Advice Needed..........

[sleddergirl]

Ok, Long story made short.................

I have recently taken over the managers position at a pet store that carries reptiles/invertebrates. My previous experience with work has been with food and supplies, not live animals. My only experience with animals are my own.

At this point, my major concern is making sure all the animals are housed and cared for properly. We have a Peruvian Pink Toe tarantula and an Emperor Scorpion.

What advice would you all give to me for making sure these animals are well looked after?

Thanks
Sue

[Tarcan]

Hi Sue,

It is funny how we always complain pet-stores do not take good care of their inverts and for once somebody actually asks questions and is willing to make the effort of providing good care... nobody answers... my apologies for not answering sooner... shame on us!LOL

First, I will leave the emperor question for somebody else, as I do not keep any scorps... I am sure that if you browse back in the invert section, you should find info on them as they are pretty much the most common ones in captivity... otherwise, I am sure someone will help...

Peruvian Pinktoe... that is interesting... Avicularia urticans is an uncommon species and it is ackward that one ends up in a pet store... what size is it? Anyway, as you may or may not know Avicularia spp. are normally arborals, so you should give more height then floor space... give the animal a cork bark piece so it can climb on...

This species of Avicularia is a little more skittish then the more common A. avicularia... I have one female here that is quite defensive, the other is more relaxed...

For a pet store... there are minimum things you should give your animal... make sure there is a water dish, that is really important...

Ideally, a minimum of 60% humidity... optimum temparatures would be somewhere around 24 Celcius at night and 28 Celcius max during the day... IF YOU CANNOT KEEP UP A DECENT HUMIDITY AT THOSE TEMEPARATURES THE ANIMAL WILL DO FINE AT A CONSTANT TEMP OF ABOUT 24 Celcius... pretty much room temp... temp is not THAT important as long as it does not get too low...

You should provide decent ventilation, so not compromise it too much to raise the humidity higher...

Pinktoes are normally hardy when they are of decent size... you should not have any problems with this animal... as long as it is in good health to start with...

If you have a spiderling, let me know, things are different, I will give you different care info...

I hope this helps...

Martin

[SaIiLdVaEnR]

Here I am with the Emperor help.

If you have a large amount of them then Get a decent size tank, anywhere from 15-30 Gallons, put a heat lamp up top, lay down a layer of one inch of soil(or less), peat, vermiculite, whatever you guys use.

These guys are very communal so you have have a large amount of them in the enclosure especially if you will be selling them as they won't so crowded for so long.

Every week throw in a fairly large amount of crickets, 3 crickets per scorpion and make sure to have a water dish with clean water in it.

Since you will not be giving them enough substrate to burrow in just take a very large piece of cork bark that they could all hide under during the day. This allows you to just pick up the bark and not have to dig around for the animal when you find a buyer.

Every other day give the tank a heavy misting as they thrive in very humid conditions.

I Hope this is helpful and good luck,

Aidan Ferreira

[sleddergirl]

Thanks so much for the responses Martin and Aidan.............also Dave who sent me a PM about Scorp care. I really want to establish one of the stores that people respect as far as the animals are concerned.

I am trying my damndest .....lol. I made up a binder of the most accurate care sheets I could find, for the employees to reference when I'm not there. Most of the employees are great with all the "fluffy and cute" animals, but most are lacking any experience with anything else.......;)

So Martin, you say that the Peruvian Pink Toe is uncommon in the pet store trade?.....thats interesting. They are readily available to us at any time. He/she (I haven't quite figured that out yet) has a leg span of approx. 3-4 inches I'd say.

Well thanks again guys, if you think of anything else that might be helpful, be sure and let me know.........;)

Sue

[FrankQC]

Actually, for the emp scorpion, temps should be between 24 and 30C. Check out the normal temps before puting a heat lamp on top of the tank!! If the petshop is too cold at day, a 20W light bulb should be fine, 40W may probably be too high (depending on the height of the tank).

Also, this scorpions needs high humidity, 80%+, if possible, try reaching the magic number 100% lol. The higher the humidity is, the happier the emperor scorpion will be! :)


Frank

[SaIiLdVaEnR]

Yeah sorry about that I forgot to say the temperature they thrive in, I have a 75 watt on my pregnant emperor in her 10 gallon tank and a 100 on the 25 gallon for the rest of them. To heat use Infrared bulbs as Scorpions cannot see red and therefore it is good as a night time bulb as well.

[Tarcan]

Sue,

Hummm, that is weird, I would like to see a picture of that Peruvian Pinktoe... Peru is most of the time closed to commercial exports making this species rather uncommon in the hobby, specially at sub-adult or adult size... They have been available in the past, I remember seeing some big imports of them years back... but readily available at any time would not be a term I would use to describe it's availability...

Normally, the only Avicularia species that is commonly available in the pet trade is Avicularia avicularia... referred to simply Pinktoe... even though they have vast destribution, the exports normally come from French Guyana as this country does not care at all about any commercial exports (for the inverts that is...). Sometimes if one digs enough through those big exports, some A. metallica can be found in the bunch...

This is a species (A. urticans, the peruvian one...) that is not really in demand normally as it is greatly underated... hard to find good pics that will do them justice...

Are you able to take a picture or send me to a link of a pic that looks pretty much like the animal you have, I am just really curious...

