Some questions about my new T's

[Whitelightning777]

Read what the OP said. He has a digital gauge, which by the way are highly accurate. Although humidity itself can change even from one side of the cage to the other.

As long as the humidity numbers are correct or at least not dangerous, the tarantula would be fine. 70%+ will kill an Avic but Psalmopeous and Poecilotheria are more tolerant of humidity.


For a 3.5" DLS spider, a 5 gallon is a good size. Since the tarantula is eating, that is good sign. Hiding is normal behavior for many arboreals including this one.

Do bear in mind that humid air is dense air and therefore is closely bound to the ground. If you go 100 feet up a tree even in humid swampy regions, the humidity drops off fast.

I quickly researched this tarantula. The care is the same as Poecilotheria species, nearly identical.

Sub adults appreciate being misted one or twice per week but don't really require extra humidity at that size. Slings for that species can be kept at 55-70% until they get to about 2" DLS.

I'd keep the gauge in the tank. It won't do any harm, but P cambridgi doesn't require that as an adult. It's probably at the higher end of the safe range. At least back it off to 55-60% in my humble opinion.

Only a few Ts, such as T stirmi or T blondi, require that much humidity.

 

[Greasylake]

As long as the humidity numbers are correct or at least not dangerous, the tarantula would be fine. 70%+ will kill an Avic but Psalmopeous and Poecilotheria are more tolerant of humidity.

Humidity isn't really relevant unless the air is stuffy and killing your spider. A note about pokies and moisture, for a while people kept them moist but I decided to experiment a little with mine and tried keeping it bone dry, and it actually became more active, ate better and just in general did better.

Sub adults appreciate being misted one or twice per week but don't really require extra humidity at that size. Slings for that species can be kept at 55-70% until they get to about 2" DLS.

Misting doesn't really help since that water will just evaporate in a matter of minutes to hours. If you have a moisture dependent species just pour the water straight into the substrate, it retains moisture longer and the T will actually benefit from it. As people have said before, any tarantula can be kept at any ambient air humidity, what matters is that the enclosure is well ventilated to keep it from becoming stuffy and that the moisture levels in the substrate are right.

 

[Whitelightning777]

For my pokies, I don't want to create swampy conditions long term. They like it when the glass gets sprayed and then dries off.

I've found that this can stimulate feeding behavior big-time. For them, I usually just religiously keep the water dishes full.

My C versicolor is a different story. Sudden Avic death syndrome = exposure to excess humidity. That's been proven. Therefore, I do have a gauge and I keep it under 65% at all times, which isn't too difficult because my room isn't that humid to begin with.

The issue that happens is if he manages to flip the waterdish or a certain roommate overfills it, which gets the substrate wet and jacks up the humidity.

I only had one close call with that & I simply aimed a gentle fan at the front of my enclosure for a few hours until it subsided.

If excess humidity can kill a tarantula, it only makes sense to keep tabs on it.

Using a gauge to help you raise up the humidity level to an insane amount and then putting a dry spider into that setup is obviously a fatal error.

Not all tarantulas are immune to all levels of humidity & you have to know what you have.

 

[The Grym Reaper]

I understand this is normal when they get in a new home but how long should I expect before she starts to venture out?

If mine and @boina's are anything to go by then almost never.

Huh interesting you say that, Ive seen a lot of threads on here and elsewhere saying they are a rather visible species and sit out most of the time.

I got one because of this and saw him about 6 times (including unboxing him and packing him up to ship off to a breeder after he hooked out).

Conversely, the popular consensus is that P. irminia are evil recluses and my female is the complete opposite, I see her out almost every day unless she's in pre-moult.

 

[The Grym Reaper]

Sudden Avic death syndrome

SADS is a myth and was most likely made up because nobody wanted to admit they'd got the husbandry wrong for an entire genus of tarantulas. The acronym needs to throw itself in a shredder, preferably taking "DKS" along with it

There's no mystery disease/syndrome that kills Avics, keeping Avics in sopping wet enclosures with shit ventilation kills Avics.

