first pokie!

[james fenton]

yay! i have recently aquired my first pokie,( P ornata ) and have heard about people keeping pokes on a bed of clay pebbles with mesh on top and a clump of moss for humidity control.
is this the accepted practice or does anyone have any better sugesstions. also i am amazed at just how dammn fast theese magnificent t's are.I knew they were fast but WOW! it is like greased lightning! also i heard that it is possible to sex a poke by the colour on the othiposthima?

[Peter Lacey]

P. ornata, lovely dark pokie.
Most experienced people tend to keep pokies with simple substrate, cork or bamboo tubing and mist once or twice a week. My substrate consists of coir or peat with vermiculite and sphagnum moss. I provide a large water bowl and occassionally give the substrate a good moistening. I've seen a video similar to the substrate you suggest but I wonder what the benefit of that is.
They're fast and potentially a strong bite but most of the time they'll calmly retreat if you're calm but purposeful yourself. I suggest purchasing a long pair of tongs.

[james fenton]

thankyou for the help, i have set up the p ornata on a 1 1-2 inch spread of spiderlife and given a fairly large (3 and a bit )inch water dish, a nice branch with various protrousions and a peice of cork to hide /rest on.
tank is an exoterra 12-18-18
ya tongs are a god call, i got a pair for my 0.1.0 king baboon.
mabey i hould gewts some longer ones as theese are only about 8 inches long and i fear the poke may crawl up the tongs and eat me.

[Graham Mudd]

tongs are definetly an essential for keeping pokies, ebay is a pretty good place to go that way you can get like 18 inch long medical forceps or tongs, which in my opinion are long enough for you to be able to react to any sudden lunges towards you lol
but like Peter says they usually leg it instead, Cant understand why anybody would use gravel, makes much more sence to use peat really.

[james fenton]

yes thats what i thought, aparently the clay pebbles hold moisture but i have decided to go for the spider life mix ( it is like peat and vemiculite and a few little woodchips chucked in for good measure?)
i shall certainly get some 18 inch forceps and will be mor aware of the pokes distance. lol
am still confused about this one though.... is it normal for a young p ornata to display some trerestrial behaviour?
mine is spending 50/50 between the glass and the floor.
wow! fascinating species!

[Graham Mudd]

yeah its normal dude on of my pokies has a little burrow that it runs and hides in if
I disturb it. pokies are the best arent they lol

[Lisa Baines]

i have a pokie regalis which is about 1" at a push, it has a piece of exo terra vine to climb on but also has a burrow underground.

as 'young 'uns' they tend to stay close to the ground but will climb more the older they get, as i am informed by my hubby

my rufliata and newly acquired striata are about 3" legspan and spend a lot more time in the top half of their enclosures.

we use a mix of coir substrate and fine vermiculite (4:1), about 1" deep. which seems to be fine for humidity at their size

[Nicola Dolby]

Poecilotheria tend to rely on height rather than substrate depth. If you get yourself a 5L plastic cereal container and put holes in the lid, then add about an inch of substrate and a bark tube, spid will be fine. Obviously scale down for spid size. Add moss for humidity, you won't need anything else. Leave the pebbles out in case the spider falls on them, it could be fatal. mist lightly once in the morning and once at night, once a day for slings. Selotape a carrier bag to one side of the cereal container (preferably behind the bark tube) to provide extra "dark space" as pokies can be photophobic. For further reading check the back issues of the BTS journal, I know R. Gabriel did a brilliant articla on arborial set-ups (I think it was last year). Good luck.