Accurate/innacurate information

[katiekatelyn]

I posted this a few days ago on someone's thread (about their T playing in a water dish), and reading people's opinions I added my own and I felt like I had a good point, but no one has replied to it and I really am curious about what people think:

It seems like a lot of people have different ideas about the proper care of tarantulas. I know they all come from different places and have different needs, but has anyone stopped to consider that maybe the proper care should be based more on what the climate is like for where these tarantulas actually are, as opposed to where they were discovered? Am I making sense? For example, I live in Massachusetts in a city nearly surrounded by the ocean. It gets really muggy during the summer and really dry during the winter. Wouldn't I then have to figure out whether or not my pets need extra humidity or less misting based on the weather here? So wouldn't advice like get rid of your water dish or take out the heat lamp or mist it every few days be slightly inaccurate and thus possibly put my tarantula in danger or being improperly cared for? If that's the case, it doesn't matter if a g.rosea came from an arid desert. If my apartment is muggy, I can take the water dish away. If it is dry, and cold, I add the water dish and add an alternate heat source.

 

[Denny Dee]

Yes. The environmental conditions of captive T's are based on the environment where they are found in the wild. So, when folks are recommending temps and humidity levels, that is generally the reason why. There are definitely two (possibly more) schools of thoughts on this topic. The first is that T's are very hardy animals and can adapt quite well to a variety of conditions. That means, as long as you follow humidity requirements (i.e. water dish, substrates and misting), the temperature ranges are less critical. Most people keep a wide variety of T's around 75 degrees at the room level and never have any problems. Others, like myself, like to duplicate the natural environment as much as possible. That means utilizing artificial light, heat and humidity controls. No right or wrong answer as long as the T's stay healthy. Avoid extremes and you should be fine. Hope that helps?

 

[hellknite]

If you had a captive T bred in your country and I had the same species captively bred in my part of the globe which is a tropical country, wouldn't they have adapted to the respectives environments? Or would you still suggest that we maintain the climate from where they are endemic? Sorry just made me think reading the threads..

 

[katiekatelyn]

If you had a captive T bred in your country and I had the same species captively bred in my part of the globe which is a tropical country, wouldn't they have adapted to the respectives environments? Or would you still suggest that we maintain the climate from where they are endemic? Sorry just made me think reading the threads..

I mean something like what you brought up, but I was also getting at another point. I'm just not sure how to word it. So I guess forget about it, everyone.

 

[Tomoran]

I mean something like what you brought up, but I was also getting at another point. I'm just not sure how to word it. So I guess forget about it, everyone.

I think I know exactly what you are saying, and you make an excellent point. It's one of the reasons that care sheets can prove less than accurate and need to be compared to local climates and conditions. I live in Connecticut, so we experience similar weather extremes, especially with humidity. Last week, the humidity was around 85%; today it's at 45. During the winter with the furnace running, it could plummet to the teens.

Now, if I someone were to tell me that my tarantula doesn't need extra humidity, that "normal" levels are fine, they likely have no idea that it could be 12% in my house in the winter (a very low number for many species). Or, if I'm told that my T will do fine at "room temperature", they might not realize that it can get down to the 50s in my house. Or, someone on the forum just posted that his house can hit 102 in the summer (MUCH too high for a tarantula). Therefore, that person would actually have to consider COOLING measures.

Even though I've tried to create micro-environments in some of my T's enclosures, these temps and humidity levels can and will be affected by outside climate. So, for a keeper intent on keeping his/her animal comfortable, it's important to consider the local climate as well, and adjust as needed. Therefore, when dispensing husbandry advice, it would probably be wise to ask posters about their local climates an in home conditions.

 

[Denny Dee]

If you had a captive T bred in your country and I had the same species captively bred in my part of the globe which is a tropical country, wouldn't they have adapted to the respectives environments? Or would you still suggest that we maintain the climate from where they are endemic? Sorry just made me think reading the threads..

