Sudden Avicularia Death?

[Chris LXXIX]

Do people realize that spiders, therefore Theraphosidae, needs water (the right way I mean) and not a water dish or what? The only reason why I suggest to use that, and I use those, and why I can't stand to see an enclosure without one, is because I'm lazy. And I have annoying issues to deal with called work and life.

But I always raised slings without one. Yeah, indeed a water dish is very useful for juve/adults... problem solved with that, you can go away for a week without issues. But spiders needs water, not that. But btw sometimes make a nice trash can for crickets boluse and poop.

 

[viper69]

issues to deal with called work and life.

Man, I always knew you weren't dedicated

 

[Sana]

@cold blood it's hardly the worst enclosure that I've ever seen. Granted mine have more plants and higher up but I stand by my ventilation. Especially with folks that have little experience with avics. My thought on the ventilation is that I would want air exchange on two sides rather then one. I haven't heard a whole lot of cases where avics have died from too much ventilation so I ere on the side of overdoing rather then having it get stuffy. The biggest down side to lots of ventilation would be water evaporating faster but in my area it's so dry that I have to fill water several times a week anyway. I just don't think that enclosure should have been a death sentence for an avic and the manner that it died is still nagging me.

 

[cold blood]

@cold blood The biggest down side to lots of ventilation would be water evaporating faster but in my area it's so dry that I have to fill water several times a week anyway.

Yup, that's precisely the problem with over-ventilation. Impossible to maintain a micro-climate...and while that may not matter as much with a lot of species, it does with Avicularia.

 

[CABIV]

The fluid out of it's mouth is most likely liquid used for grooming. The other end was poop.

I suppose it was just the amount and the fact that it was more on the clear cloudy side then that typical "whitish" avic poop. It was running out the back in a little "low" pressure stream. The amount that was coming out seemed to the extreme. It had since hardened on the side, and its not even the same as the other "legit" poop.

Ahh yeah, I saw where he was talking about modding the screen so he could feed through it without opening the bottom. I assumed it was because all the bark/plants moved when he did that.
.

Actually, the two halves fit together SO tightly, that it was nearly impossible to open it without it violently breaking loose. I was concerned it would whip the spider around. I'd have to take extreme care opening it. If I had to open it that way once in a while, its not a big deal, but for minor maintenance, making the screen into a hatch seemed like an effective way to put things in and out without having to disturb the spider.

Still, I can see an advantage to adding more of a "canopy" to this enclosure.

The fact that it was eating and behaved/looked normal suggests to me that perhaps something it ate caused this OR, just like people, something went wrong internally for reasons unknown. Not all animals are going to make it to adulthood.

Sorry this wasn't more helpful.

Honestly, its more helpful for me to know that I don't have any major flaws with the way I was keeping it. While there are ways I could improve my setup, it does make it significantly less frustrating in the sense that I know what things I was doing relatively correctly, and that maybe I'll have better success in the future.

I might not get back to an avic right away, though the pet shop does have one healthy looking individual of this species. At the very least, it appear to have grown greater than an inch, and maybe perhaps a robust choice?

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Man, I always knew you weren't dedicated

I'm highly dedicated my man, but sadly, aren't the other 60 millions of fools living here :-s

 

[Ratmosphere]

Sorry for your loss.

 

[viper69]

I'm highly dedicated my man, but sadly, aren't the other 60 millions of fools living here :-s

Most are, there's a few that aren't.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Most are, there's a few that aren't.

Nah... majority here in Lombardy: they love to run even in the subway like madmans, or to perform (quite dangerous) race on sliding scale but they fail to realize that we are working only for gain the money for reach the place of work the day after ah ah :-s