Wanna Make Sure I'm Doing it Right

[Calymene]

Hello, all.

I heard that this forum is one of the best tarantula forums around, so I figured, yeah, I'll give it a go. I just wanna start by saying that my Pink toe (A. avicularia) is the very first spider I've ever cared for and I wanna make certain that I got this right.

It isn't easy, with so much contradicting care information out there. Hopefully, the information I went with is the right one. Here goes...

Arachnia (that's her name) is roughly around 2" from head to tail and she lives in an arboreal terrarium with ventilation from both above and the front (under the door). She has a cork flat leaning near vertical and plastic plant hanging next to it.

As substrate, she has coconut fiber, dry (or as dry as I can get it) and several inches deep to help cushion her should she fall.

She has yet to settle enough to build a web (she just hangs out on a wall for a couple of days before moving to another wall to chill out on), but she's eagerly eaten two crickets I offered her (she'll be fed two small crickets a week). I'm not sure if she's drinking, but she has a water bowl (no sponge) in the corner that's changed everyday and overfilled so some water spills onto the substrate to provide humidity since misting is useless, apparently....

She's kept at 80 degrees F (my room temperature, in fact) and her humidity is currently at 60%. Humidity especially confuses me, as I read "proper" percentages ranging from 50-90%

Is everything good? I could use all the help I can get. Thank you for taking the time to read.

 

[EulersK]

Wow, I'm impressed. Good job Literally the only issue is the humidity percentages. Firstly, whatever meter you're using to get that number... throw it away. Or donate it. It's useless for tarantula keeping. Don't worry about specific numbers, you'll drive yourself insane. I overfill my avic's water dish about every other week and call it good. They should be kept primarily dry.

For future reference, Americans tend to measure spiders by the diagonal leg span (dls). How you're measuring it is how they do it in the UK. Nothing wrong with it, but a 2" spider here is tiny whereas a 2" spider in the UK is huge in comparison! So just measure from the top left foot to the bottom right foot, or vise versa.

Welcome to the hobby

 

[Lessej]

Welcome!!!

I'm not experienced with avics so I can't say much but it your setup sounds really good to me!

Hope you stick around as there are some great people, threads, and information here.

Let's see a pic!

 

[14pokies]

Sounds pretty good to me.. The hygrometer is pretty useless in this case as EulersK stated.. Just eyeball it..

She will most likely start webbing when she goes into pre molt so don't worry too much about that..

 

[bryverine]

Avics can take awhile to adjust. It took mine several weeks of starting a web and tearing it down again.

The trick with avics is that humidity is OK IF you have very good circulation/ventilation. Stuffy cages kill avics as people try to approach that magic number for humidity.

Also, you certainly came to the right place!

 

[magicmed]

Agree with everything @EulersK said. I'll add that if it's a screen top enclosure a lot of members will suggest switching it to acrylic, but great job! Just ignore humidity percentages, with avics, a lot of people suggest dry substrate with just a decent sized water dish, and proper ventilation.

Welcome to the hobby and the forum

 

[Andrea82]

Ventilation at the top and front under the door sounds like you got the favorite European enclosure
Sounds good overall, would love to see pictures!
I chuckled a little when you said 'head to tail', since tarantula don't have tails, lol!
From fangs to spinnerets would be the proper way, but no biggie. As others stated, diagonal legspan is what is commonly used in the US, bodylength is used in Europe and UK. doesn't matter which one you use, as long as you add which measurements you are using. (DLS or BL)

 

[viper69]

Hello, all.

I heard that this forum is one of the best tarantula forums around, so I figured, yeah, I'll give it a go. I just wanna start by saying that my Pink toe (A. avicularia) is the very first spider I've ever cared for and I wanna make certain that I got this right.

It isn't easy, with so much contradicting care information out there. Hopefully, the information I went with is the right one. Here goes...

Arachnia (that's her name) is roughly around 2" from head to tail and she lives in an arboreal terrarium with ventilation from both above and the front (under the door). She has a cork flat leaning near vertical and plastic plant hanging next to it.

As substrate, she has coconut fiber, dry (or as dry as I can get it) and several inches deep to help cushion her should she fall.

She has yet to settle enough to build a web (she just hangs out on a wall for a couple of days before moving to another wall to chill out on), but she's eagerly eaten two crickets I offered her (she'll be fed two small crickets a week). I'm not sure if she's drinking, but she has a water bowl (no sponge) in the corner that's changed everyday and overfilled so some water spills onto the substrate to provide humidity since misting is useless, apparently....

She's kept at 80 degrees F (my room temperature, in fact) and her humidity is currently at 60%. Humidity especially confuses me, as I read "proper" percentages ranging from 50-90%

Is everything good? I could use all the help I can get. Thank you for taking the time to read.

