• Are you a Tarantula hobbyist? If so, we invite you to join our community! Once you join you'll be able to post messages, upload pictures of your pets and enclosures and chat with other Tarantula enthusiasts. Sign up today!

Do tucked legs always mean stress?

Allthingsterrarium

Active Member
3 Year Member
Messages
220
Hello everybody! How've you all been? It's been a little while since I've been on the site and my Mexican fireleg, October seems to be doing well. He's going to molt again soon for the second time this year (yay! He's getting bigger! I'll upload some pics of him soon.) right now though he's facing the opposite wall and sitting in a corner in his habitat, I can see him from where I am right now. Thing is he has some legs tucked up over his head and I've read that this can often be a sign of stress. I've been doing a lot of maintenance in his habitat lately and I'm sure he's a little mad at me for bugging him but I would assume premolt is a stressful time for any tarantula. Just checking, I'm sure it's no big deal and I'll just keep an eye on him but do you think he's okay? Is there anything I can do for him to calm him down? Is he even stressed at all you think?
 

Meludox

Well-Known Member
3 Year Member
Messages
574
Location
Airville, PA
It's probably mild stress from the maintenance. Or it isn't stress and he's just sitting like that..because why not. I would just leave him alone and let him do his thing, obviously do not disturb him during the molting process. Hope the molt goes well. :)
 

MassExodus

Well-Known Member
1,000+ Post Club
3 Year Member
Messages
5,547
Location
Outside San Antonio, TX
I've seen mine duck their carapace and cover their eyes with their legs in the sunlight, rather then retreat into their hides, or behind cover. Many of mine will do this when I open the blinds and let the sun into my cave :)
 

Phil

Well-Known Member
1,000+ Post Club
3 Year Member
Messages
3,919
Location
UK.
Sometimes we keeper tend to have "itchy" hands. Which is not compatible with our Ts as they mostly like to be left well alone and not to be disturbed at all. :D

We can be their constant source of stress!
You are so spot on. I was commenting the same the other day in replies to my post... "Does your T suffer from Arachgroaphobia". My balfouri was the only MIA from my 1st January picture post of the collection. My twitchy hands wanted to destroy the Web and tunnel system just so I could take a picture....my bad!
 

Chubbs

Well-Known Member
1,000+ Post Club
3 Year Member
Messages
1,679
Hello everybody! How've you all been? It's been a little while since I've been on the site and my Mexican fireleg, October seems to be doing well. He's going to molt again soon for the second time this year (yay! He's getting bigger! I'll upload some pics of him soon.) right now though he's facing the opposite wall and sitting in a corner in his habitat, I can see him from where I am right now. Thing is he has some legs tucked up over his head and I've read that this can often be a sign of stress. I've been doing a lot of maintenance in his habitat lately and I'm sure he's a little mad at me for bugging him but I would assume premolt is a stressful time for any tarantula. Just checking, I'm sure it's no big deal and I'll just keep an eye on him but do you think he's okay? Is there anything I can do for him to calm him down? Is he even stressed at all you think?
Just like there are different levels of stress with other animals, there are different levels of stress when it comes to tarantulas. Mild stress from doing maintenance in the terrarium, rehousing, or accidentally startling the spider isn't going to cause it to die. These are animals that have been around for millions of years, they would not have gotten this far if they died so easily from something so minor as being stressed. You can't calm a tarantula down, they are how they are ;)
 

kormath

Well-Known Member
1,000+ Post Club
3 Year Member
Messages
3,565
Location
Idaho
Just like there are different levels of stress with other animals, there are different levels of stress when it comes to tarantulas. Mild stress from doing maintenance in the terrarium, rehousing, or accidentally startling the spider isn't going to cause it to die. These are animals that have been around for millions of years, they would not have gotten this far if they died so easily from something so minor as being stressed. You can't calm a tarantula down, they are how they are ;)
I think, like with a lot of things, it depends on the T. My son does maintenance in the B. boehmei enclosure and it freaks and runs around so we have to put it in a catch up for it's safety. same withe the GBB if i do maintenance in it's enclosure. Swap it around and my son can do whatever he wants in the GBB enclosure and it will calmy crawl up his hand and rest at his wrist. I do work in the B. boehmei inclosure and it just sits there watching or something. Didn't take long to figure out who works in which enclosure :) all the other spiders behave the same to us both.

Makes me wonder if like dogs, the Ts become attached to, or maybe more tolerant of, a person.
 