GBBs die if you keep them too wet, some baboons cark it if you keep them too wet, we don't have mystery syndrome acronyms that get bandied about whenever someone keeps one of them in a sopping wet death trap and kills it.

 

[Whitelightning777]

Exactly!!

Excess moisture / humidity is the cause.

The best way to prevent that is to have an accurate means of measuring said moisture levels. When such levels are detected, corrective action can be undertaken.

A gauge being physically present, especially a digital one, poses absolutely no hazard whatsoever to the physical safety of your tarantula. The T will most likely ignore it or just use it as another webbing anchor point, especially if alternatives are absent or few and far between.

More vents or air holes can be added. A fan can be employed to gently blow upon holes existing in the enclosure to promote circulation.

Perhaps the T has to be removed and the enclosure aired out or wet substrate physically removed, but that usually isn't needed.

A larger deeper water dish less prone to flipping out overflowing can be used. If all else fails, you can always rehouse into a different kind of enclosure, perhaps one that is more upscale or better engineered.

An example might be upgrading to an ExoTerra nano instead of a Jerry rigged plastic thing from the dollar store.

Of course, none of these counter measures can be employed if the problem remains undetected. The biggest myth about excessive moisture is that it's visible to the naked eye.

Wrong wrong wrong!!

80% humidity looks just like 40% humidity. In most cases you won't see so much as one drop of condensation. This is what makes it so treacherous.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure & one additional webbing anchor point, even a bit of a pricey one, is a very small price to pay.

Another precaution one can take is to use tried true and tested professionally built enclosures instead of cutting corners unless you're extremely mechanically inclined.

What you don't know can hurt you....or your tarantula.

 

[Whitelightning777]

SADS is a myth and was most likely made up because nobody wanted to admit they'd got the husbandry wrong for an entire genus of tarantulas. The acronym needs to throw itself in a shredder, preferably taking "DKS" along with it

There's no mystery disease/syndrome that kills Avics, keeping Avics in sopping wet enclosures with shit ventilation kills Avics.

GBBs die if you keep them too wet, some baboons cark it if you keep them too wet, we don't have mystery syndrome acronyms that get bandied about whenever someone keeps one of them in a sopping wet death trap and kills it.

Myth?

What about all those casualties? The causes may have been hard to pin down in the past but make no mistake, the wrong moisture level can inflict grave harm.

One problem is that ground level humidity from the tarantula's point of origin was used as a baseline.

The original caresheets failed to consider that the high physical altitude of arboreals and semi arboreals in the wild meant that they in fact lived with far less humidity and far better air circulation then whatever existed at ground level.

No one bothered to climb a tree and take measurements from a tarantula eye view.

Feeding wild food or using decor and substrate from nature instead of sanitary pet trade sources probably causes DKS because of chemical impurities and pesticides.

Again, the counter measures are fairly obvious.

 

[The Grym Reaper]

Myth?

What about all those casualties? The causes may have been hard to pin down in the past but make no mistake, the wrong moisture level can inflict grave harm.

This is basically how "SADS" came about = There's a mystery illness that randomly causes Avics to drop dead that has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that we spent years trying to keep them overly humid death-traps.

SADS is not a real thing, there's no mystery here, sopping wet stagnant death-traps kill Avics, the term needs to die.

Feeding wild food or using decor and substrate from nature instead of sanitary pet trade sources probably causes DKS because of chemical impurities and pesticides.

Again, DKS is not a real thing, it's a misnomer, it's not a mystery set of symptoms running together, it's one symptom - Dyskinesia.

When someone says "my tarantula has DKS" what they actually mean is "my tarantula is exhibiting dyskinesia as a result of poisoning/internal parasite/dehydration/impaction (delete as applicable)", it's not a mystery disease, it's not even a mysterious set of symptoms that would imply a "syndrome", it's just one known symptom and we know a number of things that cause it.

 

[Whitelightning777]

At least we've got a better understanding about it today. The counter measures are obvious, greater control of conditions and materials added.

