Creator wrote: ... But what I actually meant was... to only use a water bowl with Avicularia and no misting?

I don't remember ever owning a mister. We had over 1,000 tarantulas, I didn't have time to mist even a fraction of them. We always used only water bowls with all our tarantulas except a few obligate burrowers who insisted on always filling their bowls with dirt. Those few reprobates were dealt with by pouring a little water down their burrows every week or 10 days.

I've heard reports of people who were borderline hysterical because they never saw their Avicularia drinking out of its water dish. Even to the point of gluing little water dishes to the inside of the cage up by the nest. (BTW, this works, even if it is a bit silly!)

"My gosh! The poor thing is going to die!" :ohmy:

Nothing could be farther from the truth. In the wee hours of the morning, after the lights have been out and there haven't been any disturbances for hours, your Avicularia pussyfoots down to the water dish and takes a sip. Then, it beats a hasty retreat back to its nest before that huge, clumsy, gross, ugly, alien thing with bad breath, body odor, and too few legs notices and does its usual stupid things.

:laugh:

Do not underestimate the smarts and cunning of your little, 8-legged survivor! They know more about that cage than you do. They live there! They can waltz around it blindfolded and in the dark.

As an experiment, some night you should try getting from one corner of your home to an opposite corner blindfolded and in the dark. Have a buddy or spouse handy to call an ambulance! Be prepared for two scarfed shins, a broken wrist, and/or a bad lump on your skull. And, you may finish the experiment crawling on all fours! DON'T BE STUPID ENOUGH TO ASK YOUR AVICULARIA WHAT IT THINKS YOU'RE DOING!

:woohoo:

:laugh:

But, I digress...

Kudu wrote: ... However for the little guys (less than 3cm or so) I've read that a water bowl may not be the best idea. ...

For the little, wee babies (say 5th instar and earlier by the American System ), a water dish probably isn't a good idea because they may not have yet developed a waxy layer on their exoskeletons to keep them from wetting and drowning. But, once they're beyond that stage there's almost surely nothing wrong with offering a water dish. Once they acquire that waxy layer they almost never, ever drown. They float like corks!

Kudu wrote: ... I don't actually "mist" but just drop a few drops of TAP water from my fingertips around the one side of the tank. Don't think it troubles the T too much that way. It would've had to deal with rain out in the real world, no? ...

It doesn't matter! If they were that fragile they'd have gone extinct 400 million years ago! Get real! These are spiders! They're survivors! WE'RE THE FRAGILE SPECIES! NOT THE TARANTULAS! They'll be digging burrows on OUR graves! Sheesh! :laugh:

For your reference I am appending a hypothetical schedule of how to care for your baby tarantulas as they grow and develop. It will eventually be made into another of my webpages. Note that it doesn't give specific instructions, just a general outline. You'll need to read the books listed in Stan's Rant for the details.

CAVEATS: Note that the following rules of thumb apply to nearly all tarantulas except a few obligate swamp dwellers, and to the arboreal species, and those are addressed towards the bottom.

BABY TARANTULAS: Those younger tarantulas with a diagonal leg span (DLS) of about 1.5" (3.8 cm) or less should be kept in a relatively closed container that heavily restricts ventilation. The substrate should be kept slightly damp. All this maintains a constant, elevated (but not excessive) humidity. Do not mist; instead, reread the last few sentences carefully. Do not spend a lot of time, energy, effort, or money on fancy containers. Like humanoid babies, these will outgrow their containers soon, thereby wasting all your finest efforts over and over again.

SPIDERLINGS TO ADULTS: Those younger tarantulas with a DLS of about 2" (5 cm) and larger should be kept in cages with dry substrate and supplied a water dish with clean water. Keep almost all of these as arid species. (See the exceptions below.)

TWEENS: Those tarantulas between the aforementioned two sizes should be gradually acclimatized to a dry cage over a period of 2 or 3 molts. Gradually allow the container/cage to dry out, but be very sure to supply a water dish with clean water. You're gradually removing the higher humidity and substituting a water dish as the primary water source. In response, the tarantula develops a thicker, more impervious waxy layer to prevent excessive water loss from its body. All it needs is a little time to adjust.

Note that many tarantulas from semi-arid and arid places like the American Great Plains and the Kalahari Desert can make this transition much earlier in life than these recommended times. But, it does them no harm to wait a little longer either.

SWAMP DWELLERS: These are tarantulas like the species of Theraphosa, Ephebopus, Hysterocrates, Megaphobema, and a few others. These do not have the impervious, water retentive exoskeletons of the other tarantulas and require a constant, high humidity. Keep these in "baby" style cages for their entire lives, adjusting for increased size of course.

Enthusiasts are discovering that wild caught "swampers" will gradually develop a somewhat greater resistance to slightly drier conditions if the transition is done slowly and over an extended period of time. And, those swampers that are bred in captivity fare much better and can tolerate drier cages much better than their wild caught brethren.

ARBOREALS: Wild caught arboreals (assumed to be adults), particularly members of the genus Avicularia fare poorly when first brought into captivity, partly because of "shipping shock" and partly because of the sudden change in environmental conditions. To combat this, they should be initially set up and cared for as babies for the first few weeks (initial recovery period), then quickly switched to a "Tweens" care regimen (secondary acclimatization period) for the first one or two molts. Thereafter keep them as adult, arid tarantulas but maintain a slightly elevated humidity by slightly restricting ventilation. Always supply them a water dish. (In the middle of the night as they hunt for food they'll pussyfoot down to the water dish and take a sip. And being sound asleep, you'll never, EVER know it happened!)

Captive bred arboreals (assumed to be babies or very young spiderlings) usually do not suffer the acclimatization problems that the wild caught ones do, but sometimes suffer shipping shock from bad treatment during transportation. When first received they should be kept as babies (see above) for two or three weeks, then they can be quickly changed over to whatever care regimen is appropriate according to the schedule given here, depending on their size and age.

Kudu wrote: ... Just fixed some really bad grammar and spelling. Only noticed after posting. :blush: Sorry

This is actually very good news. I understand that we have some big cultural and education differences between the various members of this forum, but it still sometimes gets awesomely hard to try to understand a few responses and posts. Using the King's English helps a lot (even if it's actually the American adulteration :silly: ).

Enjoy your little, 8-legged survivor!

Splurge wrote: Seems my stupid little question got some excellent responses and thanks to everyone who gave their views and everything. ...

Two of the more basic principles in arachnoculture:

THE ONLY STUPID QUESTIONS ARE THE ONES YOU DON'T ASK.

STUPID QUESTIONS ARE A LOT EASIER TO DEAL WITH THAN STUPID MISTAKES.

Enjoy your little, 8-legged gurus.

Sorry, I have to say this-

SLASHER wrote: Just some useless information on them bombing and getting bombed!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wars_involving_Israel

Wikipedia is OPEN SOURCE Slasher.
Any Tom, Dick or Harry can create a page on Wikipedia.


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Thanks Stan

All my avicularia has got waterbowls with them

Just had to ask to put my mind to rest :lol:

If the chems used in the treatment process is your concern, just leave tap water in an open container over night, most of the nasty stuff will evaporate. As most of the chems used are gasses. Hope that helps