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Crappy PetSmart conditions..

SpiderDad61

SpiderDad61

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3 Year Member
Messages
797
Location
Warminster PA
Meludox said:
The spider is about 2" I'd say.
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The one I "rescued" from pet smart is 2" as well. I have it in a 4x4x7 amac box. It's flipped upside down and opens from the bottom so "socks" can work it's magic up high, where it likes it.
image.jpg
 
SasyStace

SasyStace

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3 Year Member
Messages
550
Location
Lake Elsinore, CA
Meludox said:
Thanks to PetSmart's inability to house tarantulas properly, I have a new Avic. avic on my hands! I saw the little guy and I just couldn't not take him. Kept on huge woodchips with a sponge to drink from and nothing to climb on. He's quite cute, maybe 2" in length. I have decided to name him Wink. :) Of course PS doesn't have any arboreal tanks so for the time being I have him in a Kritter Keeper on its side. I think it works for now.
View attachment 12715 View attachment 12716
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This is the exact same colors as the one I rescued - what kind of Avic do you think she is?
 
Chubbs

Chubbs

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SpiderDad61 said:
Awesome. Do urs web the lid, and do u mess it up opening the lid? It's happened to me a couple times. I crack the lid as little as possible so it doesn't happen, on the couple with top lids
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Yup they do it all the time. It doesn't destroy the entire web when I open it, just a small portion of it. It's really nothing to worry about. They usually reweb it fairly quickly.
 
D

DewDrop

Active Member
3 Year Member
Messages
131
Location
United States
Similar story here with my A. Avic. Mine actually enjoys webbing the glass and It is just so simple to get a paper towel tube cut it where there is an opening going vertical removing enough where the spider won't get stuck and just rest it on the glass and secure it by sticking it in a few inches of peat moss if you are so short on cash that you cannot put a twenty down on some decoration. Spiders are easy. With the humidity the A. Avic requires the cardboard tubes will have to be replaced but in a pinch they work fine for a premolting spider who might not be able to grip the glass as well that just wants to snuggle in something for a molt. If your really tight on cash or just frugal, large cheese ball plastic containers work in a pinch to house or use as a temporary enclosure. You will only need to provide ventilation to the spider by altering the container with appropriately sized holes that are not left rough. Part of the enjoyment of the hobby however is enjoying the nice enclosures for tarantulas. Typically the acrylic containers with the nice vents or slits for ventilation. I don't like kritter keepers aesthetics, but for the price they are great for larger juvenile spiders in a pinch. It is rare that tarantulas are in petstores in this area. The specialty pet stores I know of do real well with the tarantulas, it is the huge well known larger petstores like petsmart and petco that have little variety in spider selection and rarely sell spiders when they do actually have them. Personally I prefer to buy online from the breeders and collectors who specialize in tarantulas and other inverts. I only go to the large petstores if I am having to go in and get crickets. Now I found a place to buy roaches online for feeders at a good price without a huge shipping fee, so, I don't think I will be shopping in the big petstores in efforts to avoid becoming another sucker for an improperly housed tarantula. Josh's frogs on Amazon has a great deal.
 
Kymura

Kymura

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@DewDrop, I do agree and I know better, having (shamefully) been in the business, I 'should' walk away, but then the image of that juvie huddled up, afraid backed into the corner, no way to even burrow, with everything possible that could be wrong going on in its super size enclosure, well it begins to haunt me....and I end up dragging my old bones back inside and giving them the twenty bucks . It honestly shames me and so far... I've left the rosea they have now there alone, but if I'm honest about it and its there when I get my next crickets (for my spoiled A avic) Its coming home with me.
I swear I KNOW it's contributing to the problem. I just can't walk away and let it die to prove a point when it's so damn easy to change it, at least for that one.
And lets be honest, My letting that one die won't fix it. Did rescue for years and years, yet the damn puppy mills are still going strong. Same thing here.
 