Chubbs

Well-Known Member
1,000+ Post Club
3 Year Member
Messages
1,679
I think, like with a lot of things, it depends on the T. My son does maintenance in the B. boehmei enclosure and it freaks and runs around so we have to put it in a catch up for it's safety. same withe the GBB if i do maintenance in it's enclosure. Swap it around and my son can do whatever he wants in the GBB enclosure and it will calmy crawl up his hand and rest at his wrist. I do work in the B. boehmei inclosure and it just sits there watching or something. Didn't take long to figure out who works in which enclosure :) all the other spiders behave the same to us both.

Makes me wonder if like dogs, the Ts become attached to, or maybe more tolerant of, a person.
Well there's not really much maintenance that needs to be done on a regular basis, for you to need to do this. Unfortunately this would not work well for a lot of faster-moving /defensive species, especially not old worlds. You don't want to try that with an S.calceatum or OBT. [emoji14] Actually unless you're changing out all the substrate (which you shouldn't need to do unless there's a bad mite infestation or a ridiculous amount of mold), there's no need to remove the spider from its enclosure. A Brachy or GBB isn't going to be much of a threat anyway plus they're slow-moving species, so if you're just changing the water out or cleaning up some bolus, removing the spider every time is just unnecessary stress IMO. I don't believe they can become attached to a person. To understand why, we must take a closer look at their biology, specifically their nervous system. They simply do not possess a complex enough nervous system (They don't even have a brain). Obviously you're allowed to believe what you want, but there is little to no evidence that points at spiders feeling emotions or emotional attachments to humans or other animals. There is however a lot of evidence that suggests otherwise. All we really have to do is take a look at their cns. I'm not a scientist by any means and I apologize if I'm coming across as a know-it-all right now, but as someone who has always had an intense interest in biology/zoology, I am just sharing my pov on this topic, and I like to have some level of science/fact to back this up. At the end of the day though, people can feel how they want on the subject : )
 
Last edited:

MassExodus

Well-Known Member
1,000+ Post Club
3 Year Member
Messages
5,547
Location
Outside San Antonio, TX
Science hasn't figured out invertebrate "brains". They have many theories though. I don't think tarantulas have feelings, but they have individual likes and dislikes, that's a fact. Can they distinguish one person from another? Some kind of chemical signature or taste? Or is it as simple as one kind of soap bothers one, and not the other? I think we assume too much about them sometimes, considering that science has mainly only produced theories about their brain platform. I wouldn't feel sure about anything, with these little aliens. Just my opinion :)
 

Entity

Well-Known Member
1,000+ Post Club
3 Year Member
Messages
1,924
Location
Maryland
yeah i mean they r pretty primitive, eat sleep and poop. but sometimes u can almost see them plotting and thinking i think. lol but it is human to try to humanize everything. lol my GBB take crickets from my tweezers really slow. but if i drop it in she attacks like mad! is that recognition...i dont know seems like it to me.
 

kormath

Well-Known Member
1,000+ Post Club
3 Year Member
Messages
3,565
Location
Idaho
I agree with @MassExodus the Ts have their likes and dislikes and nobody knows why. I sure as hell don't but i do know how the Ts we have react to my son and I. Only the GBB and boehmei show any preference to either of us, the rest don't care, they'll react the same way regardless of who is opening the enclosure to water the dish or whatever. Typically that's bolting into their hide or running up the wall in an attempt for freedom. We never remove them to do maintenance, those 2 go for the wall anytime the enclosure i opened if the wrong one of us open it. So we use the catch cup to keep them from harm until we're done watering or whatever. But that's rare now that we know how they react to us. I do the maintenance in all enclosures except the GBB.

Could be our soap like Mass said, could be that the GBB was first handled by my son and knows him, his scent or touch or whatever. I've been the only one to handle the boehmei. The day we got it and housed it, it crawled up the wall onto my thumb, so i let him crawl around my hand till i could lower him back to crawl into his enclosure. So maybe it knows me.

@Chubbs you do sound like a know it all :) and that's not a bad thing, it's why we're here ;) To voice our opinions and share our knowledge and experiences. I've learned a hell of a lot from reading your posts, and i thank you for that. Same goes for everyone else here, I wouldn't own 4 Ts if i hadn't joined here and discussed and learned from everyone here. So thanks to all as well :)
 

Chubbs

Well-Known Member
1,000+ Post Club
3 Year Member
Messages
1,679
I agree with @MassExodus the Ts have their likes and dislikes and nobody knows why. I sure as hell don't but i do know how the Ts we have react to my son and I. Only the GBB and boehmei show any preference to either of us, the rest don't care, they'll react the same way regardless of who is opening the enclosure to water the dish or whatever. Typically that's bolting into their hide or running up the wall in an attempt for freedom. We never remove them to do maintenance, those 2 go for the wall anytime the enclosure i opened if the wrong one of us open it. So we use the catch cup to keep them from harm until we're done watering or whatever. But that's rare now that we know how they react to us. I do the maintenance in all enclosures except the GBB.

