Daylight come and me wanna go home!!

[Whitelightning777]

Hybris, my H pulchripes, hasn't quite figured out that he has a new place to live, his forever home.

The old one had fungus but only in the 2 spots I noticed. This appeared once he flipped the water dish. There is simply no way I know how to see how bad it is without tearing it apart.

Hybris was a bit mischievous during his rehousing, running around the outside of his new cage and up the sterilite restraining bin that had his cage. This resulted in a catch cup being dropped on his head, which is probably why he's still shell shocked as I'm posting this!!

I was hands off enough to let him tire himself out for a while. If he wants to run around a 3 gallon cage on the outside 20 times or so, great!! Tarantulas are fast but lack endurance.

As I've said before, a paintbrush and a catch cup are your best friends.

Yep, still in the cup now, which is JUST FINE!! I can always wait to pull it out, but getting him back in if he bolts is far less simple.

Just for giggles, I might even leave the catch cup in there. ....maybe not.

 

[Tortoise Tom]

He might like that cup and never come out. That's what my new slings have all been doing. I've had to make them all come out after a few days.

Sounds like he was enjoying his free time. He knows it will be a long while before he comes out of that cage…


I'm really not this much of an anthropomorphizer. The whole thing just struck me funny. Picturing you chasing him around the cage with a paintbrush in one hand and an empty cup in the other. Can you imagine what that must have looked like if someone had walked into the room? Probably as funny as someone watching me dance around and quickly set the tongs into the big work tub when I realized that Psalmopoeus slings are inclined to climb UP the tongs instead of down into their new enclosure where I wanted them to go...

 

[Whitelightning777]

No, actually I just let him run around and then only interfered when he tried to run up the side of the sterilite container instead of his new enclosure. I just tapped him down and he went into the corner. Then I neatly dropped the catch cup right centered on his head. There was no wild goose chase. I figured that I'd just let him tire himself out.

Currently, he's hanging out on the wall and I did get the catch cup back out. I washed out the enclosure thoroughly but there still might be traces of pheromones from my Pamphobeteus sp machala's environment present since I also rehoused her up from that 3 gallon to a 5 gallon Terra Blue professional enclosure, befitting her eventual adult size. I also gave him a substrate with a higher percentage of sand in it which is more appropriate for a dry species like H pulchripes.

Now I'm waiting to get an adorable picture of him hanging out of the infamous skull hide. It may be a while.

I'm not going to open it up for quite some time!! You don't open a cage until a tarantula has claimed it as territory and had explored all of it.

Dry spiders are SO much easier to deal with!! Getting him set up was literally 1/3rd the time as Persephone's new home, which is just like her old one in every way accept size.

Hybris, however, is in a totally new configuration. He'll slowly learn to appreciate it.

The room is much colder then he's used to being in. I'm sure he'll find the hot side of the cage eventually!!

 

[Dave Jay]

Young Geoffrey, my Phlogius crassipes "kuttabul" was actually well behaved and stayed in his "enclosure" for the first time ever when I fed him the other day, his usual style is to run a few laps around the rim so I cant put the lid on then go for a 5 minute run around the work tub before I can get him back in his home! Usually I just put the lid on the work tub and let him get his Ya Yas out! When he's tired enough he lets me herd him back in again, he just likes to work up an appetite before dinner.

I call him Young Geoffrey because it just came to me one day when I was telling him off for being naughty, he/she is just a tiny sling, just over 1cm dls, but the liveliest of the whole bunch.

 

[Whitelightning777]

They certainly do have some personality. That's for sure. I added about half an inch of straight EcoEarth on top of the substrate. He now appears to be more comfortable.

 

[Whitelightning777]

Young Geoffrey, my Phlogius crassipes "kuttabul" was actually well behaved and stayed in his "enclosure" for the first time ever when I fed him the other day, his usual style is to run a few laps around the rim so I cant put the lid on then go for a 5 minute run around the work tub before I can get him back in his home! Usually I just put the lid on the work tub and let him get his Ya Yas out! When he's tired enough he lets me herd him back in again, he just likes to work up an appetite before dinner.

I call him Young Geoffrey because it just came to me one day when I was telling him off for being naughty, he/she is just a tiny sling, just over 1cm dls, but the liveliest of the whole bunch.

It depends on how the enclosure is built, but a feeding port might be an option worth looking at.

 

[Dave Jay]

They certainly do have some personality. That's for sure. I added about half an inch of straight EcoEarth on top of the substrate. He now appears to be more comfortable.

It does look very sandy in the pics, it looks like a fine sand too. After much experimentation I found that 1 part sand to 6 parts coco peat works well, even that is surprisingly sandy. I find that that ratio seems to give you the advantage of better drainage and a mix that holds it's shape better without irritating the animal. It's my go to mix that I use for a wide range of creatures, including frogs and lizards. It doesn't get that anaerobic compaction or "slump" that straight peat can get.

 

[Arachnoclown]

I bought a T once in a deli cup from a expo. I placed the cup in her new enclosure and took the lid off and figured she would come out when she was ready. About 3 months later she finally came out. Now that shows patience...not for the spider but for me. Every day I wanted to push her out of that container. It was an A. seemanni if your wondering.

 

[Whitelightning777]

He is out now and this morning was getting used to his new home. Before I went to work I noticed he had a whole network of tunnels in there. It looked like a barrel of small monkeys went on a rampage, only way to describe it.

Here's footage from this morning.

It's hard to get the Eco Earth and sand to mix properly but now he's happily digging around mixing everything up probably better then I did.

It's always interesting to see them adjust.

 

[Whitelightning777]

It does look very sandy in the pics, it looks like a fine sand too. After much experimentation I found that 1 part sand to 6 parts coco peat works well, even that is surprisingly sandy. I find that that ratio seems to give you the advantage of better drainage and a mix that holds it's shape better without irritating the animal. It's my go to mix that I use for a wide range of creatures, including frogs and lizards. It doesn't get that anaerobic compaction or "slump" that straight peat can get.

The mix I used was about 1 quarter or maybe 1 third sand to Eco Earth. I put about half an inch on top and now he is going to town on it.

I can't wait to go home and see what he did!! Like anything else with this guy, it pays to wait a few days to let him dig in and settle down.

It's worth noting that he's skittish but shows no trace of aggression.

Look at spider mom's video about cheeto her OBT being rehoused to see the opposite.

 

[Dave Jay]

I can imagine, I went from no spiders to over 30 in a month or so, all OW of course. My wife just pokes them in the bum with her finger and they do what they're told, they just ignore me with the tongs and all the safety precautions

 

[MassExodus]

Psalmopoeus slings are little ****s. I love them.

 

[Whitelightning777]

Mine was pretty calm. What species was yours?

Mine is P machala.

Wrong genus, whoops.