 

[Greasylake]

The counter measures are obvious, greater control of conditions and materials added.

You're not en engineer are you? The name of the game is simplification for the end user. The easier it is to do something, the simpler and more streamlined it is, the more likely you are to attract peoples interest. You don't want to over engineer things, they're spiders not Lamborghinis. While your methods may work with humidity gauges and complex setups, a bare bones enclosure with dry substrate, some cork bark, leaves and a lot of holes would be easier for a newcomer to make, and they would be able to be successful with little to no experience at all, whereas if I recall correctly you've said yourself it took you a long time to get your enclosures perfectly. Don't make life hard man, make it easier for you and other people. That's how you attract people. There's some free business advice for you as well.

 

[The Grym Reaper]

You don't want to over engineer things

This, there's only really 3 ways to keep substrate if you think about it:

- Dry, maybe overflow the dish once in a blue moon.
- Slightly moist, the occasional dry spell is usually OK.
- Perpetually moist, never allowed to dry out fully.

Good ventilation should be standard whatever you keep, I have Asian fossorials in unmodified kritter keepers and I've never had an issue keeping them moist enough to support the occupant (it's pretty easy to see when the lower levels are starting to dry out).
Conversely, the "Jerry rigged" plastic enclosures I keep Avics in are well-ventilated enough that if the contents of a water dish somehow get dumped into the substrate in their entirety then I can just let it dry out naturally, there's no need for fans/rehouses/partial sub removals.

Some people just like making life difficult for themselves.

 

[EvanWest]

You're not en engineer are you?

If hes not I am......must control all variables *nervous twitch*.......Really tho i promise the humidity monitor is only there because I already had it and it gives me a nice way to know when I need to water the enclosure, im not trying to target like a specific number. The P. Cam was out quite a lot last night so thats good, shes super skittish tho and bolts to her hide if I open the enclose so that makes feeding her a bit of a pain but ill just drop the roach into her hide. Picked up some Coco fiber last night so ill put the Brachypelma hamorii on that once I re-hydrate it and then dry it again lol.

 

[The Grym Reaper]

Picked up some Coco fiber last night so ill put the Brachypelma hamorii on that once I re-hydrate it and then dry it again lol.

Quick tip for that, break the block up into smaller chunks and don't use anywhere near as much water as it tells you to on the pack, you might have to crumble up the odd bit but it won't all be absolutely sopping wet by the time you're finished.

 

[Greasylake]

If hes not I am......must control all variables *nervous twitch*.......Really tho i promise the humidity monitor is only there because I already had it and it gives me a nice why to know when I need to water the enclosure

I hear you about the controlling variables. My mom and dad are engineers, my uncles are engineers, my cousins and friends are engineers and I work with engineers, but the humidity gauge measures ambient humidity not the moisture of the substrate, which is the relevant part. You would be better off just eyeballing it (sounds like heresy I know) and adding some water to the substrate when you can see it starting to dry out at the lower, deeper levels.

 

[Whitelightning777]

I'm a gear head, no formal engineering degree. I've welded for years, done plumbing and HVAC, built computers both laptops, tried to restore a 1970 cougar but ran out of money & lastly some gunsmithing.

I never met a tool that didn't like unless it was totally cheap and a menace to actually use.

Nevertheless, tarantulas are a piece of cake by way of comparison. In fact, they are basically living robots, designed as anti insect way machines that in some cases like the occasional Earthworm.

& yes, I do generally try to find out what exact torque bolts require before tightening them first, 95% of the time.

 

[Greasylake]

I do generally try to find out what exact torque bolts require before tightening them first, 95% of the time.

You could always just use the ol finely tuned torque elbow. A know a few mechanics like that lol.

 

[Whitelightning777]

I know. That's why penetrating oil is so popular.

 

[cold blood]

I know. That's why penetrating oil is so popular.

that or rust

 

[EvanWest]

Good news is that the Trinidad has continued to come out at night and ate yesterday. In addition to this the Red Knee molted and in a week or so ill offer it some food.