Really bad smell

Iggy22

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 29, 2007
Messages
55
My juvenile B. Albo's cage is smelling awful. I can't find any dead carcasses or see anything that would be causing the bad smell. What is it?

My first suspicion was that I have him a plastic ziploc container, maybe its keeping the "freshness" in? He made a nice web mat (maybe a molting mat. not sure yet) on the ground, so I don't want to disturb him just yet. What should I do?
 

Iggy22

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 29, 2007
Messages
55
Not very moist at all, not like a moldy smell either. I use cactus potting soil.

The ventilation is plenty. Should I add more holes? I don't want to add a crap load.
 

Moltar

ArachnoGod
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Apr 11, 2007
Messages
5,438
I had a similar problem with my B smithi. I thought i had been cleaning up pretty well but upon closer inspection i found some buried cricket remains and one whole dead cricket that had dug down under the water dish and died.

Maybe try a little experimental excavation to see if you can locate the source. Even if your ventilation is insufficient, there has to be something in there to rot for you to get a rotten dead smell. (I assume that's the sort of smell you mean?)

With dry condition T's like brachy's i think it's always preferable to have more ventilation than not enough. Got any pics?
 
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Moltar

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 11, 2007
Messages
5,438
That's a nice lookin spidey you got there. Since nothing in the pic looks untoward, i'm guessing you have a dead cricket or two under the soil somewhere.

It doesn't look to me like it's ready for a molt. That bald patch on the abdomen would be much darker were that the case. It could be the web mat is to cover up soil conditions your spider isn't happy with such as excessive moisture. It looks like he wouldn't suffer from a slightly bigger enclosure at this point so if it were me i'd go ahead and rehouse the lil guy. Make sure the substrate is pretty darn dry. I've heard people say 'bone dry' but when i do that with peat it gets too dusty. I moisten it just enough to deal with the dust but no more. If you don't want to rehouse him then i guess you should poke around in the dirt looking for whatever is rotting in there.

Any comments by our more experienced brethren here?
 
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