Regarding temperature and humidity; Safetly heating your T's enclosures.

[barabootom]

I keep my substrate on the humid side, at least in a corner, sometimes half the tank. I don't have any problem with mold as I let ithe substrate dry out before I wet it again. I always have a water dish but when the T's get into the earth moving mode, they sometimes move dirt into the water dish and it soaks into the soil. If I keep refilling the water dish the soil will become overly moist. I sometimes wait a week before I refill the water dish. Some T's seem to move a lot of dirt and then settle down and stop, and then suddenly start moving it again 2 months later. My tanks are never bone dry. I think there it is less likely dirt will be moved into the water dish if the housing is big enough. It rarely happens in my tanks but does happen in some plastic latch boxes I keep some of my T's in. I do think it's important to have a water dish available on a regular basis but not necessarily every day. I've seen some people with a water dish with filthy water, which is the same to me as having no water. I wouldn't want my T's drinking 10 day old stagnant filthy water. The danger of not always having a dish available, is that it's very important to not forget to give your T the chance to drink on a very regular basis. If one gets busy and the days slip by without water, you could end up with a dead T (or at least increase the chance for other health issues), esp in hot weather. In cooler temps like we have in Wisconsin most of the year, T's will rarely drink from a dish.

 

[Sevenrats]

Originally Posted by Pikaia View Post
Then you need to read http://www.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/stansrant.html ASAP!



Way overkill! How big (or tiny) are these supposed to be? It doesn't really matter because you can keep them in one of these arrangements and save your money for another tarantula! Pill bottles from a drug store also work well.



Here's the basic setup:

Size: The smallest width or diameter of the floor area should be 2 to 3 times the leg span of the spiderling. Be generous about changing to a larger container as they grow.

Ventilation: If you can, drill or melt 6 to 10 holes through the container walls, around the top of the container. They MUST be small enough that the spiders can't get out. For many baby tarantulas 1/8" IS WAY TOO BIG! Be careful that the cover won't plug them when you put it in place.

If you can't put the holes in the side walls you'll have to put them through the lid as we did in the photo.

Substrate: Use pure horticultural peat. Others have suggested shredded coconut husk but it sometimes molds or rots more than peat. Horticultural vermiculite was used for many years, but is falling out of favor now. It's too fluffy and unstable. Others recommend mixtures of several of these, but there's little or no advantage to using mixtures (the spiderlings grow well anyway), and the added work and expense ordinarily can't be justified.

Use a layer at least 1" (2.5 cm) deep. We preferred 1-1/2" to 2".

Moisture/Humidity: What substrate you use should be damp enough that it'll retain the shape of your fist if you squeeze it hard, but should be dry enough that you can't squeeze water out of it. Maintain this level of dampness over time by occasional slight additions of tap water. Use distilled or bottled water only if your tap water is extremely heavily laden with salt or minerals, or has a really bad smell.

Temperature: Room temperature is just fine as long you're comfortable. If you live in a cold basement a reptile heating pad may be justifiable, but apply it to the side of the cage, not the bottom. Usually, spiderlings live and grow just fine at room temperature, so don't obsess about this.

Feeding: Feed baby crickets. Pinheads (newly hatched crickets) are fairly easy to produce in quantity, so if you need them get back to us for instructions. Larger crickets are best bought from a neighborhood pet shop. When you get a lot of tarantulas you might consider breeding one or another of the tropical cockroaches to feed them.

The general rule of thumb is that the cricket or cockroach shouldn't be larger than the abdomen of the tarantula. Feed 4 to 6 a week. Some of us throw all the food in at once. If you have a lot of time to waste you can feed one cricket at a time. It really doesn't matter to the tarantula. If you have to miss a feeding now and again (e.g., crickets didn't come in or you were on holiday), it's okay. Feed them normally when you can again and they'll do just fine. Just don't make a regular practice of starving them!

Best of luck. Enjoy your newfound little buddies!

Totally agree.

 

[Sevenrats]

So its recommended to keep the temps a bit higher, at least in the mid/high 70's.
I personally consider the region of origin of where they came from and try to emulate the average temperature and humidity of their respective natural homes.

Recommended by who? You? The Tarantula Keepers Guide, Schultz and Schultz, the bible of tarantula keeping disagrees with you. A PUBLISHED Author!

