Confused : Dry or Moist? (terrestrial)

[will]

I'm confused with substrate. What is the "proper" way of keeping a tarantula's substrate (terrestrial)? Should it be dry or moist? When I search on the internet, I have some findings (don't mind the sites because I'm not really saving them on my bookmark) that it must be dry and only the "sides" of the enclosure are moist (or misted) and keep everything dry because pests might "materialize" on the substrate (coco peat) once it was kept wet / moist.

Now there are some findings that it must be moist and must be kept that way because of humidity factors.

But there are also findings that it's ok to be dry as long as a water dish is present. The water dish will serve as the source of humidity as well as the specie's hydration spot.

So the only question is, what is the proper way? I have a juvenile brachypelma smithi (measures 1 inch) and of course, I want to offer it only the very best substrate setup to keep it healthy and smooth molting process in the future. Thanks Arachnoboards! : )

 

[Abby]

Congrats on your B. smithi baby!

I raised mine on half moist substrate, and the other half dry.
I would just ad water to one side of her enclosure, and kep the other half dry. At 1 inch she had a clear plastic tupperware dish as her home.

She would choose where she wanted to be depending on her needs.
She would hang out for the most part on the dry area, but as she was approaching a molt she would hang out by the moist area.

I also had a bottle cap as her dish.

Keep us posted on how your new baby is doing

 

[will]

Thanks Abby! I haven't thought of that. Partly moist, partly dry. I think it's really a good practice and as you've said, it gives the T the option on where it want to stay.

My T just had its 4th molt and as you've noticed, I still don't know if it's a male or female.

I just bought it lately from a good seller and yep, I plan to keep a record of this T here (molt, color change, etc..)

I hope I'll be successful with my T. I heard these species can live for up to 30 years. I hope my T can reach that hehe! Thanks again and thanks Arachnoboards. :clap:

 

[curiousme]

Welcome to the forum and the hobby!

Until your spiderling is about 2"-2 1/2" keeping a side wet/ moist is important, because its epicuticle(waxy outer layer) is not fully formed until about that size and that makes desiccation more apt to happen. After it has reached the above size you can start providing it with a bottle cap water dish and letting things be all around drier. B. smithi do just fine on completely dry substrate as juveniles and adults, but at the size yours is, I wouldn't call it a juvenile quite yet.

This is not a hard to care for species, so it should span the years with you. It is one of my favorites!