vermiclite

[vincent winyard]

Hi everyone sorry but asking for help again.
Could someone please advice me on how wet or dry this sbstrate thould be as i been told different things and I'm worrying that I'm not getting things right
I have a chile rose spiderling and a smithi who is about 2inches
thanks

[Colin D Wilson]

No woriies about asking questions, it's what the forums for.

I personally dont use Vermiculite alone for anything larger than spiderlings in film tubs (slings need a bit extra humidity which it provides nicely i feel)

For your spiders i would use a compost / peat / coir substrate (with a little vermiculite added for easier hydration if needed)
Both your spiders come from a dry area, vermiculite is rather useless when dry as they won't be able to burrow etc as naturally as if on "soily" substrate.

There are people (before the replies come in ) who swear by it and have had spiders living on it for most of thier lives...in my mind it doesn't offer a natural feel to the substrate and i prefer my spiders to have a more natural aspect to their enclosures..

[vincent winyard]

There are so many do's and dont's
think I'll end up bald befor these babys are fully grown
thanks for your help

[Colin D Wilson]

a simple solution (which i use for any new species i aquire) is to find out where it comes from, use the "old interweb" (google etc) to look for pictures of habitat, temp and humidity and maintain your enclosure like that

[vincent winyard]

yes i will
thanks again

[scott wilson]

just to say that ive changed all of my Ts over to coir substrate from vermiculite recently as i think its more natural..humidty is easy to control with a full water dish and spraying if needs be..spiders can dig in coir but cant in vermiculite...

[vincent winyard]

yes i have done the same i have made there homes as natural as possible
at the moment they are both hiding I changed it all last sunday so i hope they will soon be venturing out
thanks for the reply