Great question. I would default to the environmental conditions of their true environment even though they were captive bread. Genetics do not change for a species in a single generation. Only exception may be if you acquired a mature adult that lived its entire life in that environment. Again, these are my personal opinions and am sure that many collectors will disagree as you can have success with T's in environments that are not comparable to their natural habitat. I just feel the animals are healthier and avoid stress better in an enclosure that replicates the natural ecosystem.

 

[katiekatelyn]

I think I know exactly what you are saying, and you make an excellent point. It's one of the reasons that care sheets can prove less than accurate and need to be compared to local climates and conditions. I live in Connecticut, so we experience similar weather extremes, especially with humidity. Last week, the humidity was around 85%; today it's at 45. During the winter with the furnace running, it could plummet to the teens.

Now, if I someone were to tell me that my tarantula doesn't need extra humidity, that "normal" levels are fine, they likely have no idea that it could be 12% in my house in the winter (a very low number for many species). Or, if I'm told that my T will do fine at "room temperature", they might not realize that it can get down to the 50s in my house. Or, someone on the forum just posted that his house can hit 102 in the summer (MUCH too high for a tarantula). Therefore, that person would actually have to consider COOLING measures.

Even though I've tried to create micro-environments in some of my T's enclosures, these temps and humidity levels can and will be affected by outside climate. So, for a keeper intent on keeping his/her animal comfortable, it's important to consider the local climate as well, and adjust as needed. Therefore, when dispensing husbandry advice, it would probably be wise to ask posters about their local climates an in home conditions.

YES you get what I was saying!! Because a LOT of people on here seem so sure of the advice they give out to inexperienced keepers and unless the actual climate is taken into consideration, it's wrong and potentially damaging information.

 

[katiekatelyn]

Great question. I would default to the environmental conditions of their true environment even though they were captive bread. Genetics do not change for a species in a single generation. Only exception may be if you acquired a mature adult that lived its entire life in that environment. Again, these are my personal opinions and am sure that many collectors will disagree as you can have success with T's in environments that are not comparable to their natural habitat. I just feel the animals are healthier and avoid stress better in an enclosure that replicates the natural ecosystem.

A question to bring up here would be, are tarantulas from the desert really different, physically, from tarantulas that are from the jungle? Like I can see how a polar bear wouldn't survive in a jungle, or a snake in the Arctic, but I can see a g.rosea surviving in the jungle and a t.stirmi surviving in the desert. What makes a g.rosea so different from a t.stirmi?

 

[Scoolman]

A question to bring up here would be, are tarantulas from the desert really different, physically, from tarantulas that are from the jungle? Like I can see how a polar bear wouldn't survive in a jungle, or a snake in the Arctic, but I can see a g.rosea surviving in the jungle and a t.stirmi surviving in the desert. What makes a g.rosea so different from a t.stirmi?

Many species are physically adapted to .their environments. T stirmi does not have a water tight exoskeleton like G rosea does. A T stirmi would dehydrate rapidly in the desert. A G rosea would begin to suffer from fungus and moisture rot in the jungle. But these are species on opposite ends of the envronmetal extremea of tarantulas. Most tarantulas have a wide range of survivability within envronmental extremes. This means the attempt to maintain a perfect microecosystem is fruitless. However, each species has adapted over eons to survive in a particular climate which will be quite variable throughout the seasons.

 

[katiekatelyn]

Many species are physically adapted to .their environments. T stirmi does not have a water tight exoskeleton like G rosea does. A T stirmi would dehydrate rapidly in the desert. A G rosea would begin to suffer from fungus and moisture rot in the jungle. But these are species on opposite ends of the envronmetal extremea of tarantulas. Most tarantulas have a wide range of survivability within envronmental extremes. This means the attempt to maintain a perfect microecosystem is fruitless. However, each species has adapted over eons to survive in a particular climate which will be quite variable throughout the seasons.

Well thanks, you answered my question perfectly!