• 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!

Love bites

geoba

New Member
Messages
5
Location
United States
I have a 23-year-old Chilean Rose tarantula. She gives me love bites with her big bangs all the time. She has never hurt me once. She will put pressure on them and kind of drag them back along my fingers or skin. Has anyone ever experienced this before. She does it all the time
 

m0lsx

Moderator
Staff member
1,000+ Post Club
3 Year Member
Tarantula Club Member
Messages
2,195
Location
Norwich, UK
Personally, I do not handle my T's unless I need to. So unless one pops out for a wander on feeding night, or unless someone is arachnophobic & getting a big slow moving softie out will help. None of our T's get handled.

My guess would be your T is saying I do not enjoy this.
 

Diamondsho89

New Member
Messages
5
Location
Washington
I have a 23-year-old Chilean Rose tarantula. She gives me love bites with her big bangs all the time. She has never hurt me once. She will put pressure on them and kind of drag them back along my fingers or skin. Has anyone ever experienced this before. She does it all the time
I believe the dragging of the fang across your skin is an attempt to "catch" a spot that a fang can sink into.
"WAIT", before you just dismiss me....let me explain.
A tarantula has no real mass to use to drive those fangs directly downward, hence they raise up to grab and pull an object to them to bite either as a threat or a prey item. If a T is walking on your arm biting you would be about as easy as biting the soil you walk on. Remember, a mygalmorph cannot "pinch" with their fangs to achieve penetration into the skin as araneomorph spiders can. Fang orientation has a lot to do with this. Araneomorph fangs are oriented side to side and can exert a pinching force while the mygalmorph fang is oriented forward facing and arcs outward and back upwards. This means the mechanics needed to penetrate a larger solid surface not capable of fitting inside the arc of the flexion/extension of the fang is challenging at best and that's why your T is dragging a fang across your skin and not biting you directly.
 

Latest posts

Top