How clean are your cages?

How clean are your cages on average?

  • 95-100%

    Votes: 24 23.1%
  • 90-95%

    Votes: 24 23.1%
  • 85-90%

    Votes: 25 24.0%
  • 80-85%

    Votes: 15 14.4%
  • 70-80%

    Votes: 12 11.5%
  • Less than 70%

    Votes: 4 3.8%

  • Total voters
    104

andy83

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 5, 2004
Messages
186
Well, I just wanted to post a poll on this. I know we all strive to keep our T's in a prime environment, but I was just wondering on HOW clean. This is kindof a broad poll but a good generalization would do just fine I believe.

For example: I have a P. cancerides and a P. lugardi. They are both aggressive species - however, it's a lot easier to clean out my cancerides than it is the lugardi.(I'm fairly new to keeping T's and I just realized that a decent pair of tongs would work miracles :) ) - at any rate...with the 9 current T's that I have, I would say that my cages average around 90-95% clean. 100% being "super ultra mega clean". --and I know we all change our cages every so often as needed.

thanks :)
 

David Burns

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 18, 2003
Messages
1,681
My Haplo species and my C.crawshayi will only get cleaned if I see any food remains on the surface. The rest of my burrowers seem to leave their garbage on the surface more regularly. Otherwise they are all kept fairly clean.
 

becca81

Arachnoemperor
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 17, 2004
Messages
3,783
I try to keep mine as clean as possible to keep down mold, smell, etc.

However, there are some days when I'm extremely busy and can't take the time to clean. Having Ts is nice because they are so low-maintenance!

This would probably depend on how many Ts you have. I have 4 (3 slings and 1 adult), so keeping my enclosures clean is very easy. For those who have 30, 40, etc., it must be quite difficult to keep up with all the cleaning unless that is all you did.

Oh, speaking of cleaning. I was at Wal-Mart yesterday and picked up a pair of kitchen tongs. These are shaped similar to tweezers (a tad bigger), and are about 12 inches long. They are PERFECT for cleaning up and they only cost $1.00. I'll probably go get an extra pair just in case.
 

Vys

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 22, 2002
Messages
1,560
That scale is kind of hard interpret.

Regardless, arboreal enclosures are a lot more work to keep clean, obviously, while terrestrials..well. I clean them about everytime I change an enclosure :) Sometimes I take out obvious food-boluses, but I've never had one such become a problem anyways, as I keep the substrate for every spider I have so far bone dry. Waterbowls are cleaned regularly, but noy more often than once a week.
 
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Sandra

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 13, 2004
Messages
315
My species or my vision?

I never find any leftovers or anything in our young G.aureostriata's KK. Goodness knows I check thoroughly. Am I just blind?

I know we'll experience payback though when we get our A.avic! ;)
 

Bark

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 26, 2004
Messages
266
Sandra said:
I never find any leftovers or anything in our young G.aureostriata's KK. Goodness knows I check thoroughly. Am I just blind?

I know we'll experience payback though when we get our A.avic! ;)
Mine clean their plates too. So does my B Smithi. All of their cages are immaculate.

My H Maculata on the other hand likes to rips its food to shreds :evil: . I can never find ALL of the pieces. Plus it uses some cricket parts in its burrow. I am not about to pull its burrow apart just to get a few small cricket bits. :mad:
 

chique

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 17, 2004
Messages
159
Hahahahaha, who reakons they keep their tanks 100% spotless, please gimme some tips!

I voted for 80 - 85% - the main culprit for me not voting higher is my A.Avic, dirty pup! I clean, I remove remains, wipe away poop and what does she do (with a smile I bet) proceeds to splatter the most unaccesable part of her tank again with nice runny poo. Ahh, she's soooo elegant!

My Smithi n Rosea don't seem to create any mess for me to clean, just food balls neatly put away in the same corner every time, the perfect guests.

As for the other 4, once every couple of weeks i do a proper dirt search n just routine maintenence between those times.

