Hello

[Adraps11]

I've owned a Texas Brown Tarantula for about a year and a half. She is a juvenile female, with a 2.5 inch leg span. She has been a great little pet, relatively calm and docile, like the Rose hair. I keep her in a five gallon tank with a hefty amount of vermiculite and Peat moss as substrate. I took an old flowerpot half and buried it in the substrate as a hide, she took to it immediately.

She has been acting a bit strange recently, I've had her for over a year and she hasn't molted yet, but she has been out of her hide, crawling around a lot more, and laying down webbing wherever she walks. I recently cleaned the cage out, but kept everything in the same location, so as to reduce stress as much as possible. She'll eat ANYTHING within reason, and has a huge appetite. Lately she's been refusing food that she would usually take within seconds, so perhaps she is finally ready to molt? When I first got her, after she was shipped across the country in a packed jar, she ate a cricket in less than 5 minutes after introducing her to the new enclosure, so I don't think It's because I cleaned the cage. I did read that Aphonopelma Hentzi are slow growers. Her abdomen does appear darker underneath the hairs, it's not shrunken and she doesn't drag it whenever she walks.. My humidity levels and temps are good. I'm just a little anxious.

 

[Enn49]

Hi, welcome to the forum.

It sounds as though a moult is on its way.

 

[Adraps11]

 

[Adraps11]

Above are a couple pics I took with my DSLR. I hope it's a molt and not a parasite or mite infestation. I haven't seen any crawling in the cage

 

[Adraps11]

I took a dubia roach out of the cage because she acted skittish, whenever it brushed by her leg. She's taken bigger beetles. I'm going to wait a couple of weeks and see what happens. I like the robust, stocky look, that the adult females have. Their legs are generally a dark coffee color and create a nice contrast to the Carapace.

 

[Thistles]

Yeah, sounds like a molt. Don't feed her or bother her until a few weeks after the molt.

 

[Adraps11]

A few weeks ago, before I cleaned the cage, my T would sit at the corners of the cage with it's front legs drawn together like it was preparing to dig, it had it's abdomen raised in the air. After I cleaned the cage this behavior stopped, but the tarantula still seemed restless, so I adjusted my room's lighting to where the cage was dimly lit. This was aided by taping comptuer paper to the sides where the light pours in from. She still wanders about more than usual, laying down webbing and refusing food, but doesn't try to climb the sides or anything. She does seem more relaxed. I'm still going to wait a couple of weeks and see if all these stressful behaviors, just happened to coincide with a molt.

 

[SasyStace]

Hello Adraps and welcome to the forum

 

[Adraps11]

Hi, I thought it was about time I connected with other arachnid owners. I had a chilean Rosehair as my first tarantula and the two species couldn't be more different in their appetite levels! The Rosehair would go months and months without eating, and would frighten easily. This Texas brown will devour anything it can overpower, even though she's just 2.5 inches in legspan, she's taken down fully grown american Cockroaches and various non-toxic beetles. I've kept bugs and spiders since I was 5 years old. When I was ten, I had three pet Eastern Black Widows, and a black and yellow Agriope that I let make an orb web, in my room behind my television (much to my mother's surprise) She went in cleaning one day, and I was toast when I got home from school. As a defense mechanism the black and yellow agriope will vibrate it's web violently to throw off predators like birds, and in this case my mother. It never did that around me because I fed it. lol I haven't changed much. It's a passion, and always has been.

 

[Adraps11]

I'm thinking of getting back into school and studying Entomology and Arachnology. I'm a visual Artist, and my favorite style is surrealism, I love using my knowledge of bugs and spiders in my artwork. People have always been amazed by how detailed and anatomically correct my drawings of different spiders and insects are. I'm heavily influenced by Salvador Dali and M.C Escher. I also love the expressionists, like Edvard Munch and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

 

[Thistles]

I'm thinking of getting back into school and studying Entomology and Arachnology. I'm a visual Artist, and my favorite style is surrealism, I love using my knowledge of bugs and spiders in my artwork. People have always been amazed by how detailed and anatomically correct my drawings of different spiders and insects are. I'm heavily influenced by Salvador Dali and M.C Escher. I also love the expressionists, like Edvard Munch and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

Um, you can't just say stuff like that and then not post pictures. That sounds absolutely freaking amazing.

 

[Adraps11]

 

[Adraps11]

This is a closeup of a piece. This was done before I entered Art School. It was a piece describing Manic depression.
That spider is Latrodectus Variolus, the northern widow. In the drawing some of the legs look a bit to long, but this was before I was taught proportions, and the spider was done from memory.
I live in Indiana and find these widows in and around abandoned structures and junkpiles.
They have some of the strongest web strands of the Cob Weaver Family. They usually have a tunnel- like retreat near the ground or in the crooks and holes of rotted trees.

 

[Thistles]

Thank you for sharing! That is beautiful!

 

[Adraps11]

Thank you! It's been awhile since I've undertaken any large project, I may just sit down in front of my terrarium the next time my T is out in the open, and make a detailed sketch.

 

[Thistles]

All that inspiration at your finger tips, might as well make use of it.

 

[kormath]

good sketch. looks like the black widows we caught around here when i was younger.