Welcome to the AB Forum and the wonderful word of Ts, esp Avics.

You are the first person I have seen in quite a while that seems to have done a thorough amount of research as evidenced by 2 things:

1. The fact you observed inconsistencies on the info out there (imagine that!)
2. W/out pics, it seems you have made a pretty good setup generally speaking.

Are you using an ExoTerra by chance, what size? Pics are necessary to provide more meaningful input.

Generally it sounds like everything is good but w/out pics I cannot say for sure.

If you have a screen top, as found in ExoTerra tanks, you'll need to replace that with a piece of acrylic w/drilled holes. Ts get their tarsal claws stuck in the screen. It's not a safe situation.

A waterbowl is needed, esp at this Ts size. However, not all Avics will come down to drink, especially after a molt. It's wise to have a syringe with a blunt tipped needle (if you need the parts PM me for links) so you can add water to the webbing so it may drink.

Not sure if you know, but play close attention to the Avics abdominal size as a gauge to determine if it is both properly hydrated and fed. Also, observe it's body posture to help determine if it's hungry. All of my Avics will be facing towards to the container bottom hoping for live crickets when hungry.

A. huriana- Sub Adult Male, Drinking

• viper69
• Jun 26, 2016
• avicularia huriana

FOR ALL THE NEW AVIC OWNERS THAT WONDER IF THERE AVIC WILL DRINK FROM A DISH ON THE SUB FLOOR!

Ventilation at the top and front under the door sounds like you got the favorite European enclosure

Not necessarily, ExoTerra's are designed this way

 

[Andrea82]

Welcome to the AB Forum and the wonderful word of Ts, esp Avics.

You are the first person I have seen in quite a while that seems to have done a thorough amount of research as evidenced by 2 things:

1. The fact you observed inconsistencies on the info out there (imagine that!)
2. W/out pics, it seems you have made a pretty good setup generally speaking.

Are you using an ExoTerra by chance, what size? Pics are necessary to provide more meaningful input.

Generally it sounds like everything is good but w/out pics I cannot say for sure.

If you have a screen top, as found in ExoTerra tanks, you'll need to replace that with a piece of acrylic w/drilled holes. Ts get their tarsal claws stuck in the screen. It's not a safe situation.

A waterbowl is needed, esp at this Ts size. However, not all Avics will come down to drink, especially after a molt. It's wise to have a syringe with a blunt tipped needle (if you need the parts PM me for links) so you can add water to the webbing so it may drink.

Not sure if you know, but play close attention to the Avics abdominal size as a gauge to determine if it is both properly hydrated and fed. Also, observe it's body posture to help determine if it's hungry. All of my Avics will be facing towards to the container bottom hoping for live crickets when hungry.

A. huriana- Sub Adult Male, Drinking

• viper69
• Jun 26, 2016
• avicularia huriana

FOR ALL THE NEW AVIC OWNERS THAT WONDER IF THERE AVIC WILL DRINK FROM A DISH ON THE SUB FLOOR!

Not necessarily, ExoTerra's are designed this way

Ah, didn't know that. Don't use the damn things due to their absurd prices as opposed to the glass ones, and them needing too many adjustments.

 

[viper69]

Ah, didn't know that. Don't use the damn things due to their absurd prices as opposed to the glass ones, and them needing too many adjustments.

They only need a piece of acrylic up top, very very minor hahaha

 

[cold blood]

They only need a piece of acrylic up top, very very minor hahaha

Drilled out acrylic

@Calymene, the set up sounds light years ahead of what we normally see in this situation....I also look forward to some pics.

 

[viper69]

Drilled out acrylic

Read again young Jedi

If you have a screen top, as found in ExoTerra tanks, you'll need to replace that with a piece of acrylic w/drilled holes

 

[cold blood]

Read again young Jedi

Hehe, I was just poking you with a proverbial pointy stick.

 

[viper69]

Hehe, I was just poking you with a proverbial pointy stick.

Sure no prob! And I was just pointing out my original statement w/the complete advice I know you are busy feeding up a storm of slings there so I figured you hadn't read that line in between feeding one sling and moving to the next

 

[cold blood]

Sure no prob! And I was just pointing out my original statement w/the complete advice I know you are busy feeding up a storm of slings there so I figured you hadn't read that line in between feeding one sling and moving to the next

Oh I saw it...you just overlooked it in your last post (#10) so I just had to correct it. poke poke

 

[viper69]

Oh I saw it...you just overlooked it in your last post (#10) so I just had to correct it. poke poke

I knew you'd say that. Indeed I did not overlook it, as I wasn't communicating to the OP and thus didn't need that piece of info in there, including it would have been redundant.