Also, trying to emulated the conditions of the climate that the species came from must be done carefully. B. smithi for instance live in a very hot dry place....BUT THEY LIVE IN A BURROW! What are the conditions in a burrow in the desert? My guess is 70 degrees and 50% humidity. Hey! That's the same as my living room! That species won't even use a hide in captivity. Guess why! Go ahead, guess. They're comfortable!

Avics don't really need to by in high humidity all the time. They live in trees. It rains a lot. They get wet, then it drys out. Repeat. Every day or two. Keeping them really damp and hot continuously is not correct.

 

[Fran]

Recommended by who? You? The Tarantula Keepers Guide, Schultz and Schultz, the bible of tarantula keeping disagrees with you. A PUBLISHED Author!

Also, trying to emulated the conditions of the climate that the species came from must be done carefully. B. smithi for instance live in a very hot dry place....BUT THEY LIVE IN A BURROW! What are the conditions in a burrow in the desert? My guess is 70 degrees and 50% humidity. Hey! That's the same as my living room! That species won't even use a hide in captivity. Guess why! Go ahead, guess. They're comfortable!

Avics don't really need to by in high humidity all the time. They live in trees. It rains a lot. They get wet, then it drys out. Repeat. Every day or two. Keeping them really damp and hot continuously is not correct.

1: You dont know how to read. Read again my original post. You might find that your post doesnt make any sense. I never said you need to keep all the species like that.Again, READ AND COMPREHEND.

2: I dont care what "your guess" is.

3: You show very little kowledge, saying for instance that Smithis live in the desert.

4: This isnt an exact science,specially when you talk by personal experiences, not by scientific facts.I dont take anything for granted if it doesnt make much sense for me. Yes even if Stan Schultz have said it.

5: You dont have to follow my advice if you dont want to. Do whatever the heck you want, but educate yourself a bit,in general, do yourself a favor.

 

[UrbanJungles]

4: This isnt an exact science,specially when you talk by personal experiences, not by scientific facts.I dont take anything for granted if it doesnt make much sense for me.

It's not a science?
Just in case you aren't getting it Fran...it seems you tried to post a care sheet of sorts with alot of generalizations hoping it would be taken to heart which it obviously hasn't because not everyone agrees with your assumptions...myself included.

You are missing a major point here...although tarantulas live in all sorts of habitat, you will find that the microclimates located within their burrows will probably have a similar environment no matter if you are located in Arizona or Amazonica. This is why you can pretty much raise up various T's from all over the world at the same temperature. This has been brought up before and I believe your reply was to "show you" the evidence. I'm not going to fish through abstracts but if you do a little research (NOT GOOGLE, real research) you will find several papers written on the topic.

 

[Fran]

It's not a science?
Just in case you aren't getting it Fran...it seems you tried to post a care sheet of sorts with alot of generalizations hoping it would be taken to heart which it obviously hasn't because not everyone agrees with your assumptions...myself included.

You are missing a major point here...although tarantulas live in all sorts of habitat, you will find that the microclimates located within their burrows will probably have a similar environment no matter if you are located in Arizona or Amazonica. This is why you can pretty much raise up various T's from all over the world at the same temperature. This has been brought up before and I believe your reply was to "show you" the evidence. I'm not going to fish through abstracts but if you do a little research (NOT GOOGLE, real research) you will find several papers written on the topic.

I didnt post any care sheet. I posted regarding the commonly asked questions about how to heat your tarantulas, and throw a little advice.
If you read carefully, you will realise that I didnt even imply that you need to artificially heat them.
Again you talk about "probably" this or "probably" that.Thats doesnt work for me.Thats not much of an exact science for me.

So you think I have taken a lot of assumptions, but you agree when reading "they are fine at room temps", or "They dont need a water dish"?? . Those are not asumptions.
Please, Show me those written papers that I have missed (And written by whom).

 

[UrbanJungles]

So you think I have taken a lot of assumptions, but you agree when reading "they are fine at room temps", or "They dont need a water dish" . Those are not asumptions.
Please, Show me those written papers that I have missed (And written by whom).

