How do you clean your REAL webbed-up cages? (aka: wrecking the web 101)

RugbyDave

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Hello!

finally a warm (ish) day here in Minnesota. Hope its nice elsewhere!

I was just wondering how other people clean (the big once-a-month type deal, or whenever it is you do it) their real webbed-up cages?

You know how the tube-webs get (real gunky and rank, right?). Do you guys just break it down, do you go around it, or do you just not clean? I guess there's positives to each of the methods.

I'd like to hear how other people do it! =D

Peace,
Dave!
 

Immortal_sin

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Dave,
I rarely, if ever, clean anything!
But, every once in a while, the Avic poop just gets to be too much. I take a very damp paper towel, and go around the inside of the aquarium. I leave the webbing alone though. Currently, my A urticans female has 2 old molts in her tube web, one from last year, and one from a couple weeks ago. I figure if she wants them out of there, she will remove them herself.
I don't generally mess with webbing unless I am rehousing someone.
I don't clean boluses either though ;)
 

SpiderTwin

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I haven't cleaned any of my cages either. I probably should, but I haven't yet. But I do try to keep them clean by picking out any cricket remains every time I feed and water them. Some of Avic's are harder to deal with since they like to attach their webs to the top of the container.

There has been times where they will build a new web for an up and coming molt and then end up staying in it, when they do this, I will usually take out the old web and clean the cage up a bit trying not to disturb the new web.
 

Code Monkey

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Well, when it's real webbed up, nothing gets cleaned except maybe once a year unless it just happens to be in reach of fingers or tongs. Food boluses rarely mold because nobody gets kept very moist, but if they do, I don't worry about it. The paranoia about molds in regards to Ts is just that: paranoia.

The vast majority of molds are completely harmless and while it's not good practice to leave the cage constantly moldy, if you a) don't keep things too moist and b) aren't such a clean freak that you actually have a good mix of normal fungi and bacteria in your substrate, it's broken down and gone within a couple of days.
 

LPacker79

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Thanks for explaining that Code. I thought she meant she didn't clean boluses out of any of the cages. I admit that I don't clean the ones out of my Usumbara's enclosure......she's got webbing all the way up to the lid and when I do see boluses, they're usually underneath all the webbing.
My Usumbara is now adding some attractive artwork to her webbing......dirt balls! And lots of them...
When I first got my L. parahybana and L. striatipes, I made the mistake of not having enough ventilation and having it too moist. I had mold all over the place. No cricket remains, but mold everywhere. I immediately changed the substrate, washed everything out, and changed my ways. No problems since.
 

Vys

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Yeah, I haven't ever recked my avics webb either. She made it .. a year ago or so, some weeks after I got her, and has a molt in it. I don't think there's lots of Avic poo there since I get lots of that on the glass-sides of the enclosure (hard to get off once it's hardened :p )
Buy generally I try to keep the rest of the cage clean. Mold I don't get since I hardly ever mist substrates anymore.

My Parahybana's nicely decorated cage has been dirt-plowed and webbed and some things in it have died (there's a nice webbed up mummified hottentot there) but I don't do much to clean it or remove the webs besides cleaning the waterdish.
 

RugbyDave

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i had to wreck one of my Poec's webs to clean.. just had to.. it was in need of a clean, and not for me, but for the T -- new substrate and everything..

nice thing was a fresh web was made right away and now that poec seems to be eating more and more and looking a bit more plump, which is good, since it was kind of doing the 'fasting-thing'

pce
dave
 

Vys

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Ugly little plant that was supposed to be able to stand both shadows and drought..
looks like strings with squished green pearls laying around.
 

RugbyDave

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just me bein a wise-@ss :)

its also a khoisan language (one of the 'click' languages) of southern africa.. although they used to be very wide-spread throughout ALL of sub-sahara africa (way, way... WAY long ago)...

We're thinking now that actually all of the southern african languages actually stem from hottentot and the other khoisan languages.

the name 'hottentot' comes from the name of the tribe/people, (the hottentot )who speak the khoisan languages. They were named by the Africans-speakers in South Africa (the white dutch settlers down there).

;P

but here's a pic of my red phase eating a pinkie, so you cant say there's no T content :)
 

Vys

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..Well, that's kind of an epitome of pinkie-grossness enough for me :D

Regarding the Hottentots of Africa, were those the ones with the big butts? Or was that somekind of disease?
 

RugbyDave

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haha, no, no big-butts... maybe the joy-hottentots of africa, but then they'd have to be T's, so...

i think its just me, but pinkie mice remind me of really old men.. its wierd...

all hunched up and extra skin and eyes half open, and mouth moving randomly, crapping all over the place..no hair...

oh boy, am i ever looking forward to old age now :) I guess i won't be posting anymore eating pictures...

peace
dave
 
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