My Avic sling enclosures - would anyone make any changes?

LythSalicaria · Feb 14, 2015

Hey all sorry for starting another thread so soon after the last one but I wanted to make sure my Avic enclosures are perfect, or as close to perfect as I'm going to get anyway.

As can be seen from the images, I used a glue gun to place their water dishes high up in the enclosures so that they'd have easy access at all times, and I used pop bottle caps just because they're twice as deep as water bottle caps.

I also use a glass eye dropper to dampen one corner of the substrate once a week, alternating which corner I dampen to negate any chance of mold appearing - though the water usually evaporates before this could happen anyway. Better to be safe than sorry though. There's a fair bit of sphagnum moss in both enclosures for web anchors as well as to help maintain a bit of humidity.

What do you guys think? Should I make any changes?

Squidies · Feb 14, 2015

Well everything I've seen on here about Avics is that cross ventilation is important. It certainly looks like you've got that covered.

cold blood · Feb 14, 2015

First, the water dish is there for humidity, and not drinking....therefore it should really be at the bottom.

Next, its way over-ventilated...there is no way a micro-climate could possibly form in there and no way any amount of humidity that the dish provides could be maintained.

Probably 1/3 of the side venting would be more than enough and none or only a few in the lid. With all those holes its difficult to even see whats up inside the enclosure...but it appears good.

How long did it take to make all those holes?

Squidies · Feb 14, 2015

cold blood said:
Next, its way over-ventilated...there is no way a micro-climate could possibly form in there and no way any amount of humidity that the dish provides could be maintained.

My solution for this if you'd still like to use these as enclosures and not go through the process of building all new ones would be to use large, clear Scotch/Packing tape like what you can find at Staples wrapped around them to seal off some of the holes. I would think about sealing off about 1/3 to 1/2 the holes at the top and bottom, leaving a section in the middle, and perhaps a quarter to half dollar size on the lid to create that micro climate cold blood was referring to. I know with my C. cyaneopubescens enclosure, the only ventilation is at the top, but its pretty wide and ALL of the humidity escapes from there. so I end up having to refill the water dish every 3 or 4 days. Perhaps empty them out and rinse the insides to get rid of potential fumes/residue from the tape, however, I don't think this would be a huge issue.

LythSalicaria · Feb 14, 2015

cold blood said:
First, the water dish is there for humidity, and not drinking....therefore it should really be at the bottom.

Next, its way over-ventilated...there is no way a micro-climate could possibly form in there and no way any amount of humidity that the dish provides could be maintained.

Probably 1/3 of the side venting would be more than enough and none or only a few in the lid. With all those holes its difficult to even see whats up inside the enclosure...but it appears good.

I'm glad I asked about this before it was too late! Will seal up 2/3rds of the holes with some scotch tape as Squidies suggested and replace the lids with un-vented ones. Will me dampening the sub or the moss work for humidity once the excess of holes is dealt with? Or should I try to squeeze in a second water dish to put at the bottom?

cold blood said:
How long did it take to make all those holes?

About 2-3 hours not counting the 2-hour break I took to give my thumbs a rest. :laugh:

Graeboe · Feb 14, 2015

Make sure that you place something between the tape and holes of you seal from the outside. Don't want a toe getting stuck on scotch tape

But to be honest even if it's more work Id just start new enclosures.

If you can't find them locally go online for 32oz deli cups with fabic lids.

Squidies · Feb 14, 2015

Dampening the sub should hold a decent amount of humidity I would think even with good ventilation since the vents are only going to really effect the sub immediately close to them. Any of the sub further away from the vents and packed should retain a decent amount of humidity and moisture if it remains undisturbed. For instance with my A. geniculata today after she was done burrowing, I noticed a lot of moisture near the bottom of her burrow. I assume that's because the moisture was trapped inside the sub from when I first moistened it and put her in there until she actually dug it out and it began to condense and humidify. Since then it's evaporated but I'm pretty sure most of the moisture is still in the enclosure since it doesn't have nearly the amount of ventilation as my other enclosures.

---------- Post added 02-14-2015 at 06:15 PM ----------

Graeboe said:
Make sure that you place something between the tape and holes of you seal from the outside. Don't want a toe getting stuck on scotch tape

But to be honest even if it's more work Id just start new enclosures.

If you can't find them locally go online for 32oz deli cups with fabic lids.

I'd go with this advice as well. I just wanted to point out that the tape idea would be a solution, but rinsing out the inside would be a good idea to remove some of the stickyness of the tape.

cold blood · Feb 14, 2015

Yeah I don't like tape either. I'd start over...what a pain your thumbs must have endured! A 32oz deli cup is indeed a great enclosure for them. If you don't want to go through that, I'd rather see you wrap some plastic wrap around than tape...put tape on the outside and a foot could get glued to it, put tape on the inside and it could be peeled off by the t and cause even more issues.

I would just move the dish to the bottom.

Oh your poor thumbs...they have my sympathies.

Graeboe · Feb 14, 2015

cold blood said:
Yeah I don't like tape either. I'd start over...what a pain your thumbs must have endured! A 32oz deli cup is indeed a great enclosure for them. If you don't want to go through that, I'd rather see you wrap some plastic wrap around than tape...put tape on the outside and a foot could get glued to it, put tape on the inside and it could be peeled off by the t and cause even more issues.

I would just move the dish to the bottom.

Oh your poor thumbs...they have my sympathies.

There Ya go wrap it up with Saran wrap and repoke holes in it

LythSalicaria · Feb 14, 2015

cold blood said:
Yeah I don't like tape either. I'd start over...what a pain your thumbs must have endured! A 32oz deli cup is indeed a great enclosure for them. If you don't want to go through that, I'd rather see you wrap some plastic wrap around than tape...put tape on the outside and a foot could get glued to it, put tape on the inside and it could be peeled off by the t and cause even more issues.