But none of the people writing those "assumptions" asked for their post to be made into a sticky. I won't be doing any research for you, if you would like to continue to post armed with ignorance...fight on. The information is out there, just because it hasn't been presented to you doesn't mean that it does not exist.

Trust me, you've missed ALOT of papers...

 

[Fran]

But none of the people writing those "assumptions" asked for their post to be made into a sticky. I won't be doing any research for you, if you would like to continue to post armed with ignorance...fight on. The information is out there, just because it hasn't been presented to you doesn't mean that it does not exist.

Trust me, you've missed ALOT of papers...

Sais who? Who are you to say that Im armed with ignorance Danny?
Go ahead, bring up the beggining of my post, where I take all those assumptions, and prove that what is being said there is wrong.

Read again my post. Maybe you are the one who should get the info straight.

 

[Sevenrats]

although tarantulas live in all sorts of habitat, you will find that the microclimates located within their burrows will probably have a similar environment no matter if you are located in Arizona or Amazonica. This is why you can pretty much raise up various T's from all over the world at the same temperature.

Exactly.

Oh and B. smithi are from the high scrubland in Mexico where it gets very hot and very cold at times.....but not in their living rooms or mine.

You can say anyone lacks knowledge. I have my results to show for my techniques. I have had more problems trying to provide "adequate" heat and humidity than by simply using room temperature, a water dish and appropriate amounts of misting depending on the species.

You provided that information like it was gospel and can't believe in your wildest dreams that a lot of us don't agree with you.

I dont take anything for granted if it doesnt make much sense for me. Yes even if Stan Schultz have said it.

Stan Schultz book has stood the test of time. What he said works.

And really, a lot of people on here need to stop talking "science" when what we are all doing is keeping exotic pets. Most of us have absolutely no real formal training in biology of any animal never mind invertebrates or spiders.

Just because you can quote a few latin terms doesn't make you a scientist any more than being able to use an Ipod makes you a musician.

 

[Fran]

Just because you can quote a few latin terms doesn't make you a scientist

Indeed, although some of us are a bit more informed than others.

... if you would like to continue to post armed with ignorance...fight on.

Trust me, you've missed ALOT of papers...

Im not expert, neither I call myself an expert, by any means.
But Id like to share with you that Im a Geographer (in the progress of specializing in Climatology). I have members of my family who works doing field work in the Amazonas in Venezuela. I have really good info at hand, and I most certainly use it.
With this I wanted to let you know that you might have missed some more papers than I do.

Again, theres no need to go there, specially when you are acussing me of assumptions that I dont think I made.
Lets bring up my post:

Its very common to ask what are the proper temps and humidity for your tarantulas,and how to achieve those readings...
Well, first things first.

I'm sure all of us have heared that keeping tarantulas at room temperature is fine for them. But we need to specify.
Room temp is a pretty wide term.Some people loves to be home at 65F while some others wont go any lower than 83F, so room temp...What is room temp?
If your home is somewhere between 68F and 90F, most of the tarantulas will be "fine", that means, you wont really need any extra source of heat in order for them to feed, grow and live in your tanks.

Please tell me where are the assumptions so far. As you can see, I never said you need to provide an extra heat source.

But we need to consider a couple of factors. Tarantulas have a very slow metabolism to begin with, and if you keep most of them on the low side (Under mid 70's), specially those native to the jungles of Central/South America, their feeding patterns are gonna decrease considerably, which means that they are gonna be even less active and they are gonna grow quite slower.
There are species like Lasiodora that will grow quite fast pretty much anyway you keep them...but some others are gonna take many years to reach their adult stage.



So its recommended to keep the temps a bit higher, at least in the mid/high 70's.
I personally consider the region of origin of where they came from and try to emulate the average temperature and humidity of their respective natural homes.

Again,please tell me where are my huge assumptions.

I talked mainly about South American/rain forest species, and I said that the right thing to do is reasearch your specie for accurate cares.

I said that if you want your sp to be more active and grow a bit faster, its recommended to have temps at least in the mid/high 70's.

Now, if you need to provide heat to reach such temperatures, then you have several ways to achieve your goal.Ill give you 4 examples:

.[/B]

Again, saying IF you need the extra heat, then heres how to do it safetly.

Please, tell me where did I go wrong,off base, with such big assumptions.

