Tarantulas in captivity : the mythbusters !

[Kendricks]

Heat mats are dangerous.

Is that the myth you challenge, or a statement?

 

[boina]

Right, I check on all my Ts pretty much daily as well. It's harder to find that sling in the big enclosure to make sure it's doing good. We had a post the other day about a keeper who's slings were likely dead for weeks with their knowing. The bigger the enclosure the easier this is. It's still hard to keep the enclosure conditions the way I want them the bigger they get. There is still nothing to be gained from a larger enclosure.

See to me there are two types of ideals your calling "myths". One is harmful if followed and the other is not.

Harmful Ideal: ICUs - If you use one for anything other than a severely dehydrated T then you cause more issues and so it is harmful.

Not Harmful Ideal: Misting - As long as you don't over mist and make the enclosure to wet (swampy) misting causes no harm.

Where this discussion is tilting IMO is thinking that if you have a example of a T living without doing X there is no need for it. To me that is false reasoning. One should always weight the pros and cons to any keeping ideal.

Take for instance the great water dish debate of 2017 (here after referred to the GWDD2017).
The pros to having a water dish are: Maintenance is easier due to a readily available water source. Keeper doesn't need to watch the T as close to detect if T needs extra water. If my T room gets really hot today due to a spike in summer temps (it's cut off from the rest of my house's central air) and the T needs a drink it can get one. If something comes up and I can't work with the Ts today because... <insert emergency here> then the T still has what he needs. A water dish is a steady source of humidity.
The cons to having a water dish are: It take up a little room in the enclosure. If the T is a heavy webber/digger you have to free the dish from dirt or web when watering. Not much else.

So weighing the pros vs the cons why wouldn't you have a water dish? Do we unlock an achievement for raising Ts without them?

Do you absolutely have to have them? No, I have raised Ts without them. I currently have them in all my enclosures (even my 1/4 inch slings) now and are likely to continue to do so in the future. There really isn't a good reason why not to IMO. That's my take on the GWDD2017.

Keep in mind a lot of these so called "Myths" are ideas that make it easier for new keepers to get into keeping Ts with the least amount of problems.

What we should be trying to bust are the ones that cause more issues or are even harmful if people follow them.

Finally someone with a bit more differentiated reasoning than just black and white do - don'ts!

I was reading this thread and I was getting seriously annoyed. As Trenor said: of course you can raise a T without a water dish - but not without water. So you tell a new keeper to put a dish in there, instead of telling them how to mist and how often and not to let the T dry out but to make sure the enclosure doesn't become a swamp and so on. Water dishes are good for Ts because they are easy, not because the dish itself is necessary.

The same goes for enclosure size. Of course a T of any size can live perfectly well in a large enclosure. However, a sling has two instincts: 1. to feed and grow and 2. to hide and be safe. I've seen newbies provide huge, barren enclosures with a much to large hide for a tiny sling. That doesn't work, because the sling has nowhere to hide really, until it burrows and completely disappears in the wasteland of the huge enclosure. The slings instinct to hide may even outweigh it's instinct to eat to a certain degree and it will not eat well and grow much slower. In nature a sling is not likely to cross vast open areas, because it will be detected and eaten. I think the myth that the sling can't find it's food in large enclosures stems from this. So again: instead of telling a noob to provide proper moisture levels and hides the right size and structures and clutter to provide hiding possibilities while the sling is out hunting and so on, you simply tell them to use a smaller enclosure wich takes care of all the problems without the need for pages of explanations that the noob may get all wrong.

Those things are not myths. Those are just "rules" that may help a newbie set up a proper enclosure and reduce the risk of mistakes that will seriously harm or even kill the spider. And the same reasoning goes for misting and probably a lot more things.

 

[Python]

I keep water dishes in with my T's and I do see a couple of them use them from time to time. Most of mine don't bother trashing it but I do have a couple that can't seem to stand seeing a clean, unobstructed water bowl. I wonder sometimes if the wandering types feel that having a pool in the yard eats up their precious real estate. I keep mine in enclosures that some would say are way too big so it's not as much an issue now as it was but it still happens.

