MissKitty
Active Member
- Messages
- 117
- Location
- New Mexico
-
Are you a Tarantula hobbyist? If so, we invite you to join our community! Once you join you'll be able to post messages, upload pictures of your pets and enclosures and chat with other Tarantula enthusiasts. Sign up today!
Meet Heishi
- Thread starter MissKitty
- Start date
- Messages
- 10,909
- Location
- Malton, UK
Congrats on the new arrival 
Good eye.
- Messages
- 1,939
- Location
- Kentucky
What do you replace it with?
Plastic with holes in it?
MissKitty
Active Member
- Messages
- 117
- Location
- New Mexico
Replace it with what?????
Thats the ventilation.
If they climb it they could get their claws stuck in the mesh and lose a limb potentially.
- Messages
- 1,939
- Location
- Kentucky
I have screen as well and never had an issue.
My skeleton has nearly killed itself with a screen top. I saw it dangling with one leg. I taped a paper towel with holes in it underneath the screen so it couldn’t get stuck again.
Last edited:
MissKitty
Active Member
- Messages
- 117
- Location
- New Mexico
I will keep an eye on her,if need be, I will replace it. She was in the exact enclosure when I got her.
MissKitty
Active Member
- Messages
- 117
- Location
- New Mexico
I wonder if just regular mosquito type screen for windows would help?
- Messages
- 216
- Location
- Clackamas Oregon
Not dangerous for a arboreal...that screen is fine.
- Messages
- 6,382
- Location
- The Oregon rain forest
An arboreal spider will never get stuck on that screen top. This screen pattern is huge. 38 years and I've never had a tarantula stuck on a screen top. Most of the videos and photos I've seen in the past the spiders were stuck in the tight screen pattern. (All could have used more substrate or proper enclosure size to avoid this.) Terrestrial spiders are fine with screen tops if they can still touch the ground. I have all my terrestrial Ts with screen tops set up to still touch the ground. We all need to realize that some of these "dont dos" in the hobby are out dated now. These manufacturers make better products now.
Btw hes not stuck...he was on the screen 24-7 looking for ladies.
Btw hes not stuck...he was on the screen 24-7 looking for ladies.
- Messages
- 1,197
- Location
- South Wales
An arboreal spider will never get stuck on that screen top. This screen pattern is huge. 38 years and I've never had a tarantula stuck on a screen top. Most of the videos and photos I've seen in the past the spiders were stuck in the tight screen pattern. (All could have used more substrate or proper enclosure size to avoid this.) Terrestrial spiders are fine with screen tops if they can still touch the ground. I have all my terrestrial Ts with screen tops set up to still touch the ground. We all need to realize that some of these "dont dos" in the hobby are out dated now. These manufacturers make better products now.
View attachment 39148
Btw hes not stuck...he was on the screen 24-7 looking for ladies.
Interesting. Especially the caveats you give to avoid possible claw entrapment. Makes sense.
It's certainly drilled into everyone nowadays to replace mesh screens with acrylic modified with drilled vent holes. Entrapment is given as 1 reason. The other reason I hear a lot, is that T's can chew through the mesh and escape.
However, when I watch videos by YouTubers who have kept T's for years, they often have a couple of Exoterra enclosures that still have the mesh top. And I've always wondered why they haven't switched to acyrlic. Your post does shed light on that for me, so cheers!
- Messages
- 6,382
- Location
- The Oregon rain forest
These are the only screens I've seen personally over the years that are a problem. Poecilotheria ornata decided he didnt like his acrylic enclosure anymore. Found him sitting on the outside of it. Juvenile 4" male.
I straightened it out a little before realizing I should take a photo first...
- Messages
- 1,197
- Location
- South Wales
Good grief, looks like someone shot at it!!
- Messages
- 404
- Location
- Lodi, NJ USA
Replace it with plexiglass. Use a fine drill bit(s) or dremmel to make vent holes.
- Messages
- 5,547
- Location
- Outside San Antonio, TX
They can chew througb fine steel mesh, its well documented. Avoid fine mesh, large mesh is fine. Exotera aren't bad, they dont get enough credit for the cross ventilation they supply. Those mesh tops are crap tho.
- Messages
- 306
- Location
- Rahway, NJ
Welcome to the forum! Aboreals are fun 
