Water dish dangers.

[Avicularia Man]

Last night, well actually this morning. Anyways at 2:45 a.m., I decided to see if my 1/2" A. Metallica had climbed any in it's new cage. When I looked in on it, I noticed it was sitting weird and all wet. There was also a wet path leading from it's water dish straight to it. The a. Metallica was sitting on a leaf about an inch above the water. Well seeing it was all wet, not moving and sitting weird, I decided to open the cage and blow on it a bit just to make sure it was alive. No movement. So I pulled the fake plant out with the T on it and touched it and nothing. At this point I was upset. Well I thought of these forums and all the close call comebacks that people had using a wet ICU. Well I told my girl to get some toilet paper. I put it in the A. metallica's old cage and sat my T on the dry paper all the time thinking my spider was dead and this was really a waste of my time, but figured I would at least give it until this morning. As I laid in bed, I kept thinking about my dead T and couldn't sleep. After 20 minutes of not getting to sleep, I decided to go look and see if there was any sign of life. Well to my surprise, my now had uncurled all it's legs and had them all spread out like normal and I was so happy but wasn't sure it was alive just yet. So I opened the cage and touched it and it ran a few steps and stopped. I was so happy at this point. Well I left it in the dry ICU until this morning and put it back in it's cage. Needless to say, I removed it's water dish and will NOT be putting it back in with it until it reaches 1" like my A. Versicolor. When it gets that big, it will be safe to use the bottle cap again for a water dish. It will just get it's water from it's food and from it's cage walls when I mist until it grows.

So to all those that told me not to worry about my small T's being safe with a water dish that is bigger than them. Stop giving advice, you don't know enough to be giving advice. For now on, my T's will have to have the leg span of it's water dish before it gets that water dish. Until then, it's water will come from food and misting. I am just happy my T pulled through. Lesson learned.

 

[PrimalTaunt]

Whoever told you to put the a water dish in with a sling that small was out of their mind. Most people don't put one in until it's at least 2" in size. Happy to hear that she's pulling through for you though. Although I don't see any problem with you putting one in so long as the tarantula is as long as the dish is wide and taller than the depth of the dish (the general rule of thumb taken from TKG).

 

[Jilly1337]

1/2" is a little small for a waterdish. Did you have pebbles or anything in it to make it too shallow for the T to submerge?

 

[The Spider Faery]

Ensuring there are water droplets on the container provided by misting, is all that is required for the water needs of T's and slings under 2 inches.

 

[Avicularia Man]

1/2" is a little small for a waterdish. Did you have pebbles or anything in it to make it too shallow for the T to submerge?

No, the cap is pretty shallow already and I don't keep much water in it, but I clearly had enough in it to be a threat. But no worries now. the dish won't be put back in until my A. Metallica is 1". I just took my tape measure to the cap, it is 1/4" deep. and was less than half full.

 

[cobaltbrew]

I'm happy your T pulled through! I'll be sure to keep this in mind when I get my new sling(s).

 

[Jilly1337]

Even when they are full grown, I always put some beads, marbles, rocks or shells in the water dish making a variation in depth where some high parts are out of the water entirely and the low parts make little pools for them to drink from. The bigger the T, the deeper and bigger the low parts can be. It also prevents prey items from drowning.

 

[Xian]

....my T's will have to have the leg span of it's water dish before it gets that water dish. Until then, it's water will come from food and misting. I am just happy my T pulled through. Lesson learned.

That is a very good rule of thumb, and for the little guys the pebbles is also good advise.

 

[Kirsten]

I'm glad your little one made it!:clap: I am planning on getting a wee A. versicolor or A. avic and am nervous about it. I'm going to try for a 1" or more so I won't be so worried. I keep the water dishes with pebbles in them for my G. Rosea (about grown) and the new B. vagans I just got for my son so that the crickets won't drown. If they are safe, I figure the spider must be. These spiders keep us up and worried just as much as our kids did when young don't they?

 

[xhexdx]

Do you have links to posts/threads where people told you it was ok to use a water dish at that size?

 

[curiousme]

I have always heard and recommended 2" for a bottle cap water dish.

 

[Ether Imp]

I'd think anything over 1 inch (maybe 1.5) would be fine with a water bottle cap as long as you put a small pebble or flat rock (like a ramp) leading into/out of the cap.

Obviously you don't want to put a waterdish in your T's enclosure that is big enough for him/her to swim in.

Beyond that, slings smaller than 1-1.5 inches probably don't need that much moisture anyway... Just use a light misting on one wall of the enclosure every few days.

 

[Avicularia Man]

Do you have links to posts/threads where people told you it was ok to use a water dish at that size?

No, it was back when I first joined. I am not hunting for it. Why do you ask, you going to run in and correct them?

 

[Wonnetz]

mayb a one of those small water bottle caps would've been bettr

 

[Redneck]

You are right that was an ignorant post.. Sorry for that..

You can read post #11 Search engine found this..

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=129765&highlight=slings+water+dish+drown

Glad to hear your critter lived..

 

[jayefbe]

Quite frankly, there are a lot of individuals on this forum that give incorrect information. It is the blind leading the blind, and it is frustrating. In most cases it's fairly harmless, but in this case, it almost killed a sling.

 

[crawltech]

i find most of my slings drink from the damp substrate......

 

[Avicularia Man]

I mist the cage yesterday and watch it drink a droplet of water from the side of the cage. Was cool seeing the droplet getting smaller and smaller as it drank it.

 

[Fasciatum]

i will keep this in mind thanks!

 

[Falk]

It should be spelled: Avicularia metallica and not Avicularia Metallica