 

[basin79]

Is that the myth you challenge, or a statement?

Challenge.

 

[Andrea82]

Dead horses...dead horses everywhere...

 

[Venom1080]

Dead horses...dead horses everywhere...

kick em for fun

 

[Vorax29]

@boina : I don't agree with some of your arguments (about the size of the enclosure).
But of course, I won't put a 1.5cm legspan tarantula in a 30x30x30 cm enclosure

 

[mistertim]

The only spider of mine that doesn't have a water dish is my L. megatheloides. That thing webs so much and so fast that there is little point as it will be webbed over within a day probably. So I dribble water onto its webbing a couple times a week and it does fine. Not having a water dish is ok...but it requires you to pay more attention and be more vigilant in making sure the spider keeps hydrated.

 

[sasker]

Many of the so-called myths need to be put into context. Spiders get dehydrated if no water dish is provided and the owner does not mist the enclosure. Enclosures can be too big if the other conditions are not optimal, as boina mentioned. Heat mats will kill tarantula's when wrongly applied. One could argue that a heat mat is dangerous, but cold could just as well kill tarantulas if the water dish freezes over.

Unfortunately we cannot ask our tarantulas if they are comfortable so we need to 'guess' if they are alright. It is good to keep an open mind

 

[cold blood]

The first I want to give my opinion about is the classical "A spiderling can not find its food in a too big enclosure".
With my first tarantulas, I used to respect this fact! Small spider = small enclosure.
But I've tried to put spiderlings in bigger containers than a ridiculous sized box, and nothing bad happened!
I first tried after I've seen EACH TIME my spiderlings walked all around their little enclosures all night long!

This isn't true, but its close. I've used multiple species and well over 100 specimens in a direct experiment. Literally 100% of the ones in the over size containers hid most, if not all the time and hunted almost never. When I ended the experiment and dug up the small (under 1/2", some as small as 1/4") slings in the over-size containers, the biggest ones were 3/4", many looked like they did when they were originally put in...their siblings, kept in smaller enclosures, were all 2-3" and wearing adult colors. Baboons fared better, enclosure size had no effect with arboreals.

Its certainly not that they can't find food, that notion is ridiculous, but the fact is that they will generally hunt and feed a lot less as a result...so its not that they can't find food, its that they just hunt less, a lot less. I see it as more of a natural response that you might see from a wild spiderling. It is of a keepers benefit to speed growth when small, as this is the most dangerous time for a t for reasons more than just predatory. Smaller enclosures are more effective at growing slings faster....but you can grow a sling in a 30 foot enclosure if that's what you want to do.

This is one instance where mimicking nature probably isn't the best thing to do though...as wild survival rates are, or can be abysmal. A small enclosure makes everything faster and easier for a sling and the survival rates in the high 90% in captivity is a testament to this.

 

[cold blood]

but that you had to leave a sponge in the water for them to get moisture from.

I recall this when I got my first one. Went to the pet store to get stuff for it...had no idea back then and went with the store

Came home heat pad in hand, pine bark wood shavings and a big sponge for the dish. We got home and I set it up and immediately questioned the sponge.

My brother argued that the store said they needed it to drink...I countered that sponges are from the ocean, no where near where tarantulas live...so they could not possibly be in any way linked to tarantula survival. I figured that one out right away...used the bad sub for another 6 years...used the heat pad for another 3 years after that...when it died (the heat pad) I did research and learned about my tarantula a little more. Funny how much different (in a good way) she is without a heat pad. She used to scrunch up on it for months on end...poor thing...luckily it was a bulletproof rosie.

 

[cold blood]

In your opinion (and maybe you've seen this in the wild), how tarantulas do in the wild in some areas where there is no water?

Sure there is...fresh dew forms every morning.

 

[cold blood]

I'm shocked no one hit on this one...

"My tarantula has DKS"

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Dead horses...dead horses everywhere...