I would just move the dish to the bottom.

Oh your poor thumbs...they have my sympathies.

Yeah my S.O. was saying the same thing - start from scratch. I've got three more of those big plastic spice bottles pictured above so I'll just build fresh enclosures and transfer the Avics over either tonight or tomorrow morning. Would use deli cups instead if I had some handy - thinking I'll go to the local wholesale joint and grab some at the beginning of the month though. I'm going to be ordering 4-5 A. purpurea slings at the beginning of April unless they're all spoken for by then. That way I'll have deli cups handy for the new additions, and for the A. metallica slings when they need to be moved to bigger enclosures.

The only thing is my A. metallicas are 3/4" and the A. purpurea slings I want to get are 1/2" at this point - are you sure a 32 oz won't be too big?

And my thumbs thank you for the sympathy. Haha!

They're used to being put to work though - better to put in the extra effort to ensure everything's being done right. Thank you all for the advice - it's greatly appreciated.

EDIT: I'll post pics of the new enclosures once they're done to get the final OK before I move in the occupants.

cold blood · Feb 14, 2015

32's may be a little big, but not so much that I would be concerned. I've put 1/2-3/4" avics in 32 without issue. They're pretty good hunters...I will say that the 16oz ones will put the food on the floor closer to the spiders home, which will make feeding easier, but 32 should not really be an issue.

For the next one I'd just make like 3 rows of vent rings around the top and a few at the bottom, like maybe 4 or 5...some, like poec (I believe) just put rings around the top without issue. The lid doesn't need any, but a few won't hurt....but too many on the lid will completely disrupt the "micro-climate" as humidity will just rise out of the enclosure.

eldondominicano · Feb 14, 2015

LythSalicaria said:
Hey all sorry for starting another thread so soon after the last one but I wanted to make sure my Avic enclosures are perfect, or as close to perfect as I'm going to get anyway.

As can be seen from the images, I used a glue gun to place their water dishes high up in the enclosures so that they'd have easy access at all times, and I used pop bottle caps just because they're twice as deep as water bottle caps.

I also use a glass eye dropper to dampen one corner of the substrate once a week, alternating which corner I dampen to negate any chance of mold appearing - though the water usually evaporates before this could happen anyway. Better to be safe than sorry though. There's a fair bit of sphagnum moss in both enclosures for web anchors as well as to help maintain a bit of humidity.

What do you guys think? Should I make any changes?

What kind of Avic do you have? The ONLY AVIC that needs higher than average ventilation is A. Veriscolor. That said, make sure sub is slightly moist, don't worry about any holes on top just on the sides for cross ventilation. For holes that size if its A. Versicolor I'd have 4 holes on each side on the top, and 4 on each side near the bottom. Don't cramp the enclosure, and yes make sure for a water dish you have one,which seems to me that you have that covered. Avics wont go down to the ground so suspended moss, and a bottle cap hot glued to the side of the enclosure would work.

cold blood · Feb 14, 2015

eldondominicano said:
What kind of Avic do you have? The ONLY AVIC that needs higher than average ventilation is A. Veriscolor.

Where did you get this? I keep all mine the same, A. avic, urticans and versicolor. I feel its important for the entire genus.

I'm also curious as to the species the op has as well now.

eldondominicano · Feb 14, 2015

cold blood said:
Where did you get this? I keep all mine the same, A. avic, urticans and versicolor. I feel its important for the entire genus.

I'm also curious as to the species the op has as well now.

From a friend of mine who houses hundreds of Avics, probs around 50+ per species, and also learning from these other experienced keepers I stay in touch with. I don't want to contend with you that other avics or Tarantulas don't benefit from higher ventilation, cause you seem to have a lot more T experience than myself, but there isn't a need to over ventilate other Avics say compared to, any other T you try to keep high humidity with, aside from T. blondi and H. Gigas who seem to do well with lower ventilation.

---------- Post added 02-14-2015 at 08:03 PM ----------

BTW Coldblood.. I think I saw A. Versicolor legs in the corner of her pic..

LythSalicaria · Feb 14, 2015

eldondominicano said:
What kind of Avic do you have?

A. metallica right now, and I'm hoping to get a few A. purpurea slings in April.

I've also got an adult mystery Avic I got from my LPS - pretty sure it's A. avicularia.

Okay, here's what I've got (no slings in there yet):

The water dishes are at the bottom now for humidity - I can dampen the moss for drinking. Should I add a few more holes or are these good the way they are?

I just realized you can't see the lids very clearly - I didn't poke any holes in the lids this time, just to clarify.

eldondominicano · Feb 14, 2015

your fine with the setup up except id slightly dampen the moisture.

---------- Post added 02-14-2015 at 10:01 PM ----------

Slightly lol

cold blood · Feb 14, 2015

You'll need to keep the moss clear of the water dish...any of that so much as touches the rim of the dish and it will have a wicking effect that will drain the dish very quickly...keep filling it and you end up will too much moisture in the moss.

I personally wouldn't moisten anything....once the t makes webbing, that's what I would lightly mist (I use a syringe so I can be precise), that's for drinking....just a very little amount weekly....that's all I do.

LythSalicaria · Feb 14, 2015

Water dishes are filled (and moss-free) and the slings are in their new homes. Thanks to everyone for the help - I'm sure my A. metallicas would thank you too if they could. LOL

One of the cheeky little devils jumped on to my hand in the process of transferring - thankfully once it got there it stayed in one place and it was an easy matter of coaxing it into its' new home. I wish I'd had my camera in the bathroom with me though; would have been a good photo op. They're so cute when they're this young.

My Avic sling enclosures - would anyone make any changes?

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