Old enclosure revamp with pics...

mcluskyisms

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 16, 2009
Messages
843
Well I decided to do a bit of revamp work on an old enclosure that I haven't used for years, the main reason why I didn't bother using it was because the lid was pants, It had a crappy grade mesh covering the full lid which was rubbish for holding any kind of humidity. Also it didn't fasten shut very well, it wouldn't of took much of a Houdini tarantula to slide the lid open and pop out for a mooch about!

First job though was to sort the humidity problem out, so I got rid of the crappy grade mesh it came with and decided to glue a bit of better quality mesh at one side of the lid (approx a third of the lid) Secondly to gain a higher humidity for the enclosure as I want to keep my largest juvenile Theraphosa sp. "Burgundy" in there I got some perspex cut to size and delivered off eBay (which is surprisingly a lot cheaper than you would think) so all I did was glue both pieces into place with a hot glue gun. Easy peasy!



Next job was to sort out a way of securely keeping the lid fastened shut as Ive had a few escapes before and its not much fun tearing your room apart looking for tarantulas at 4am on a Sunday morning.....

So after sitting and thinking about perspex clasps and various other locking devices I had a brain wave to simply just drill a 4mm hole in the lid frame and use a peg lock system with a spare perspex peg I had left over from one of my House of spiders enclosures, simples.....



Now that the lid was sorted out and secure all I had to do was sort the inside of the enclosure out, I'm never too fussy with the insides of my enclosures to be honest as vast amounts of cork and vivarium ornaments etc isn't really my scene. I prefer to keep things practical and minimalist, after all your putting tarantula in there not a 3 year old child, my theory is that as long as the tarantula is happy and I'm happy with it, then that's good enough for me!

So for the decor inside I simply added a hide made from cork bark which I covered with sphagnum moss and a water dish, after all that is all the tarantula needs. I also added a LCD thermo-hygrometer so I can keep an eye on temps and humidity.



So here is a quick snap of the finished enclosure, next step is to see what the temperature and humidity levels hold at.


So after keeping the lid on for a while and making sure that the temps and humidity was correct for the tarantula I decided to put her into her new home. She wasn't as forthcoming as she usually is and decided to have a bite of the paintbrush I was shooing her in with, but after being in there for around an hour or so now she seems to be settling in fine.

She is already sat underneath her new cork bark hide and is most likely probably thinking about her most favourite thing in the world.....



Fin.....​
 
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