Please don't throw away that freshly dead (and beated) horses: I'm an avid horse meat lover

 

[boina]

@boina : I don't agree with some of your arguments (about the size of the enclosure).
But of course, I won't put a 1.5cm legspan tarantula in a 30x30x30 cm enclosure

What exactly do you disagree with, then?

 

[Chris LXXIX]

I'm shocked no one hit on this one...

"My tarantula has DKS"

Yeah, that has mostly to do with common names and the huge love that a lot of people has for short-cut names/terms, like "DKS" is.

Imagine if the name for 'DKS' was/is longer like certain Wales little villages that sounds like: Ayymtiernttweinglylordhantilwith or something

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Is that the myth you challenge, or a statement?

Ah ah :-s

 

[Vorax29]

What exactly do you disagree with, then?

I disagree with the idea of "rules".
I personaly keep tarantulas and try to make them the most adapted enclosures. I keep them not only for my pleasure, but I try to make them a natural environment.
That's why for example I use only real plants!
But there is a "rule" telling tarantulas don't need real plants...
I think a lot of these "rules" are for the human pleasure... I prefer my spiderlings hidden in a deep burrow, as it would be in the wild, than a spiderling in a very little container showing itself all the time.
I don't keep tarantulas for scientific reasons, I don't keep many of them... I rescued some so they are not necessarily my favorites species... But it's nice to learn about their life in the wild and try to raise them in this way...

But we're not really in the subject of this topic.
I wrote about some myths I wanted to share with my personal experience.

 

[boina]

I disagree with the idea of "rules".
I personaly keep tarantulas and try to make them the most adapted enclosures. I keep them not only for my pleasure, but I try to make them a natural environment.
That's why for example I use only real plants!
But there is a "rule" telling tarantulas don't need real plants...
I think a lot of these "rules" are for the human pleasure... I prefer my spiderlings hidden in a deep burrow, as it would be in the wild, than a spiderling in a very little container showing itself all the time.
I don't keep tarantulas for scientific reasons, I don't keep many of them... I rescued some so they are not necessarily my favorites species... But it's nice to learn about their life in the wild and try to raise them in this way...

But we're not really in the subject of this topic.
I wrote about some myths I wanted to share with my personal experience.

There's a reason I put "rules" in quotation marks in my post, you know... and I still don't see anything you disagree with, just something you misunderstood, but whatever.

But I learned something: Don't ever use quotation marks. Their meaning has become so diluted in dayly use that people might not understand it anymore.

 

[Andrea82]

Please don't throw away that freshly dead (and beated) horses: I'm an avid horse meat lover

*throws the dead horses @Chris LXXIX 's way.*

I disagree with the idea of "rules".
I personaly keep tarantulas and try to make them the most adapted enclosures. I keep them not only for my pleasure, but I try to make them a natural environment.
That's why for example I use only real plants!
But there is a "rule" telling tarantulas don't need real plants...
I think a lot of these "rules" are for the human pleasure... I prefer my spiderlings hidden in a deep burrow, as it would be in the wild, than a spiderling in a very little container showing itself all the time.
I don't keep tarantulas for scientific reasons, I don't keep many of them... I rescued some so they are not necessarily my favorites species... But it's nice to learn about their life in the wild and try to raise them in this way...

But we're not really in the subject of this topic.
I wrote about some myths I wanted to share with my personal experience.

But that is the issue. You are trying to keep it like it lives in the wild, but you're failing to realize that they die by the hundreds in the wild due to those exact same reasons you're trying to create. If a sling has no water available in the wild for a couple of days because of it hiding, it will die. What you see them do in the wild is not behaviour in an optimal set up, it is survival. It is not thriving.
And that is the reason I keep them with a waterdish, with a little room to burrow but nothing to big or deep. The vial the sling is in IS its burrow, more space isn't needed because it gets everything it needs right at its burrow. Food, water. So it doesn't need to go wandering in search of food or water, exposing itself to predators and bad weather.
I'm all for providing a nice enclosure. But to do things because 'that's what they do in the wild' is a bit silly. You'd have to introduce trees and shrubs, rivers and predators, rocks and prey, and you would need to make a room like that for it.