King babboon ideal environment???

[Steven Oneill]

Hello.

Im new round here but have been keeping spiders for the last year.

So far i have (in order of purchase):

Chilli rose.
Easy to handle, barely no agression.

Mexican red knee.
Throws a lot of hairs when handled.

Scarlett bird eater.
Scary to handle, can get a bit bitey.

King babboon.
Absolutely nuts, lives to fight.

The king baboon is by far my favourite and i want to make sure its as healthy as possible, any information will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Steven, the King Baboon, ( C. Crawshayi) are fast, and non to friendly, they love to burrow, we have actually found ours is happy with a burried hide with the substrate more or less level to the top of the hide, making the whole of the surface area level, with a hole down to the hide, and she is a big female. If they are happy, you won't see much of them during the day, ours doesn't usually show until late in the evening in low light, but do watch your fingers, they can deliver a nasty bite.

[Colin D Wilson]

The most suitable tank i have come across for C crawshayi are the "custom aquaria" glass type that are around 8 inch square and about 15 inch high.
simply half to three quarter fill it with substrate (packed down quite solid as they like to feel a bit of resistance when the dig with their celiceri)
Just press a reasonably deep hole in the centre with something like a broom handle to give it a start, pop the spider in and in a couple of days it will have constructed quite an impressive burrow complex normally with a chamber off to one side at the bottom

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Colin, interesting regarding the Crawshayi, we've got 3 females large to small and apart from the small one, have had little success housing them in the way you describe, we have gone down that road, in fact we have just changed our mature female into (as we described) basically a burried large half plant pot, and then left the central hole, and she took to it instantly, and now we hardly ever see her. Previously she was unsettled, digging various places, but mostly spent her time in bird nest style burrows on the surface of the substrate, what do you think, is it a case of giving them what they seem happy with?

[Colin D Wilson]

what do you think, is it a case of giving them what they seem happy with?

Oh yes, definitely....whatever works.
I really should have added that if the spider doesn't seem to want to make use of the premade burrow then try other ideas.
Spiders are very individual in their habits (although they follow basic rules)

I have Grammostola that make use of 6 inch of substrate by burrowing like mad, and others that will just sit on the top of this, yet when offered 3 inches of loose substrate and half a flowerpot hide half buried have shown all their natural habits and used it to it's fullest extent

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Colin, I will agree a lot are individuals, but the aforementioned large female still causes us the same concern, in that she will only eat mice, I hate feeding them to her we leave her longer and longer between feeds but she just refuses everything and waits longer. Seven weeks this time we left her but relented and gave her one last night, which she duly dissappears with and then in the morning delivers a pefectly round 'furry ball' by her water pot. I will add we have tried most other things, worms, wax, odd roach etc. mind you our time is taken up tonight as we had a 08 2nd moult T. Blondi arrive today.

[Steven Oneill]

What temprature and humidity levels should i be looking to achieve?

My baboon is only about 2.5 inches, ive had her for about a month. I set up the tank with a good amount of substrate to allow for a burrow but she has still yet to begin burrowing.

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Steven, Colin covered it pretty well in the earlier reply, our small baboon burrows regularly but the larger two have gone for manmade. As Colin said, give it a start, poke a few holes in the substrate to give it a hint, if not try putting a hide just below the substrate surface, leaving space for it to slide in. We keep ours around 25c and substrate slightly moist but not too wet as you will encourage mites etc.,

[Steven Oneill]

Cheers for the advice, got the tank setup to your suggestions.

The substrate i used was slightly damp and as a result there is a lot of humidity and condensation.

Will this harm my spider???

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Steven, excess condensation is not really a good thing, it will encourage mould and mites, make sure tank is well ventilated and it should clear in a few days. We found we our Crawshayi's if they are happy you won't see much of them during the day, but we tend to keep our tanks slightly on the drier side with occassional misting.

[James Box]

i've had limited experience with this species, but i've had slings, a current juve (probably will be juve for years now lol), and three (thanks Colin and Gemma!) AFs now.
one of my AF's has not burrowed, and is doing the bird's nest on top as you describe, Linda, so i'll be trying to find another of those custom aquaria (or more than one) at Kempton this weekend. failing that, will try a deeper burrow start than what i tried already.

Steven, my personal experience with slings of this species, especially with the one i've had the longest, ie my current 3 inch or so juve (or is that still a sling with this species? lol), is that i found them sensitive to moisture loss, and so have been keeping them successfully with fairly moist substrate. i currently have two small slings that are doing just fine with this treatment, in addition to that one.
i've not had any noticeable problem with mites, but they're just scavengers anyway, usually, so if there's nothing there to eat, the numbers stay down, but they can get annoying if they have lots of leftovers to eat.

as said above, they are diggers, but a decent enclosure and a bit of privacy can help them decide to dig to the sides, and then you can see them through the side.