Help please!!!

[Paige_heffernan]

Hi everyone!!
I'm new to all of this!.
I inherited an antilles pink toe tarantula and I'm trying to keep him/her alive! It melted 10 days ago, has fresh water, misted tank, but wont eat! I found it starting to curl its legs in today ( has been very active)andnjm just not sure what to do! Any advice is welcome!!!

 

[Logan D]

first how big is the t and how moist is her enclosure a picture would help to

 

[Paige_heffernan]

I'd say maybe 3" or so and it's at about 70% humid. I just misted again this am. Pictures are of just before molt- cleaned tank- and this morning starting to curl legs but was moving a bit

 

[Logan D]

weird so with avic you don't really want to have them in a very moist environment it doesn't look to be be moist in there so i would try picking her up and putting a couple of drops of water on her fangs in case she is dehydrated

 

[Logan D]

and since she just molt she cant eat for atleast a week i would imagine at that size her fangs haven't harden yet

 

[Paige_heffernan]

So we molted 10 days ago today. Was going to try a small cricket or mealworm. I've had a tarantula before but not this type or have dealt bv with molting, So I'm just lost! Just checked and a few legs stretched out but very weak

 

[Logan D]

So we molted 10 days ago today. Was going to try a small cricket or mealworm. I've had a tarantula before but not this type or have dealt bv with molting, So I'm just lost! Just checked and a few legs stretched out but very weak

yeah i would try gently picking her up and dripping water in her mouth and see if she starts to improve if so she's dehydrated

 

[Paige_heffernan]

I'll try that now, thank you so much!

 

[Logan D]

I'll try that now, thank you so much!

yeah np from the angle it doesn't look like she has any trauma from the molt so im hoping that's the problem

 

[Paige_heffernan]

I really hope! I'd be devastated to lose her. I touched the dropper to her fangs and she lunged a little. So hopefully that's a good sign-

 

[Logan D]

when you put her back in the enclosure i would set her on the water dish

 

[Paige_heffernan]

Okay, would you reccomend like a bottle cap? I have an ashtray now.. I dont want to drown her

 

[Logan D]

do you have a milk jug cap? or Gatorade cap has long as her abdomen is not in the water she will be okay like just put her on the lip of the dish

 

[PanzoN88]

Misting is not necessary, dry substrate with a water dish and a LOT of cross ventilation are key. Before I ever got in the hobby, it was assumed Avics/ybrapora/caribena (Avics only back then) needed a lot of moisture, which through trial and error, has been disproved.

I know it wasn't asked, but the setup looks like it's more suited to a terrestrial species judging by the first picture.

 

[Arachnoclown]

It's a arboreal species....lives in the trees. If you dont have anywhere for it to climb and make a nest it will die.

 

[Arachnoclown]

$5.00 setup

 

[Logan D]

Okay, would you reccomend like a bottle cap? I have an ashtray now.. I dont want to drown her

did you get her back to normal?

 

[Whitelightning777]

The thing with these is that they won't go to ground for water. You need to have an elevated water dish of some kind that won't fall down. I had the same issue with my C versicolor. Despite the fact that they come from regions that are humid at ground level, they can get hurt or killed by excess humidity.

It's really easy to see why. Humid air is denser then less humid air. That's why fog tends to hug the ground.

These guys live in trees, some of them close to 100 feet off of the ground, a few even higher. They are used to drinking water from nooks and crannies in trees. They also like lots of ventilation. Jamie's tarantulas makes a wonderful juvenile enclosure for smaller specimens. If you have a large juvenile or sub adult or bigger, consider using an ExoTerra nano tall enclosure or something similar to that. Jamie's also has a wonderful adult size enclosure for adults, but it costs more & its acrylic. The nano is glass.

My versicolor just loves his ExoTerra enclosure. In general, the enclosure should have a vertical orientation, by which I mean taller then it is wide.