I keep many different things, tarantulas, centipedes, millipedes, monitor lizards, you name it.
For most of my tarantulas, even the ones people say like humidity, I tend to keep it on the drier side. I find humidity creates more problems than not.
What I do often is spray around their web and also keep a water dish. I also overfill the water dish so that some water seeps out and saturates the surrounded substrate (and cleans out the water dish too), covering about 30% or so of the area. This is the wet period. I then let it completely dry out over the course of the week and I do this about twice a week. However, to also get this to work, make sure there are TONS of ventilation. One of the leading killers of Avics (as an example) is lack of ventilation and I suspect the same with many other slings. There shouldn't be much humidity condensation. If there is, you probably don't have enough ventilation. I have a saying "poke more holes" and cross ventilation.
Hydration helps them more before the molt but when I suspect a molt is coming, I usually step up the humidity by leaving droplets on the web for them to drink and a bit for humidity, IMO, it does help. I've never lost an Avic sling and they're notorious on dying especially for the new keepers.
And yes, never do any spraying etc during a molt. Everything is done in preparation for a molt. Disturbing a molting spider is something you don't want.
After a week or so after a molt, I give a light spray on the web NEAR the spider so they can drink. I think drinking after a molt is very important to the survivability of the spider, kinda like when you're totally exhausted and a bit of water is refreshing bliss. You can also get a small needle syringe and gently add a droplet or so near them for them to drink. I do this a lot and I had 50+ tarantulas at one time, all raised from tiny slings too.
P.S. Just wanted to add a side info that I think is important in tarantula keeping. Temperature. There's a common saying that I see all the time "whatever room temperature you're comfortable with, they are as well". This is NOT true for all tarantulas. Some don't thrive at 68F. Some even want it around 78F or so. So if you notice your tarantula sulking around a lot, kinda lethargic like, it might just be them being a tarantula, but I'd also try to get the temperature up to at LEAST 75F or higher and see if it gets better. Some of these tarantulas get significantly more active once they have the adequate temperature, you'd be surprised.
Edited by BleepingBleepers, June 27 2024 - 10:40 PM.
