Typhochlaena seladonia - From sling to subadult

[pattypatpat]

People who put exact humidity to follow on how to care for tarantulas have no business teaching people how to care for them. Very stupid.

I'll just refer you to read this thread or to read it again. Everything that needs to be said is already here.

Okay alright! I figured maybe you had new insight since your original post and thought maybe you'd be able to give updated info. But if it hasn't changed, then I'll for sure refer to the information you gave! Thanks alot by the way! It's very helpful! =)

 

[adrianloo]

Oh? Well alot of people online say that they need humidity at about 70%. But then also dry substrate. And that apparently they don't like to be sprayed water on them. So I was trying to figure out how I could manage that. But you're saying it's really not necessary? Here out house is usually at about 40% humidity which I thought wasn't enough for T. Seladonia

That is why we always look for a more updated guide, many guides on YouTube and old articles are sometimes misleading. Most of their seladonia guide are shown at sling stage with no follow up videos. Most probably died lol. Most newer guide keeps them dry, imo Dave's little beasties have some decent guide in YouTube with full updates and follow up on the same seladonias from the day he purchased as slings to adulthood breeding. He also shared that out of the 5 slings he got few years back, 3 died from high humidity and the other 2 successfully reached adulthood and even bred them successfully.

 

[Spyderdune]

This is just my experience, how I've cared for and raised them from 1/3" slings to the present.

So before I even thought about purchasing these slings, I've already read tons of threads about them. After that, I went ahead and asked the best person I know about this stuff, the forefront breeder of T. seladonia in Canada; Martin Gamache. He confirmed that I should keep them like any Aviculariinae species; lots of ventilation and dry substrate to avoid moisture build up in the enclosure. One of the most important thing he told me is not to panic about them not building a trapdoor right away as some take time and can even take a couple of molts before building a trapdoor.


So that's what I did. The 3 T. seladonia slings arrived August of 2021, all 3 were the same size at about 1/3" . I kept them in small dram vials, ventilation all the way around and dry substrate. I fed them prekilled crickets, all ate pretty well. For moisture and hydration, I would spray the sides of the dram vials and sometimes even the corkbark. I never let the substrate get moist to the bottom, only the top parts; the dram vials would dry up rather quickly because of the amount of ventilation. I would spray 2 times a week.

Pictures on the first day

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None of them made a trapdoor while they were in the dram vials.


They were molting quite steadily. At about 3-4 molts in, they were outgrowing the dram vials. I've decided to already put them in their permanent enclosures. Same set up as before corkbark, dry substrate, ventilation all the way around(except on the front) and this time I've added a waterdish. I would still spray their enclosures but this time I did more sparingly and only sprayed the removable top part of the enclosure. After a few weeks in their new permanent enclosures, one finally made a trapdoor; it only took about 30 mins or so from start to finish. I knew this because I peaked at it before eating dinner, it was out in the open. After eating dinner, I took a look again, lo and behold a trapdoor was built. A few weeks had past and another one built its trapdoor. A few months and the last T. seladonia had finally built its trapdoor, although this one took its time building; if I recall correctly it took a while week constructing its trapdoor. Another thing to note is that I never offered live prey until they've had their trapdoors because when I tried, they would get too spooked even when the feeder is considerably smaller. When they did have their trapdoors, they were readily taking prey as big as them.

I feel like I've been consistent with them to this day and they're all still doing really good with steady growth rates and molts.

Actively going out of its trapdoor to take a drink
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One of my females out of the 3. She is about 1.25" today.

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Great information.