rosehair fooled me

[veronyka]

I was misting the cage where my rosie lives, the one who always comes out and raises her legs at me. Well, all this time I thought she was being territorial, and it made me nervous to touch her. well, as it turns out, she just wanted some attention. She came up to me and let me play with her palps and her feet. How cool is that. So I guess this means both my rosies are friendly and like to be touched That makes me happy. Now, if only my redknee would let me hold her... but no, she's very skiddish.. maybe someday =D. OK well, I'm done rambling now

 

[King_Looey]

Lol, thats cool, mine likes me touching his bum. Kinky stuff.

 

[MrDeranged]

Hey Veronyka,

I have a question for you. Any particular reason why you would mist your rosehair? Just give it a water dish and that should meet all of it's humidity needs. Most of the time when you mist, by the time you put the misting bottle away, any increase in humidity from the misting has pretty much evaporated, making it a waste of your time.

Scott

 

[King_Looey]

I just jet the water into the substrate, this doesnt frighten the spider, and still moistens the soil.

 

[Mendi]

You know she might be raising her front legs to tell you "please. don't mist in here! I come from a semi arrid to desert homeland not the jungle, but I would appreciate a water dish so I can get a real drink when I feel the need" But then she may just be happy to see you. I never mist any of my Ts, and they are all rather happy going to get a drink from their bowls. For the arboreal ones, I've hot glued a water dish up on their level so they don't even need to go down to the ground... the lazy things

 

[veronyka]

Hmmmm good point. But remember I've only had my rosies for a few months. So I'm still trying to get the humidity right.. it's not like i make the substrate soaking wet or anything. But it's still cool she let me touch her.

 

[Mendi]

I love holding my Rosy's too and I've got 4 adults and 2 little slings. Matter of fact, Charlotte, I believe likes to be out on my hand too. As soon as I open up her house, she crawls out from under her cork bark and waits for "the elevator" or my hand. Once she's in my she's about as active "pebble", my petrock. But I think she must enjoy it in her own spidey way as she is a real pill to get back inside her house. I do know she doesn't like it when here substrate gets damp though as she will climb the wall and wait there until it gets dry, as will, most of my Bracky's and Aphonopelma's, at least the American sp do, where my CR Zebra sometimes appears to want to swim in her water dish. The humidity isn't as much an issue with a grown spider as it is with a spiderling. Normally with an adult the water dish in the habitat will keep the humidity up where they like it. Though there are some more advance rainforest Ts that like it almost swampy and will perish if the humidity isn't kept up. You might be a while before you move up to having one of these, due to the above and thier attitude. Hanging around in places like this and a few other sites is a very good place to learn about the "kids" and talk about the addiction =D

 

[veronyka]

OK well I no longer mist my roses. But one question, since I know there needs to be a certain amount of moisture for a molt, do I need to mist if a molt does come up? Or is the water dish still enough?

 

[MrDeranged]

Veronyka,

It's really hard to say whether or not misting helps during molting. I do, but it's mostly out of habit. I've kept rosea in bone dry tanks with lots of ventilation and they've molted succesfully. The way that I look at it is that even in a bone dry tank, when a T molts, the exuvia is very wet on the inside. This leads me to believe that molting has much more to do with internal hydration than external moisture. This is not to say that humidity cannot help in certain situations. If you have a t that is having trouble molting, having a humid environment MAY keep the T from sclerotizing (hardening up) as quickly as it would in a bone dry environment. This is just conjecture on my part though. I may be completely off. I still say just make sure that your T has access to enough water before it molts and it should make it through fine. If you do mist during a molt, make sure to do it in a section of the enclosure that is as far away from the T as possible.

Scott

 

[veronyka]

Ok that makes a lot of sense to me. I haven't misted the roses since I read the posts on this thread. They have plenty of water, so I'm sure they're both fine, and I don't see any immediate molts coming just yet anyway but I will keep what you said in mind. Thanks! :}