red knee smithi

[gasman247]

went out and bought a new enclosure for her as the other one was too high(im new to T keeping) i didnt realise if she fell it could be serious for her.
i realise now of course after alot of searching here on the forum that they are not great climbers,or at least they can easily be injured by falling.

for the first week she was climbing everywhere and the enclosure was 18+ inches high.now she is in a 30cm high,60cm long and 30cm width.

couple of pics of her again.


im going to use the tall enclosure now for my guyana pinktoe arriving tomorrow



dave

 

[Mina]

Beautiful T. Question, why the heat lamps? What is the temperature in the room they are kept in? Normal room temp is fine for almost all T's. If its comfortable for you, its comfortable for them. You could really overheat them with the lamps.

 

[sick4x4]

mina's right, lamps are actually kinda a waste...but great set-ups...its always interesting to see how elaborate we are in the begging lol, to when you start getting in the 100's. and you start keeping them in tupperware lol....

wayne

 

[gasman247]

room temp here in the winter is about 68-70
if thats enough il turn the heat lamps off,cheaper for me !!
all ready got 9 fish tank heaters going lol.

i dont have a thermostat here for the central heating so i can switch the heating on and it will just keep getting mega hot or off,no inbetween so we dont really use it.


thx for the advice, i appreciate any given



dave

 

[gasman247]

forgot to mention the lamps are on very very low,dimmer switch is turned right down.
but still if 68-70 is good then il ditch them


thx again


dave

 

[gasman247]

any body answer the question for me??

i was told earlier not to use them becasue my room temp was enough even though you dont know what my room temp is??

its 68-70
for a cobalt blue,red knee and pink toe



dave

 

[pinkzebra]

68-70 is fine. I have kept mine for years at even cooler temps in the winter.

Welcome to the hobby.

Your smithi is beautiful!

Jen

 

[jen650s]

my room temp is a little lower on average than yours about 65, and I don't heat (at least not since I got rid of the reptiles). A few of my Ts move a little slower and eat less when it's cold, but that's it. I used to move my slings to a heated part of the house, but my S.O. objected to sharing our bedroom with bugs. So, no more, and they seem to do just fine as well.

 

[cacoseraph]

all my bugs have no supplemental heating or cooling

they get down to a little beneath 50*F/10*C during winter nights and maybe a whisker above 100*F/38*C during the hottest part of summer days. they will not eat when they are cold and eat a ton when they are warm



also... the cages seem like they still have a bit too much room for the smithi to fall from. if you fill them abouthalf way with packed substrate the spider will be safer and might actually dig a burrow

 

[gasman247]

cool thx for the advice!!

my smith is about 5-6 inch and the tank is 12 inches high,il put a few more inches of substrate in thx.

il turn heaters off then.

thx everyone for replying


dave

 

[jonnysebachi]

Same here, my room temp where I keep the T's is 68-70 F. Seem to do ok, i was told that at about 80F they really take off in growth rate, but to try to keep the max temp below 82F. I'm still learning also so correct me if this info is false.

 

[Truff135]

If you're ever worried that temperature will be a problem, I've found that small ceramic space heaters can work wonders. They'll evenly heat an entire room to a comfortable temperature and I bought mine for only $19. That way, you won't fry your tarantulas with a localized heat source like lamp or mat.
As a general rule, terrestrial tarantulas should only have 1 to 1.5x their legspan of space between the dirt and ceiling of the enclosure. So if your smithi is about 5 or 6", the most space she should have is 6 to 9" of space to climb. I prefer to keep mine more to the actual legspan though. Sometimes these silly terrestrials don't know they're too tubby to go climbing about.
EDIT: After looking at your pictures again, I assume that the far left tank is for the haplopelma lividum (cobalt blue)? If that's the case, fill that sucker with at least 8" of substrate. These guys will burrow big time and if they don't have the space it can really get them distressed. Looks like it's got the moisture they need though, so great job there!