Could be our soap like Mass said, could be that the GBB was first handled by my son and knows him, his scent or touch or whatever. I've been the only one to handle the boehmei. The day we got it and housed it, it crawled up the wall onto my thumb, so i let him crawl around my hand till i could lower him back to crawl into his enclosure. So maybe it knows me.

@Chubbs you do sound like a know it all :) and that's not a bad thing, it's why we're here ;) To voice our opinions and share our knowledge and experiences. I've learned a hell of a lot from reading your posts, and i thank you for that. Same goes for everyone else here, I wouldn't own 4 Ts if i hadn't joined here and discussed and learned from everyone here. So thanks to all as well :)
Well as long as that's not a bad thing [emoji14]

We do know very little about these animals, especially as far as their thinking goes. The best way I'd sum up my thoughts on this matter is: Based on their biology and when compared to that of other primitive animals (invertebrates in particular), I can theorize that tarantulas are likely incapable of such things as emotional feelings, including attachment to other creatures. What also leads me to believe this is that I don't see them as having any use for these things. Given their lifestyle and ranking on the food chain, I think it would hinder them if anything.
 

RedCapTrio

Well-Known Member
1,000+ Post Club
3 Year Member
Messages
1,158
I was handling Dos Chac the other day (will post photos asap), and for some reason, it wouldn't not go to my wife's hand. It crawled from my left to right hand with no problem. However, when my wife puts out her hand, the T would change direction.

Albus, on the other hand (pun intended), does not mind at all so my wife got to experience T handling as well. ;)

Both Ts are around 1.5 inch to 2 inches in length so no worries with their little fangs. :D
 

Allthingsterrarium

Active Member
3 Year Member
Messages
220
Just like there are different levels of stress with other animals, there are different levels of stress when it comes to tarantulas. Mild stress from doing maintenance in the terrarium, rehousing, or accidentally startling the spider isn't going to cause it to die. These are animals that have been around for millions of years, they would not have gotten this far if they died so easily from something so minor as being stressed. You can't calm a tarantula down, they are how they are ;)

Good point, Very very true. I've seen him strike all kinds of weird poses just because he feels like it.
 

VanessaS

Well-Known Member
3 Year Member
Messages
540
Location
Ontario, Canada
I am mostly a person who feels that tarantulas, as well as many other organisms, do not have the capacity to like or dislike... they just are. I think that some are more tolerant to being around us than others. They get on with doing their spider stuff and we just don't have the knowledge to know exactly why - beyond the obvious eating, mating and fleeing. I also believe that there is much going on with them that we just don't have the capacity to understand because of the limitations we place on other beings by comparing them to us all the time. I truly believe that there are far more forms of intelligence other than the logic based one that humans have and we have to stop limiting their intelligence by comparing it to ours.
Having said that, I remember a story told on a forum years ago by someone who insisted his OBT hated his brother. Although they are a defensive species overall, this guy never had a problem with her. When his brother stepped foot inside his house - she would immediately get into threat pose and have venom dripping from her fangs. He had watched this take place over and over and never saw her display with that amount of aggression at any other time than when his brother was there... the moment his brother left, she would immediately calm down.
Maybe they possess a sense that we can't even begin to understand with our limited knowledge?
 

kormath

Well-Known Member
1,000+ Post Club
3 Year Member
Messages
3,565
Location
Idaho
Having said that, I remember a story told on a forum years ago by someone who insisted his OBT hated his brother. Although they are a defensive species overall, this guy never had a problem with her. When his brother stepped foot inside his house - she would immediately get into threat pose and have venom dripping from her fangs. He had watched this take place over and over and never saw her display with that amount of aggression at any other time than when his brother was there... the moment his brother left, she would immediately calm down.
Maybe they possess a sense that we can't even begin to understand with our limited knowledge?

Seen this myself. My son's GBB reacts differently to me than him. Doesn't have the venom dripping from the fangs but is really skittish and nervous if I open the cage for water or maintenance. My son can open the enclosure and handle her with no issues.

He's working with some of our other tiny slings to see if his theory of them getting used to us from young is valid for part off his study project.
 
Top