Aphonopelma Seemanni sling, odd hair-flicking behaviour

[Cody-Myles]

I bought my Costa Rican zebra knee mid September and she was perfectly normal and eating normal and always has been, she moulted soon after and all was fine. I moved her to a new enclosure and she built her burrow below the cork bark I supplied her at one end (where she spends all of her time hidden inside of).
Recently she has started developing bald patches on both sides of her abdomen and now its bald all the way around. I assume she's been flicking hairs a lot but I only ever 'disturb' her when I take the lid off to drop prey in so she hasn't and never has flicked hairs at me so........
Does anybody know or have any experience of this and can enlighten me as to why she could be flicking hairs?.
I don't have any photos of her abdomen unfortunately as she rarely shows herself , but I will post up a shot of when I first had her and what she looks like now.

 

[Cody-Myles]

When I first bought her

In pre-moult

How she is now [emoji16]


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[Arachnoclown]

It appears just to be her abdomen stretching. When it stretches new hairs dont appear. Some species will kick their hairs off on their molting web mat or blanket before they molt. It keeps unwanted visitors from bothering them when they are most vulnerable. Beautiful looking sling....I have 2 juveniles myself.

 

[Cody-Myles]

Ooooooooh I honestly never thought of that, I just automatically assumed she was flicking, only reason I could think of is if she doesn't want the prey and it's annoying her. Crickets are damn tricky things though and now she's there before she gets a chance to realise and they bolt in the other direction [emoji849].
I think mine is still less than 1" span, how big are you're and when do you start noticing markings and colourations?


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[Arachnoclown]

Both of mine are 3" right now. They have both been in their burrows for 3 months now. Haven't seen them. At 1" they were a pinkish brown...right now they are a blueish gray. There's a few color forms of this species so I'm excited to see them when they come out. I had a jet black adult ...she past away a few years ago, I had her for 18 years. You should start seeing the stripes at 2".

 

[Cody-Myles]

I've read that the blue CF is the rarest and the black is most common so most likely have a black CF. she has goldish tinge to her hairs and a gold underside that shows around the leg joints at her carapace and already has the gold spinnerets.
Some shots of yours would be greatly appreciated so I can see what she may be when she finally decides to moult again [emoji1303].
The biggest annoyance in T husbandry is the waiting for each moult stage [emoji17], always made worse by the slow growers [emoji31]. Namely my G.Pulchripes and B.Vagans [emoji19]


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[Cody-Myles]

Mine also pretty much never comes out of her burrow and even if I supply her with a nice dark hide with one entrance and exit, she will insist on creating another, always seems to want 2 entry/exit points. I've only ever caught her out and about twice and as soon as the light goes on, she scurrys back into her hide. I'd love to see more of her but giving her a smaller hide to force that would be cruel so I guess I will just have to keep feeding a box of dirt ‍


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[Arachnoclown]

 

[Arachnoclown]

Top two are 3" and the bottom is @ 2".

 

[Arachnoclown]

Heres another shot of one of the tops two Ts....its hard to get the blue to stand out in pics but sometimes you get lucky.

 

[Cody-Myles]

Ooooo wow they gorgeous. That's just increased my impantience for her to grow up now.
So yours is nearing sub-adult size now as they generally max out at 5"?


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[Arachnoclown]

They were barely 3" when they buried themselves. I expect them to be just shy of 3.5" when they come out. My 18 year old girl got close to 6" but the norm is 5"- 5.5".