D

DewDrop

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United States
Kymura said:
@DewDrop, I do agree and I know better, having (shamefully) been in the business, I 'should' walk away, but then the image of that juvie huddled up, afraid backed into the corner, no way to even burrow, with everything possible that could be wrong going on in its super size enclosure, well it begins to haunt me....and I end up dragging my old bones back inside and giving them the twenty bucks . It honestly shames me and so far... I've left the rosea they have now there alone, but if I'm honest about it and its there when I get my next crickets (for my spoiled A avic) Its coming home with me.
I swear I KNOW it's contributing to the problem. I just can't walk away and let it die to prove a point when it's so damn easy to change it, at least for that one.
And lets be honest, My letting that one die won't fix it. Did rescue for years and years, yet the damn puppy mills are still going strong. Same thing here.
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@Kymura The G. Rosea lives to be about 25 or longer. The age is still up for discussion amongst the experience hobbyists and even entomologists. I got a sling recently and she, (I could be wrong, it might be a he), is the most precious little spider I have ever spent time with, next to my A. Avic and at one time I had a Zebra Tarantula. Anyway, the attachment IS the biggest issue to have to over come when it comes to petstore animals, for me. I too have worked in pet stores and I know how well the animals are cared for and I know that the employees all have attachment to the animals they work with, or at least did when I was working, years ago. When I notice that no one really has an attachment to the animals, that there isn't any real knowledge to be given about the animals and the staff is more interested in why are you buying that item and are more curious about how you plan to use the purchase wanting a product opinion that I am likely to find some sort of reptile, small animal, bird or fish that might could be in better condition. However with the antibiotic resistance in society the staff curious about opinion is usually more concerned with why are you buying a fish antibiotic if you buy that, the birds are usually not budgies or hookbills, the spiders will be on paper towels as mine was in a kritter keeper, the reptiles and amphibians won't be a huge selection and there will usually always be someone by the feeder rats or other rodents. SO we kind of have to put what is first, first. Us. The people and our issues in society we have with resistance and even the risks that mammals and other pets bring with their contagious ailments. It was alright that the A. Avic was on a paper towel because I could see clearly that nothing parasitical was in the cage, there wasn't stool in the cage, there were not any left over food items, I could count all eight legs and the cage was clean. While the spider was drying out and could of been housed in something nice for it, it isn't really about that when you go to shop for a spider because you need to clearly see the health of the animal before you risk bringing it home. I am assuming we are all spoiled rotten with our "bottled", bagged, processed and sold little bit of nature that is clean and well kept for our tarantulas, that we like. In a pet store those things can hide ailments and create a problem for staff to keep clean so in effect it keeps the public safer for the tarantulas, reptiles, birds and small mammals to have less during their time for sale. I have worked for some awesome people in the pet industry also. I used to get griped at because I was worried I would over hand feed a hookbill parrot baby. I adore hook bill parrots. I know that they can be housed while for sale in small enclosures and do fabulous as long as they get a little interaction and well taken care of, that might make those who are ignorant to that just enraged to see such a small acrylic cage for 3 or four birds at one time, but it mimics a nest for the fledglings. Just an example. It could be that the G. Rosea in the petstore you have browsed has never been on substrate or is in a small cage that seems inappropriate and/or has been kept in an environment like it is currently in for awhile for a reason only known to entomologists as the bird vendor who was literally a scientist in the medical field selling birds as a gesture of hospitality to the public, because they knew the SAFE and proper way to do it. Hobbyists are not always entomologists. If you do decide on the G. Rosea in the petstore, do it for you, for the right reasons. There is a lot that we don't know after being out of the pet industry for so long, maybe the employees know something we don't and might actually be housing the spider in a way that is actually healthy for it for the time it is with them. When it is an animal in the petstore vert or invert it is kept in a way that is safest for public health and safety, so we can gripe about it wanting to spoil the animal, but we all should be aware, it is better for us to be healthy than to be at risk. They don't have to be attached to work or even care, because the guidelines are so stringent nowadays if they don't do their job right the repercussions are serious. Times are different. A new G. Rosea huh? They really do make great pets. Just a real joy. Watch out for the hairs however they are vicious even when they are spiderlings.
 
swimbait

swimbait

Active Member
3 Year Member
Messages
363
DewDrop said:
With the humidity the A. Avic requires
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Although I would never use cardboard in any of my T enclosures, I could hypothetically put cardboard in my Avics enclosures and it would not get wet and rot. They don't require that much humidty, a water bowl provides enough as it is.
 

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