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Just rehoused my very first old world, and it was a Pokie.

Paul H.

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11
Location
Union City, CA
I picked up a poecilotheria metallica sling at a reptile expo this weekend (as well as a few other things). It's about an inch and a half DLS. I've been daydreaming about pokies for quite awhile now, and just old world's in general. I currently have 6 new world's and one is an arboreal (c. versi). I've of course done plenty of research via reading and watching videos. Only thing left to do was actually do it and get real hands on experience. I felt confident in my ability due to previous experience in venomous creatures and the focus they require, and having other hobbies that require me to be calm in extreme situations and think with a clear head if things go wrong. I locked myself in the bathroom with it, sealed all escape routes, had a few different sized catch cups and "moving sticks", and placed a large bin inside the bath tub. The sling was in a shallow deli cup, so I got a small box just the right height to place it on, and that actually set the top edge right up to, and flush with the top rim of its new arboreal enclosure. I opened the deli cup and took a deep breath cause I went into this planning for worst case scenario. I had backup plans for my backup plans though, and even rehearsed a few times on how I'd go from catch cup to new enclosure. I had 2 wooden skewers taped end to end as my main spider coaxing tool. The p. metallica was on the wall just above the substrate. I used my skewers to go just beneath it, and then gave it a light touch. That made it scurry to the top. It was now teetering on the tops of both enclosures. One more light touch on the back of the abdomen sent it shooting to the bottom of the new enclosure. Right after that, I closed the top, and that was that. Flawless! It took some time to setup everything and practice what I was going to do, but it brought so much peace of mind should something go awry. Here is a picture of it in its new home just hanging out on the left side. I was excited and relieved that everything went as planned, and the elevated heartrate from dealing with the unknown went back to normal.
20190827_210807.jpg
 

Paul H.

New Member
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11
Location
Union City, CA
Thanks, everyone. Not sure if I went a little overboard with prep than what others do with their poecilotheria rehousings, but doing what I did made me a lot more comfortable doing this for the first time with an old world T, let alone a pokie. Not sure if I'll do the same thing with the next rehousing though. I'll still prep the same, but I might try going from current enclosure straight to catch cup, and then catch cup to new enclosure, or even old enclosure placed into new enclosure and let it come out on it' own. I'll still have a few molts to think about that though while I learn it's individual behavior and temperament.
 

MassExodus

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Thanks, everyone. Not sure if I went a little overboard with prep than what others do with their poecilotheria rehousings, but doing what I did made me a lot more comfortable doing this for the first time with an old world T, let alone a pokie. Not sure if I'll do the same thing with the next rehousing though. I'll still prep the same, but I might try going from current enclosure straight to catch cup, and then catch cup to new enclosure, or even old enclosure placed into new enclosure and let it come out on it' own. I'll still have a few molts to think about that though while I learn it's individual behavior and temperament.
You can't really go overboard with poeci rehousing prep. They can, and will, teleport. I've had two on me, panicked but not aggressive at all. I sometimes imagine if mine had been angry, aggressive poecis. Not good, bruh..
 

Whitelightning777

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I have triple rehousings for 3 of my pokies coming up. The decor is currently setting up. Liquid nails requires overnight to fully cure.

I affixed corkbark to some old busted up CD cases together with a few plastic plants. They look ridiculous but once under substrate will look totally natural.

I also had to trim some corkbark to size as well.

Stay tuned.
 

Arachnoclown

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Congratulations on the rehouse. For someone new at rehousing pokies lots of prep is great. Once you have 100s of pokie rehousings done, you'll just use a catch cup and a paint brush. Sometimes I just use a paintbrush and my hand for the little guys. The best thing I've found over the years to rehouse pokies on is carpet. They cant run fast because their hooks slow them done. Bathtubs cant contain a pokie...
 

Paul H.

New Member
Messages
11
Location
Union City, CA
You can't really go overboard with poeci rehousing prep. They can, and will, teleport. I've had two on me, panicked but not aggressive at all. I sometimes imagine if mine had been angry, aggressive poecis. Not good, bruh..

I've seen how fast they are capable of being. Haven't seen any signs of aggression yet in mine, but I'm going into every interaction assuming that it can be aggressive/defensive at any time.


I have triple rehousings for 3 of my pokies coming up. The decor is currently setting up. Liquid nails requires overnight to fully cure.

I affixed corkbark to some old busted up CD cases together with a few plastic plants. They look ridiculous but once under substrate will look totally natural.

I also had to trim some corkbark to size as well.

Stay tuned.

That's a great idea to keep things in place! I'll be keeping an eye out for pictures!

Congratulations on the rehouse. For someone new at rehousing pokies lots of prep is great. Once you have 100s of pokie rehousings done, you'll just use a catch cup and a paint brush. Sometimes I just use a paintbrush and my hand for the little guys. The best thing I've found over the years to rehouse pokies on is carpet. They cant run fast because their hooks slow them done. Bathtubs cant contain a pokie...

