The following two paragraphs are directly quoted from the book "Giant Tarantulas, The Enthusiast's Handbook" by Orin McMonigle. These two paragraphs are a the end of the section entitled "Captive Habitats". He's obviously talking about tarantulas, but the words and the concepts also seem appropriate, and currently relevant, to a lot of our tortoise discussion lately.
"Keep in mind the most important aspect of designing the habitat is paying attention to the tarantula's health and changing the habitat as needed. If a spider dies it can almost always be traced back to an error in caging, feeding or watering. Its a bigger loss if nothing is learned from the loss. Of course recent imports and adult males commonly fall over dead independent of habitat.
Information on natural ecology may provide helpful insight but it is unwise to use the information as a primary guide to design a habitat. Tarantulas live in microhabitats that can have very different temperature and moisture than the surrounding area. Even if the specifics on the exact microhabitat were available, 'Mother Nature' would need to purchase 300-3,000 spiderlings of most species just to get a single spider to adulthood. The worst enthusiast has a better record than nature and will give up long before 300, let alone 3,000."
Very wise words. Especially the second paragraph.
"Keep in mind the most important aspect of designing the habitat is paying attention to the tarantula's health and changing the habitat as needed. If a spider dies it can almost always be traced back to an error in caging, feeding or watering. Its a bigger loss if nothing is learned from the loss. Of course recent imports and adult males commonly fall over dead independent of habitat.
Information on natural ecology may provide helpful insight but it is unwise to use the information as a primary guide to design a habitat. Tarantulas live in microhabitats that can have very different temperature and moisture than the surrounding area. Even if the specifics on the exact microhabitat were available, 'Mother Nature' would need to purchase 300-3,000 spiderlings of most species just to get a single spider to adulthood. The worst enthusiast has a better record than nature and will give up long before 300, let alone 3,000."
Very wise words. Especially the second paragraph.
