webbing. I do this with all my avics and they get the picture.

I lost my patience and put my Avic in a new container with the lid on the side. He seemed to take to it almost immediately and seemed to ignore the lid entirely. There are no air holes in the lid. Instead I drilled holes in the sides of the container, lots of them, to provide good cross-ventilation.

Bryan