A. hentzi enclosure questions

[jerremaniac]

I've read through some older posts on here regarding A. hentzi enclosures and am hoping to acquire a mature female in the near future. Thought I'd see if any keepers have new/updated recommendations. Enclosure options currently vacant in my basement include a standard 10-gallon, a 20-gallon long with screen lids, or an 18x18x18 terrarium which I've ruled out because the front opening doors would make substrate depth tricky without leaving the walls of the enclosure WAY too high for her safety. I'm leaning toward the 20 since it has a lot more surface area, but am new to T's and would love to hear other suggestions.

Also, if I'd like to encourage burrowing behavior, I know I'll need a somewhat substantial substrate. Does anyone do a clay/sand mix for this species? I've got a beautiful large piece of lightweight bark I'll set on top of the substrate for a hide. Any other secrets to a having a happy Hentzi you'd like to share?

 

[viper69]

Any tank with a screen lid is never good. You need to have a lid that is acrylic, or at the very list, not a screen. Ts get their tarsal claws stuck on screen, may lose a leg, may fall get injured/die, or suffer from exhaustion from being stuck up there and trying to get down. This is particularly true for terrestrials, but applies to arboreals.

For terrestrials you only want about 1.5x their DLS for distance from substrate to lid to prevent injury from falling, even w/acrylic lids. So if you use standard containers not low profile ones, you'll need a lot of sub.

 

[jerremaniac]

Thanks Viper! They're both slide-in screens, and I figured I'd simply replace the screen with something less treacherous, cutting a sheet of acrylic to slide in there should be easy! The screen on the 20 is already torn and has to be removed, so it's the current front-runner of my options I'll definitely keep the height between substrate and cover to the recommended 1.5x I think that tank is about 13x13x30 inches, so 7-8" of substrate should do the trick!

Great advice, thanks again!

 

[Tarantula20]

One temporary solution for the screen lids, before you can get acrylic ones is to cover the screen with clear packing tape on the inside so the spiders can not get there claws stuck, When I did this in the past I put packing tape around the outside first then in strips all the way along leaving 1 inch slats for ventilation. Good luck!

 

[jerremaniac]

Thanks for the suggestion! I have a sheet of acrylic in the garage, but I can't remember if it's long enough. I really appreciate having a temporary back-up plan should I need it. I've definitely got packing tape

 

[Walker253]

The 10 is more than adequate for an A hentzi. I keep mine in a 10 and it's almost too big. A 5 would be better yet. Maybe I missed what you read, but bigger isn't always better when it comes to T enclosures.