Advice needed! First time T owner

[Nize1995]

Hello everyone,

I have a sling Brazilian Black and a sub-adult Costa Rican Zebra female. I'm completely new to the hobby and I want to give these guys the best life possible, but I feel like I'm not doing it right. Every couple of days, I've been cutting up small worms for the sling and dropping them into the enclosure and removing them 24 hours later with no indication that it's been touched. When I drop the food in there, I spray some water into the enclosure to keep it moist and I'm sure to do at least one spray into the burrow it made itself. But it still doesn't seem to want to eat.

The Zebra is in the same boat, she doesn't seem to want to eat. I received her in the mail on Tuesday (March 26th) and the seller informed me that she molted the week prior and ate a very small meal on Saturday, and another small meal prior to being packaged up for shipping on Monday. I put her into the enclosure Tuesday morning and tried to feed her Wednesday night, no dice. On Thursday night I dropped a cricket in there and I can't find it but I'm not entirely sure she ate it or not.

I feel like I'm doing everything wrong, especially for the Zebra since I feel like she's not happy in her enclosure, and I'd like to be pointed in the right direction if possible.

 

[Tarantulafeets]

Nothing really looks wrong with the enclosures, but the A seemanni needs deep, moist substrate near the bottom, can't really tell because there are no full shots of the enclosure. I would stop spraying, especially directly into their burrow, as this really disturbs them. You can just pour water down the sides to keep the bottom layer moist, but the G pulchra enclosure already looks pretty damp. As for feeding, it's fine if they don't immediately eat, especially when recently rehoused, as they just need some time to settle in. Or sometimes they just might not be hungry. You can try to feed it every other week or so, no need to try everyday. Remember, patience is important in this hobby

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Nize1995]

Nothing really looks wrong with the enclosures, but the A seemanni needs deep, moist substrate near the bottom, can't really tell because there are no full shots of the enclosure. I would stop spraying, especially directly into their burrow, as this really disturbs them. You can just pour water down the sides to keep the bottom layer moist, but the G pulchra enclosure already looks pretty damp. As for feeding, it's fine if they don't immediately eat, especially when recently rehoused, as they just need some time to settle in. Or sometimes they just might not be hungry. You can try to feed it every other week or so, no need to try everyday. Remember, patience is important in this hobby

Welcome to the forum!

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Nize1995]

The A seemanni substrate is a mix of coconut fiber and bio dude terra aranea. It's not the best, it doesn't retain humidity or water well and I'm afraid of molding, so daily I'll spray certain parts of the enclosure. Should I pour water down the sides instead as you suggested?

She doesn't want to burrow, instead she scrunches up under some of the moss or against the glass. I am getting a different enclosure in the mail in a few days.

 

[Cor]

I have a fair sized Aphonopelma seemani that I've had since January. It has never been a consistent eater for me. At first I was feeding it wax worms and super worms, but it just wouldn't really touch them. Now I stick to crickets and I've had better results. It's still not a consistent eater, but the crickets seem to bring out a better feeding response than the worms did, and I don't have to worry about trying to dig out burrowed worms.

As far as cut up worms, I don't think I've ever had any luck at all with any of my slings eating them. Maybe I get the wrong sized meal worms, or maybe I'm leaving too much of a mess. Who knows. Instead, I switched over to smaller live stuff. The really small slings have done very well with pinhead crickets, and I've had very good luck with extra small crickets with the larger slings. The Petsmart by me sells about 35 extra small crickets in a plastic container that I've had very good luck with for slings around half an inch. About one every second or third day seems to be well received by my smaller slings, and it seems (to me at least) to be less of a hassel and a mess than trying to cut up meal worms and end up having to retrieve the pieces before they mold.

As far as damp substrate, I've read so many different things about it. I've been tending toward the recommendations of people such as Tom Moran who recommend having a water dish and overflowing that, rather than try to dampen the substrate to a set level. I've had no issues with mold since following that advice, and haven't seemed to have any issues with any of my tarantulas because of it. If extra humidity is needed, I'm more apt to spray one side of an enclosure or spray down the moss that I have in the enclosure to help regulate humidity a bit. For smaller slings, I picked up some tattoo ink cups from Amazon. I got 100 each of 3 different sizes for about $6. They've been perfect for sling water dishes and they're fairly easy to get close to flush with the soil. They don't hold much water, but it's a good reminder to check on it fairly frequently and also check on the sling.

Sorry to hit you with a wall of text, but hopefully this helps a bit. Good luck!

 

[Nize1995]

Thank you, Cor.

Here are a few more photos of the enclosure and the A. seemani herself. I took these just before I poured some water along the sides. Any suggestions for the enclosure? As I said before the substrate is a mix of coconut fiber and bio dude terra aranea.

 

[anotherrouse]

You can put in springtails to help. They don't attack tarantulas and they help with clean up for any leftover decomposing stuff, plus feed on mold

 

[octanejunkie]

Welcome to the forum, and hobby!