Thanks! Yeah, I go in assuming every spider can climb out of the bathtub. It's just a buffer so I get an extra second to react with a catch cup. That carpet idea makes total sense though. I wouldn't have thought of that. I do have some extra carpet lying around. I wonder if it would be worth lining the bottom of the bathtub or a large bin just to get even more time to react to a bolting tarantula? It would have to be done right though with no gaps so that the spider doesn't try to go under the carpet if it makes it to the edge.
 

DreadedNeith

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204
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Syracuse NY USA
Well done. I don't have any old worlds yet but I have been practicing with my Me a. I've also done quite a bit of research on poeci. I'll be getting one soon. Time to nut up or **** up I guess.
 

NukaMedia Exotics

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591
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California
Nice, yea my first pokies were 2 P. metallica slings and I had them in 32oz deli cups basically dreading the day a rehouse was needed lol. I recently rehoused the first one over a year later though and all went well as any other, I did give it a cricket it was feeding on during the rehousing which is a good way to sometimes help them be less prone to bolt.
 

Jess S

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See this video of a guy catching an extremely skittish escaped 7.5" P. Metallica.

If you want to skip to the action it happens around 5.50 mins in.

 

Whitelightning777

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I've seen how fast they are capable of being. Haven't seen any signs of aggression yet in mine, but I'm going into every interaction assuming that it can be aggressive/defensive at any time.




That's a great idea to keep things in place! I'll be keeping an eye out for pictures!



Thanks! Yeah, I go in assuming every spider can climb out of the bathtub. It's just a buffer so I get an extra second to react with a catch cup. That carpet idea makes total sense though. I wouldn't have thought of that. I do have some extra carpet lying around. I wonder if it would be worth lining the bottom of the bathtub or a large bin just to get even more time to react to a bolting tarantula? It would have to be done right though with no gaps so that the spider doesn't try to go under the carpet if it makes it to the edge.

I just full the tub with an inch or two of cold water usually from the fridge. Then I put the cages up on styrofoam to keep them at a normal temperature. They hate cold feet and after dipping a toe into the water if they bolt, they'll reverse direction quickly.

I had to rehouse my H pulchripes after finding mold in his cage. Of course he decided to bolt. It was hilarious to see him put one foot in and then run around the top until he tired out and then settled into the enclosure. It's too bad I didn't catch the whole thing on film but here you can see him after he was tired out.

He was running around the outside the cage at least 10x faster then you see him after he was totally tired out. I gently encouraged him to run in and out and all about because tarantulas don't have efficient respiration and they'll basically accumulate CO2 and run it of air in a fairly short time. Heck, it was almost like round penning a horse but quicker by far. Without cold water in the tub I'm sure he would've vanished in a flash never to be seen again. Maybe wax paper or aluminum foil would also work but I haven't experimented with that yet.




Generally, the slower you move the slower the T moves. When being rehoused, the T should be as bored as possible. Compared to that, my pokies are totally chilled out & usually on their best behavior.
 
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Arachnoclown

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I just full the tub with an inch or two of cold water usually from the fridge. Then I put the cages up on styrofoam to keep them at a normal temperature. They hate cold feet and after dipping a toe into the water if they bolt, they'll reverse direction quickly.

I had to rehouse my H pulchripes after finding mold in his cage. Of course he decided to bolt. It was hilarious to see him put one foot in and then run around the top until he tired out and then settled into the enclosure. It's too bad I didn't catch the whole thing on film but here you can see him after he was tired out.

He was running around the outside the cage at least 10x faster then you see him after he was totally tired out. I gently encouraged him to run in and out and all about because tarantulas don't have efficient respiration and they'll basically accumulate CO2 and run it of air in a fairly short time. Heck, it was almost like round penning a horse but quicker by far. Without cold water in the tub I'm sure he would've vanished in a flash never to be seen again. Maybe wax paper or aluminum foil would also work but I haven't experimented with that yet.




Generally, the slower you move the slower the T moves. When being rehoused, the T should be as bored as possible. Compared to that, my pokies are totally chilled out & usually on their best behavior.
Sorry...but a inch of water isnt going to stop a 10" pokie that will run like Jesus across the top of the water. It may work with a few terrestrial species but most arboreal and even Fossorial species wont be phased by it. Been there done that...;)
Carpet...the shaggier the better. I would lie about it...I rehouse pokies all the time. Paint brush and a fish net...that's it. I've got over 60 pokies, 13 different species. I'll send you a 10"-11" rufilata and you can demonstrate your technique for us...but no matter what you have to post that video.:D
 

Paul H.