I won't go into how clean 'my' tank is! hehe. ;P
 

metzgerzoo

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 12, 2003
Messages
984
With mine it depends on the particular T. My slings containers are always very clean as are my more docile Ts. My Hap. "longipedum" doesn't like to take her left overs out of her hide and I don't fancy sticking my hand in there at that angle....I'll wait until she molts! :eek: My C. crawshyi has been in premolt and hiding forever so I can pretty much do anything I want in her tank. Both my blondi are rather nervous right now, my female is always on edge now that she has a new "neighbor". For the most part my Ts are all pretty good about taking out the trash for easy removal and cleaning water dishes is never a problem so my tanks usualy stay in the "90s" I suppose.
 

Vanan

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 1, 2003
Messages
345
Only cleaning is when they get a new enclosure or when there's a noticeable food bolus. Oh yea, and moults get taken out asap. Also, any substrate which came together with a new addition gets tossed out as a quarantine measure.
 

earthgirl

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 25, 2004
Messages
38
my two cents...

I top off the water dishes every day or so.
I pick up food boluses, avic window poop, moults and cricket pieces as soon as I see them.
As long as the substrate is kept dry and the above tasks are done on a regular basis, I see no need to "clean" the enclosure.
I think too much interference stresses them.
Just my two cents...
 

andy83

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 5, 2004
Messages
186
Alright,

Thanks everybody. That's pretty much what I expected. Sorry about the scaling there but I havn't been sleeping too much lately :wall:
 

Mattyb

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 28, 2004
Messages
2,317
Well how clean can a tank be if you use peat moss as substrate? i mean its basically dirt. I just clean up food remains and then let it be.



-Mattyb
 

Arachnobrian

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 27, 2004
Messages
863
I'm waiting for both my "T's" to moult then they will get new "clean" digs.
The current cleanliness would be about 80%, I guess, there is not much left after they eat, and any cricket parts are quickly removed. The viewing surface of the glass is cleaned regularly, and water dishes are cleaned and topped up every couple days. So I guess you could say pretty clean.
 

USMuscle9403

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 30, 2004
Messages
133
Mattyb said:
Well how clean can a tank be if you use peat moss as substrate? i mean its basically dirt. I just clean up food remains and then let it be.



-Mattyb
Yea same here. I believe that as long as the cage smells okay, there are no insect boluses (sp) lying around, no exuvias, mold etc., then the spider is okay. No use in keeping a Ts enclosure spick-and-span, IMO.
 

Immortal_sin

Arachnotemptress
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 17, 2002
Messages
3,952
well, I don't know what to say LOL
I basically NEVER clean my cages, except to remove a bolus every so often. I keep fresh water inthe containers that actually HAVE a water dish, and of course when rehousing they get a nice clean container. However, I let my Ts be, and don't bother them unless I have to. I've never had a mite infestation, and my tarantulas are heathy. So, go figure.....
 

USMuscle9403

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 30, 2004
Messages
133
Immortal_sin said:
well, I don't know what to say LOL
I basically NEVER clean my cages, except to remove a bolus every so often. I keep fresh water inthe containers that actually HAVE a water dish, and of course when rehousing they get a nice clean container. However, I let my Ts be, and don't bother them unless I have to. I've never had a mite infestation, and my tarantulas are heathy. So, go figure.....
That's the thing, I bother my Ts as LITTLE as possible. They just don't like to be bothered, and if I kept my enclosures 100% clean 100% of the time, I'd stress the Ts unnecessarily and that's definitely what we DONT want.
 

Deschain

Arachnolord
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 7, 2004
Messages
652
My tanks are 100% as clean as they can be at that time. Most of the "mess" in my tanks are arboreals. Misting the back wall of the tank cuts down on the visible watermarks...but I usually do all my changes and cleaning around the same time. Every 6 to 12 months for a complete cleaning, and daily "fussing"...it doesn't need to be done, but I enjoy it.
 

arachnophoria

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 28, 2007
Messages
191
for inverts,the cage is fairly clean on its own,if I use coco peat as substrate and keep it dry.I remove food remains and might replace plants that age or look bad,clean the glass if needed,and change the water every few days,but I usually don't even stress over water marks.Best to let them be and that is part of the joy of keeping them...no large piles of ''waste'' to clean up.
 
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