Poor man's arboreal enclosure for slings...

Buggidy · Apr 29, 2014

Well, as a college student I have to improvise a bit. Yes, those are upside down solo cups :sarcasm: The dome lid holds substrate, and the cup allows a good amount of climbing space. I like this design because it allows the sling to web up the top of the enclosure, and when I open them up to throw food in, I don't ruin the webbing. I'm expecting an A. versicolor, three S. calceatums, and one P. ornata in the mail soon. Any advice or changes you'd suggest are appreciated

From left to right: 2 A. versicolor enclosures (first is already in use, he loves it!), 1 P. ornata enclosure, 3 S. calceatum enclosures.

awiec · Apr 30, 2014

Very cool, I personally use the tall salad containers that you can get potato salad in from a deli counter at stores; they are usually nice enough to sell them to me for 25 cents. I find that being broke in college makes you very creative.

Buggidy · Apr 30, 2014

Those would be perfect! I've always enjoyed DIY anyways.... Once I have the space and money I plan to build nicer enclosures instead of buying those horribly expensive ones...

shamilt1 · Apr 30, 2014

Cool idea. Very creative. May also want to glue the cardboard base to the dome lid (if you haven't already) to make it more stable. I would also cut one (cardboard square) as a template for all other future arboreal enclosures.

Python · Apr 30, 2014

I raised widows in those cups once? I'd get a huge milkshake and wash the cup. The ones I got had a hole in the top that I stuck a damp paper towel in. Just dropped water on it to water the ol' girls. To feep I just took it out, dropped a cricket in and replaced the paper towel

Buggidy · Apr 30, 2014

That's awesome! They do work super well for multiple things. And no worries, they are all glued securely to the cardboard. I will definitely take the template suggestion though, I always forget to do that.

Beary Strange · Apr 30, 2014

Those actually look really nice-the Avics will probably love it and I don't know enough about Stromatopelma to comment on them, but for the Poec at least you may want to turn the cup back around. Poecs are ground level arboreals and even burrow to some extent, so with the way that's set up, you'll be tearing up it's dirt curtain when you open it and probably send it running right out of the cup.

Buggidy · May 1, 2014

The slings arrived today, and it turns out they're much too small to be put into the containers I built. I'll wait a few molts and move them into the containers. For now, they are pretty happy in the pill bottles I put them in. I'm kind of glad the P. ornata ended up in a pill bottle, I wasn't aware that pokies burrowed until I saw the little thing going to town in the inch of substrate I had in there (it was a last minute freebie so I hadn't had much time to look into them). I added a bunch more and he's certainly a happy little pokie.

Belle Furry are they ground level arboreals their entire lives or just as slings/juvies? Sorry, I promise I do a lot of my own searching and fact gathering, but I really didn't find too much on P. ornata sling behavior.

fyic · May 1, 2014

I think they look great ......my only concern is with a p.ornata & s.calceatum.....when it comes to feeding and watering? those are some FAST T's lol

I just picked up some of those 32oz food containers at the 99cent store .....came in a pack of 4 for 99cents for my p.irminia's

they look something like this --> LINK

I think what you did and got is a great idea....but with T's like that you might want something a little easier to work with and safe for them and you

vespers · May 1, 2014

Buggidy said:
are they ground level arboreals their entire lives or just as slings/juvies? Sorry, I promise I do a lot of my own searching and fact gathering, but I really didn't find too much on P. ornata sling behavior.

Pokies in general tend to be terrestrial as slings, and become arboreal as they mature.

tarantulagirl10 · May 1, 2014

I would worry about the P ornate and S cal in those. You can get food storage containers that are taller than they are wide for a couple bucks for half a dozen or something like that. You can also use peanut butter jars, may jars, etc.

Buggidy · May 1, 2014

I'm not planning on moving the S. cals and P. ornata into these until they're bigger and have turned more arboreal, so I'm not too concerned about them getting out of these. Feeding time is really easy in these, you just pop off the top, set it down on a surface (so that the cup is still upside down and the spider is still in the top), grab the cricket with tweezers in one hand and the cup in the other hand, turn it upside down and throw food in and quickly pop the cup back into the lid.

Poor man's arboreal enclosure for slings...

Buggidy

Arachnopeon

awiec

Arachnoprince

Buggidy

Arachnopeon

shamilt1

Arachnopeon

Python

Arachnolord

Buggidy

Arachnopeon

Beary Strange

Arachnodemon

Buggidy

Arachnopeon

fyic

Arachnoknight

vespers

Arachnodemon

tarantulagirl10

Arachnobaron

Buggidy

Arachnopeon