New T Stirmi

[dashkessler]

I am new to these forums as well as new to the hobby. Last weekend I purchased a juvenile T. Stirmi from a local pet shop. I just wanted to talk about how I am keeping it and see if anyone has some advice on this species. First off I am keeping it in a 20 gallon terrarium and am using a combination of peat moss and vermiculite. I have kept the substrate very damp in order to keep the humidity up which is usually staying around 80%. I am not using a heating source and the temps stay around 70 degrees f. There is a mesh cover but I have most of the top covered by plastic. Unfortunately I have no way of creating cross ventilation. I have read that some people keep their bird eaters at cooler temps and are fine with it. The only other way of gaining a higher temperature for me would be using a heat lamp which I don't want to do because it may dry up the enclosure.

The Tarantula found the hide right away the first day and webbed up some of the front. I gave it a cricket two days afterwords but my T just killed it and kicked the cricket out of his hide. I am not sure if it is in premolt because I gave him another cricket tonight which is 4 days after I got him and he just ignored it.

I got a little scared this afternoon because I found one side of the spiders legs curled underneath his body so being paranoid I quickly made an ICU. when I came back the spider was sitting normally again so I did not use the ICU. He has been staying in his hide since I got him and not moving too much. I am wondering if that is normal

Let me know if you have any advice. I am a little paranoid for the spiders health because I am new to the hobby and my T is not interested in food. I will try and upload images tomorrow.
Thanks!

 

[Ghost]

Hello and welcome to the forum and the hobby,

Regarding your T.stirimi this is how I used to keep mine when I had them and they all thrived their sizes ranged form 1 inche up to adult.
Moist substrate not wet or soggy but don't let it dry out,despite what alot of the online care sheets say their not swamp dwellers and don't need very wet or soggy substrate,I also gave plenty of cross ventilation with holes in the upper sides of the enclosure having air holes in the top ruins the microclimate effect and let's out humidity,you don't need to get hung up to much about the humidity have a full waterbowl at all times and randomly sprinkling water over the substrate once a while should keep the humidity fine,as for temperature I kept mine around 75-80 the lower temp being the night time temp as for heating I don't use heat lamps or mats I prefer to heat the room my T's are in as this gives a more ambient temperature rather than just hot spots that you get from heat lamps.
I see you said that you keep your stirimi in a glass enclosure with a screen top now apart from it letting out the humidity and ruining the microclimate terrestrial T's can also chew holes in it quit easily,also if you have some of it covered with plastic you could end up with condensation which means too stuffy conditions and could also promote mould and mites.
If I were you I would get another enclosure so that you can have proper cross ventilation and humidity then you won't need to worrie so much and your T will be better for it as well...

 

[dashkessler]

Thanks for the input! I will be looking for a new enclosure.