If all this is worth a sticky or not, thats up to the Admins of the site. For me, it seems like you were a bit bothered by that.
Well, then lets answer more newby questions.Those were coming up all the time. I do take my time to answer them all the time.Do you?

 

[Sevenrats]

Well, then lets answer more newby questions.Those were coming up all the time. I do take my time to answer them all the time.Do you?

That's great Fran, except one thing........ A lot of us disagree with what you're selling.

 

[Hobo]

Just wanted to chime in that tarantulas are opportunistic feeders. Generally, if you offer them food, they won't turn it down. Some don't know to while others will. Most won't though.

You really don't want this:

to become this:

Story/thread behind this? Did it fall or just suddenly rupture?

 

[Fran]

That's great Fran, except one thing........ A lot of us disagree with what you're selling.

 

[UrbanJungles]

I posted something here but realize it's useless...so i deleted it.

 

[Fran]

I posted something here but realize it's useless...so i deleted it.

Well Danny, maybe then you had nothing interesting to say or a good point to make.

 

[Sevenrats]

I have to say, there are a lot of posts on this forum about simulating the "natural habitat". Really, that is impossible to do. We are keeping these animals in small glass and plastic boxes. There is no sun, wind, or rain. There are no seasons. There is no natural bacteria in the soil. You simply cannot duplicate a 1 foot by 1 foot spot on the earth without it being connected to the rest of the earth! We need to simply create an environment that keeps the animal within ideally survivable parameters. That is what zoo's do as well. Besides all that, the natural habitat of animals often kills them. Floods, drought, heat and cold all potentially can kill animals in the wild. Also if an animal finds itself in an unfavorable location in the wild it can move. Our pets cannot. So if you make your enclosure too humid for your Avic it can't just crawl higher up the tree.

Which is why 65-75 degrees and 45-60% humidity is easy to maintain and good for most species. They're moderate parameters and stable conditions within our homes.

 

[UrbanJungles]

Well Danny, maybe then you had nothing interesting to say or a good point to make.

I decided to go workout instead. I wanna get huge.

 

[Exo]

I have to say, there are a lot of posts on this forum about simulating the "natural habitat". Really, that is impossible to do. We are keeping these animals in small glass and plastic boxes. There is no sun, wind, or rain. There are no seasons. There is no natural bacteria in the soil. You simply cannot duplicate a 1 foot by 1 foot spot on the earth without it being connected to the rest of the earth! We need to simply create an environment that keeps the animal within ideally survivable parameters. That is what zoo's do as well. Besides all that, the natural habitat of animals often kills them. Floods, drought, heat and cold all potentially can kill animals in the wild. Also if an animal finds itself in an unfavorable location in the wild it can move. Our pets cannot. So if you make your enclosure too humid for your Avic it can't just crawl higher up the tree.

Which is why 65-75 degrees and 45-60% humidity is easy to maintain and good for most species. They're moderate parameters and stable conditions within our homes.

Sure we can't exactly duplicate nature, but we can duplicate the parts that probably matter most, such as temp, humidity, and day/night length. I am of the opinion that this stuff is especially important when breeding Ts.

 

[Fran]

I decided to go workout instead. I wanna get huge.

That will be great Good luck!!
If you need any tips, im a PM away!

 

[equuskat]

Regarding humidity.

I keep 6 adult and subadult Avicularia. They are urticans, avicularia, and versicolor. I also have a P. irminia and a P. cambridgei. These 8 arboreals are all on the top shelf of my spider closet. They are all kept on the dry side and I water them by wetting their webs and letting the containers dry out between mistings - every one of them is kept this way. They all have water bowls (well except my larger A. versicolor) but they don't really use them, they prefer to drink off of the webs.

I have large and numerous holes drilled in all but one of the containers, so that they dry out fairly quickly. The last container, which contains a female A. avicularia, has very small holes (about 20 of them) because a friend suggested that we keep them small to keep the humidity up. I didn't protest and we drilled the holes small.

Today, that spider is dying. She is in a bone dry ICU because of what appears to be a fungal infection accompanied by nematodes. I believe that she would be fine had she experienced more ventilation. I feel terribly guilty about this.

In my experience, dryer is better. If you are attentive, your spiders won't die. All of my other spiders are fine.