Please help, really worried

[vax]

Ok, have added all the vermiculite I have - it's pretty deep now but I can't find the end of the thermostat, the bit that pokes out. Someone say it will still work?

He's still on the ceiling so I hope he can get down safely.

And many thanks again for all the advice and support.

[Adam Walters]

Ok, have added all the vermiculite I have

Good

but I can't find the end of the thermostat, the bit that pokes out. Someone say it will still work?

Oooops! Apologies, we should have realised. Don't worry about it for now - the last thing you want to do at the moment is startle your t whilst it is 'up high'.

Leave it as it is, and maybe try and locate in a few days once things have settled.

It might also be an idea to move the heat mat slightly higher so that it's not partly covered by the (now deeper) substrate.

And many thanks again for all the advice and support.

No worries, that is what we're all here for.

[karl]

Point taken on the heatmat thing, but I stopped using them after the heatmat I was using for a P.cambridgei (on the back of the tank) made the glass too hot to touch and she decided to make her home right on top of it. Now I just heat my spider room.

An additional tip, lose the vermiculite ...

Most spiders hate it, it's hard to burrow in and it looks bad.

IMO 70% peat with 30% vermiculite is fine, but 100% peat is loved by everyone.

Make sure that whatever you fill the tank with is packed down as hard as possible in order to give your beastie a solid base to burrow in. While he/she is making a home give him/her something to hide in like some cork bark or half a flower pot.

When I get a new beastie I usually give them such a home and make a depression under it, they usually take the bait.

[vax]

I'm probably the only person who thinks vermiculite looks nice! What with peat being a bit unfriendly environmentally, I'll watch the 'alternative substrate' thread with interest for a while. Do you think that's why the spider won't come down, because it doesn't like the vermiculite?

This is as low as s/he has been all evening:

[vax]

Still hasn't come down.

[Layla McInnes]

I had a male G rosea a while ago and he would not walk on certain substrates. Some are funny about settling down for the first few days and may tour around the tank a bit and then settle. If in a week or so this is still happening get a cheap bag of peat from Wilkinsons, asda or a garden centre and put a bit in there.
The reptile man you speak of could be exactly that and not a spider man. Majority of people here are happy to help and friendly and experienced in some way or another. Everyone was new at some point and most have been stung by the pet shop with mis infrmation! As Mark said everyone keeps spiders in different ways depending on the individual spider or species they keep.
Dont stress to much about it. Basic requirements of keeping the T happy seem to be all there so just sit back and let him find his feet as it were.
Enjoy your spider and good luck with the site

[Neil Richardson]

My chile decided it was aboreal when i first got it, would not settle on it's bark substrate at all.

Switched to vermiculite and she's a happy bunny

[sarah Smith]

Grins and I remeber well my first blue fang thinking it was terrestrial and not a burrower for quite some time as well. Come to think of it he only ever bothered once and then it was a shallow burrow at that.

[vax]

I was so so so so happy to come downstairs this morning and find Otto (or Rodney as my 6 year old calls him) in a shallow burrow under his silk plant. He'd been pretty much motionless, right at the very top of the enclosure for almost 30 hours.

Just flicked a cricket in to see if my now terrestrial tarantula was hungry and almost had a heart attack as he shot out from his burrow, grabbed the cricket from the far side of the enclosure, and returned to his hidey hole within a SECOND. Filled with awe now! Even the cats jumped. What a hunter! If I'd known he could move that fast my hand would have been shaking as I topped up his water supply earlier. Guess it's lucky for me that he can tell the difference between me and a cricket - but how did he know it was a cricket the instant it landed in there?

[Neil Richardson]

They can't always tell the difference. My big A.Geniculata has gone for my fingers on several occasions thinking that i'm dinner.

If your seemani is feeding, then it's happy enough in its surroundings, looks like we have it sorted out at last .

[nicola faux]

my L Parahybana is on coir (eco earth, coconut fibre)lots of different names for it) and when i first put her on it she would'nt walk on it, ended up putting in a big piece of cork bark for her to stand on, once the coir had dryed out she started walking on it, no its great and i just keep one end of it damp for her humidity...