Take care

Martin

[sleddergirl]

Martin.................I am actively searching for a pic on the net that looks like the one in the store, but have come up empty so far. I will try and take a pic, but since the digital is busted right now, it may take a few days to get this accomplished. This spider is like black velvet, the black colour is soooooo black it looks like velvet. The very tips of the toes are like a light colour of pink. Thats about the best I can do with a verbal description, I will work on the pic for you. I am truly interested in finding out if the supplier has given me something other than what was advertised. I also wouldn't want to sell this spider to someone as one species and it actually be something else.

Sue

[skinheaddave]

Here are some pictures I took of the spider in question when I was at Sue's store on Friday. It is a mature male A.avicularia as far as I can tell.

http://www.uoguelph.ca/~ddesoer/avic_top_small.jpg
http://www.uoguelph.ca/~ddesoer/avic_underside_small.jpg

Cheers,
Dave

[Dragoon]

Oh gee!
That reminds me of my shame...I see you have a HabbaHut pictured there...
When I went on a shopping spree for my new Courtney,...I...ummm....err...actually BOUGHT one of those things...
*lowers head, turns red*
...it was ridiculously too small, anyway...I got caught up in the excitement...darn.

Too bad for the male avic...his days are numbered now...how sad.
D.

[SaIiLdVaEnR]

If it has white on his toes couldn't it be A. Metallica or am I wrong?

Aidan

[SaIiLdVaEnR]

Oh and BTW Sleddergirl, what pet store is it and where? I might drop by, just PM it to me. Thanks

Aidan

[Tarcan]

Thank you for the pictures Dave,

Sue, this is pretty much what I expected... I will use caution in ID'ing an avic as many species look very similar... one thing I can assure you is that it is not what is considered as the Peruvian Pinktoe... in other words, this is not A. urticans... but it could have been possible as there was a Peruvian export last year...

Like Dave mentionned, this is a mature male... most probably an A. avicularia... simple fact that we are in Canada and that is the most commun species of Avics in the pet trade... so coming to the conclusion that it is A. avicularia is the most logical explanation...

Unfortunatly, since it is a mature male, it does not have much monetary value anymore if you want to tell the truth to your future clients... Once turned into maturity, males will slowly die... anything from 6 months to two years or so depending of genus and species... typaically, males Avicularia spp. will live more or less a year...

That is why people that have no intention of breeding will seek females... but still, as most of the hobbysists come and go, one year for an invert is still not that bad... odds are that the person that buys it will want to get rid of it even before it dies!LOL

From the picture, it looks pretty much freshly molted... so it has some good time in front of him...

Aidan, judging by the ratio of the lenght of the legs with the hand that holds the animal on the picture... I doubt that it is a A. metallica... males of this species are huge in legspan... the ones that I have seen in the past pretty much have close to double the legspan... but again, this is not an accurate way of telling...

All the best

Martin

[Tarcan]

Dragoon, what is a HabbaHut? LOL

I am just curious!LOL And since you seem to be ashamed of it, I am only keeping reminding you your purchase!LOL

Just kidding, but still curious of what it is...

Martin

[skinheaddave]

It is a bit unfortunate that our female A.avic recently dropped a sac. The chances of us getting in another mating and another sac before the next moult are slim.

Cheers,
Dave

[Dragoon]

A HabbaHut is simply tiny chunk of wood that they bore the centre out to create a half-circle...and sold for a ridiculous price. hahahaha. I paid 8 dollars for a little scrap of wood.
Hence my shame. Only the VERY new and inexperienced fall for such marketing ploys.
Hey, in my defense, it is winter! And I'm not clomping through the backwoods when its minus 30 here!
D.

[sleddergirl]

Yes, abig thank you to Dave for coming in and taking the pics for us.............it was great meeting you guys. Thanks for the ID Martin, I really don't want to sell an animal that is wrongly identified. I will be honest with whomever decides to buy this little guy, about his age and life expectancy. I feel so sorry for him now that I know his days are numbered.....:(

Oh and Dave, you can tell Miranda that I used her toilet paper roll idea for hides and added a couple to his tank when you left........I'm still trying to catch up on the paper work I was supposed to be doing that day...:D

Thanks again,

Sue

[skinheaddave]

Sue,

It was our pleasure. It is, as you say, always fun to meet people from the internet that aren't psycho-killers. :)


Cheers,
Dave

P.S. It is Tamara, not Miranda. ;)

[Dragoon]

What's wrong with psycho-killers?!?

Geez, Dave, don't be so narrow-minded....
;)
D.

[sleddergirl]

P.S. It is Tamara, not Miranda. ;) [/B][/QUOTE]





I am SO sorry................I am quite possibly the worst person in the world when it comes to names. I apologise.....:dumb:

[Tarcan]

Sue,

I am glad we could be of help. As I said previously, it is rather refreshing to see some pet shop people asking for advice for their inverts, I wish more would do it...

Thanks for the info Dragoon... he he, what a valuable lesson learned, anything with a stupid name like Hubba Hut is sure to be useless!LOL I have been there too... try Wal Mart, Reno Depo, Home Depo for your pet's needs... that is where you save the bucks! Oups, sorry Sue for giving away those tips in your thread, no offence intended. I am sure Pet shops have great supplies for other animals, but when it comes to my inverts, I only shop at those places (except for the cork bark...)

All the best

Martin

[skinheaddave]

'goon,

I have nothing against psycho-killers. Some of my best meals have been psy.... errrr ... I've said too much. :)

Sue,

No worries. I am sure I wouldn't remember my own name if it weren't in my user name.

Cheers,
Dave