New Member
Messages
11
Location
Union City, CA
Well done. I don't have any old worlds yet but I have been practicing with my Me a. I've also done quite a bit of research on poeci. I'll be getting one soon. Time to nut up or **** up I guess.

Hey, thanks. You won't be disappointed with a poecilotheria. They're fascinating to watch. Just jump in, the water is warm.

Nice, yea my first pokies were 2 P. metallica slings and I had them in 32oz deli cups basically dreading the day a rehouse was needed lol. I recently rehoused the first one over a year later though and all went well as any other, I did give it a cricket it was feeding on during the rehousing which is a good way to sometimes help them be less prone to bolt.

I was also kind of dreading the rehousing as well since I didn't have any old world T experience. I do like that idea of feeding first before the rehouse of certain species. That's what I was planning on doing if I needed to do some more serious (intrusive) types of enclosure maintenance.


See this video of a guy catching an extremely skittish escaped 7.5" P. Metallica.

If you want to skip to the action it happens around 5.50 mins in.


Geez. Yeah, I'm taking the necessary steps to not be that guy!

I just full the tub with an inch or two of cold water usually from the fridge. Then I put the cages up on styrofoam to keep them at a normal temperature. They hate cold feet and after dipping a toe into the water if they bolt, they'll reverse direction quickly.

I had to rehouse my H pulchripes after finding mold in his cage. Of course he decided to bolt. It was hilarious to see him put one foot in and then run around the top until he tired out and then settled into the enclosure. It's too bad I didn't catch the whole thing on film but here you can see him after he was tired out.

He was running around the outside the cage at least 10x faster then you see him after he was totally tired out. I gently encouraged him to run in and out and all about because tarantulas don't have efficient respiration and they'll basically accumulate CO2 and run it of air in a fairly short time. Heck, it was almost like round penning a horse but quicker by far. Without cold water in the tub I'm sure he would've vanished in a flash never to be seen again. Maybe wax paper or aluminum foil would also work but I haven't experimented with that yet.




Generally, the slower you move the slower the T moves. When being rehoused, the T should be as bored as possible. Compared to that, my pokies are totally chilled out & usually on their best behavior.

That cold water in the tub idea is awesome! Like a rehousing moat! I think that would definitely give more piece of mind knowing that a loose T is contained on a little island.


Sorry...but a inch of water isnt going to stop a 10" pokie that will run like Jesus across the top of the water. It may work with a few terrestrial species but most arboreal and even Fossorial species wont be phased by it. Been there done that...;)
Carpet...the shaggier the better. I would lie about it...I rehouse pokies all the time. Paint brush and a fish net...that's it. I've got over 60 pokies, 13 different species. I'll send you a 10"-11" rufilata and you can demonstrate your technique for us...but no matter what you have to post that video.:D

Haha "run like Jesus across the top of the water". Does it at least buy you some time while they swim? Even if the moat idea doesn't work with all species, I wonder what other materials could be used (besides shaggy carpet) to slow or contain a bolting tarantula? I've been seeing your posts since I've lurked on here getting back into the hobby, so I know you have LOTS of spiders and LOTS of experience. Therefore, I really trust the things you say. I'm sure you've tried several ways, and refined methods many times to get to where you are now with what you do and what tools you use. I'm just curious as to what materials other keepers may have tried to use that tarantulas don't like to walk on (and obviously wouldn't be a risk). Either side of velcro? A bunch of crumpled newspaper? Something slippery? By the way, as far as tools, do you really use a fishnet in place of a catch cup?
 

Jess S

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Back to the guy in the video, he did seem scared but he's kept all sorts of T's and big reptiles for a long time. I think he just didn't want to be dealing with that particular T on the loose at 3am and it showed in how he went about it. I did have a good laugh through, glad it wasn't me!!

I can totally see carpet trapping their tarsal claws and slowing them right down. I really like the way Tom Moran deals with them when rehousing with his cardboard cutouts. Nice little trick to stop them flying out through gaps.

"Run across the water like Jesus.. " rofl :D for some reason that made me think of the joke about Jesus taking a guy into the sea to investigate an oil spill. Jesus is walking on the water and the guy is quickly up to his neck and cries out "Help me, Jesus! I'm out of my depth and can't swim!"
Jesus looks over and says, "Well, why don't you walk on the pipe like me then?" :p:D
 

Whitelightning777

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I just posted the video. The first one, very lower left corner, she steps in the ice water (I pulled out the cubes prior to filming) & changes direction. They all went in totally differently. I doubt normal temp water would discourage them.

Imagine having brain freeze on all 8 feet!! Changes of plans!!

10" would probably require more like a small pool not a bathtub. Heck Morgana almost stretched across to the ledge which was why I had that catch cup.

They all found their way home which is what matters.


A certain one wants free food and a few ride.....
 

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