Would it be okay to put an arboreal into a large 8x8x12 enclosure at a young age?

[ladyratri]

Your irminia are large enough that they can eat feeders too big to fit through the vent holes, the same doesn't necessarily apply for a 1.5" Psalmo sling.

Yeah I think I give my slings bigger feeders than normally recommended. Those vent holes are pretty small though, either 1/16th or 1/8th inch, and there's no way for a cricket to climb up to them to get out.

This was the size when I rehoused -- in the old 16oz deli:


Setting up the corner in the new bin:


You can see the vent holes are small, it's one of the things I like about these enclosures.

I did not pre kill for for this sling, they're great hunters. I occasionally did nudge the cricket towards the kill zone with my paint brush.

 

[CrazyOrnithoctonineGuy]

my psalmo is eating medium sized crickets already and the holes on the tarantula crib are 4mm. I pre kill her food but I'm not sure if I need to, she's pretty voracious. It also has a magnetic sliding lid, no hinges.

Ah, in that case vent holes are less of an issue.

Psalmopoeus in general are pretty voracious (current have 2 irminia and 2 victori) but I still prefer to only give them feeders up to the size of their bodies (minus their legs).

 

[Wolfram1]

@ladyratri, in retrospect the reason it didn't choose the hide is obvious, for one there was another option, but second it was geared towards a larger animal (to grow into) rather than the spiders current size and there was just too much space, if you had used one half as tall and leaned it closer to the walls, it would have chosen that

very helpful of you to show that

in terms of eating it depends on the individual spiders and how timid they are, if they don't eat right away i would remove the feeder and prekill it
live pray that is left in there while they are too timid too hunt will cause them to reject food long afer it has finally been found and removed
with very timid spiders getting them to feed on a larger prekilled feeder can save you the hassle of trying more often

 

[itchyhands]

@ladyratri, in retrospect the reason it didn't choose the hide is obvious, for one there was another option, but second it was geared towards a larger animal (to grow into) rather than the spiders current size and there was just too much space, if you had used one half as tall and leaned it closer to the walls, it would have chosen that

very helpful of you to show that

in terms of eating it depends on the individual spiders and how timid they are, if they don't eat right away i would remove the feeder and prekill it
live pray that is left in there while they are too timid too hunt will cause them to reject food long afer it has finally been found and removed
with very timid spiders getting them to feed on a larger prekilled feeder can save you the hassle of trying more often

This is lil guy is basically the opposite of timid , she's ready for murder.

It's one of the reasons I want her in a bigger enclosure.

Even just going to give water she comes towards me to see what's happening, instead of running away, and that's after eating crickets the size of her butt.

 

[viper69]

That's unfortunate, what is it exactly that kills them in this situation? not being able to find food ?

Yes

 

[ladyratri]

@ladyratri, in retrospect the reason it didn't choose the hide is obvious, for one there was another option, but second it was geared towards a larger animal (to grow into) rather than the spiders current size and there was just too much space, if you had used one half as tall and leaned it closer to the walls, it would have chosen that

Oh, absolutely. Though my big girl made some similar choices...mostly what I meant was, I'm learning I need to create multiple places for the spider to set up that would all allow decent monitoring, because I can never be sure which one it will pick

My 4+" irminia decided that leaves are for homebuilding and cork bark is for posing like a prima donna. Spider's gonna spider.



Honestly, I'm glad they set up against a wall, and the bark makes a good hunting platform when they're really hungry.

 

[Wolfram1]

Oh, absolutely. Though my big girl made some similar choices...mostly what I meant was, I'm learning I need to create multiple places for the spider to set up that would all allow decent monitoring, because I can never be sure which one it will pick

My 4+" irminia decided that leaves are for homebuilding and cork bark is for posing like a prima donna. Spider's gonna spider.
View attachment 450416
View attachment 450417

Honestly, I'm glad they set up against a wall, and the bark makes a good hunting platform when they're really hungry.

yes, i didn't want to say that you made a mistake, as long as you are in control it is perfectly fine

the problems start only when there is so much clutter that you can't be aware af where the spider is and how it is doing

i see it has grown into the enclosure very well

 

[Smotzer]

Honestly for most people wouldn't recommend to put it in an 8x8x12 if its not even at 2in yet, I only put mine in that sizes once they get at least around the 3in DLS mark. But if its set up with some forethought you can make it work if its properly decorated

 

[Wolfram1]

This is lil guy is basically the opposite of timid , she's ready for murder.

It's one of the reasons I want her in a bigger enclosure.

Even just going to give water she comes towards me to see what's happening, instead of running away, and that's after eating crickets the size of her butt.

reminds me of my P. ornata

some of our spiders may as well be related to rambo

much like our dear friend @basin79
demonstrates here:

i swear mine does something similar all the time, and has even caught roaches i droped into her previous enclosure from the air

spiders like that dont need much handholding

 

[ladyratri]

i see it has grown into the enclosure very well

Just to clarify, those are two different spiders... I went for a sling and the local exotics store suckered me into also getting a 3" confirmed female who turned out to be actually over 4". Whoops.

But it's very convenient for showing the difference between a 6x6x9 and an 8x8x12 for a psalmo!

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

My irminia seems to be going that same Rambo route. When adding water to her enclosure last night, she not only bolted to the water dish, but “hunted” all the drops that were rolling down both her bark and wall of the enclosure. I set up mine similarly to @ladyratri’s there with a 2” spider. She immediately made her nest in the base of the cork bark and hunts from the knothole about 2/3rds the way up the cork.

 

[Wolfram1]

Just to clarify, those are two different spiders... I went for a sling and the local exotics store suckered me into also getting a 3" confirmed female who turned out to be actually over 4". Whoops.

But it's very convenient for showing the difference between a 6x6x9 and an 8x8x12 for a psalmo!

you had me fooled, still nice to see the difference, might as well be a timejump with how similar it is set up

very efficient setup

 

[Fudgiest]

reminds me of my P. ornata

some of our spiders may as well be related to rambo

much like our dear friend @basin79
demonstrates here:

i swear mine does something similar all the time, and has even caught roaches i droped into her previous enclosure from the air

spiders like that dont need much handholding

The first time I saw my p. formosa do a backflip to grab the roach I tossed a solid 6" away from her, was the day when I stopped worrying about whether she would find the roaches if I just chucked em from a safe distance. Never felt the need to get anywhere close enough to tong feed her again after that (and by tong feed, I don't mean literally presenting the feeder on tongs, I know those guys can travel up them before you can react, I just mean dropping the feeder close enough to her to ensure she strikes). Voracious is an understatement for some of these species