New T Behavior

[Zeirath]

So I'm just curious, I can't really judge what new T behaviors are normal since my first little T Azkwin burrowed straight away ready to molt. I'm not so much concerned about my Phlogius who seems to just pace around her new enclosure now and then exploring, although she hasn't laid any webs yet.

I am a little concerned about my other T though, the one that was stuck in postage for 10 days. She is kinda of just curled up in her hide, sulking. She's not sitting in a death curl but she has got her legs tucked in close to her like she's trying to hide. She has webbed a bit but usually only when I'm not looking then goes back into her scrunched up scared to death pose.

Is this pretty much typical for a while until she gets comfortable? What kind of experiences, typical/non typical have people had with their fuzzy friends?

Also, this is my littlest T, Azkwin, she's about the size of my little fingernail, so tiny! She hasn't taken any food for over a week, so she last ate 9 days ago. I have the sneaking suspicion she is heading into a molt, he butt is so huge! Her last molt was 6 weeks ago. Opinions? Complete Tarantula newbie here so learning as we go!

Yes I know I call all my T's girls even though I have no idea of their gender, I don't know why I do this =p

 

[MassExodus]

The behavior of the big one is very typical, especially after that trip..the little one is obese, lol, she ain't hungry..and will be molting soon, dark spot or not. The little ones molt A LOT..

 

[Zeirath]

The behavior of the big one is very typical, especially after that trip..the little one is obese, lol, she ain't hungry..and will be molting soon, dark spot or not. The little ones molt A LOT..

Do old world T's get the dark spot when molting? I've read about the bald spot/dark spot on new world T's from brushing their hairs off. As far as I know all Aussie T's are old world and don't have those hairs, could be wrong though!

Guess maybe I've overfed the little tacker if she's obese hehehe, oops!

 

[MassExodus]

Yup, old worlds do it too. But sometimes the darkening wont be as evident, and it will be very shiny and engorged, much like the little ones rump. And I was kidding about the obesity, you can't feed too often Especially slings, I try to power feed my little ones out of the tiny, delicate stage. I just feel more comfortable when they get to an inch and a half.

 

[Zeirath]

Yup, old worlds do it too. But sometimes the darkening wont be as evident, and it will be very shiny and engorged, much like the little ones rump. And I was kidding about the obesity, you can't feed too often Especially slings, I try to power feed my little ones out of the tiny, delicate stage. I just feel more comfortable when they get to an inch and a half.

Good to know, I'm sure these three will keep me busy for a while learning new things! It is a shame we can't have exotics here due to our strict boarder control, I'd love one of those blue versicolor things, they look awesome!

 

[JC1]

So I'm just curious, I can't really judge what new T behaviors are normal since my first little T Azkwin burrowed straight away ready to molt. I'm not so much concerned about my Phlogius who seems to just pace around her new enclosure now and then exploring, although she hasn't laid any webs yet.

I am a little concerned about my other T though, the one that was stuck in postage for 10 days. She is kinda of just curled up in her hide, sulking. She's not sitting in a death curl but she has got her legs tucked in close to her like she's trying to hide. She has webbed a bit but usually only when I'm not looking then goes back into her scrunched up scared to death pose.

Is this pretty much typical for a while until she gets comfortable? What kind of experiences, typical/non typical have people had with their fuzzy friends?

Also, this is my littlest T, Azkwin, she's about the size of my little fingernail, so tiny! She hasn't taken any food for over a week, so she last ate 9 days ago. I have the sneaking suspicion she is heading into a molt, he butt is so huge! Her last molt was 6 weeks ago. Opinions? Complete Tarantula newbie here so learning as we go!

View attachment 11736

Yes I know I call all my T's girls even though I have no idea of their gender, I don't know why I do this =p

So pretty! Wish mine would start to molt. I have her now for about 3 weeks now. An inch in Size. Just sits in burrow all day! Its a Curlyhair lazy t. But eats well. Every 3Rd or 4th day

 

[Chubbs]

Anything from Africa, Asia, Australia, etc are considered old world

 

[Zeirath]

So this is my larger T that was stuck in transit for like 10 days, now this is how she is all the time, she started a little bit of a burrow towards the other end of the cage and has been webbing up a little bit, I've got her in a cupboard in the dark since it's obvious she isn't settled in at all. Unlike my Phlogius who has built a burrow, webbed up her entire enclosure and seems settled in already.

Now I have no idea what a dehydrated T looks like, but I decided to grab some of the moss my Phlogius was shipped with, dampen it and put it in the enclosure with her, she does have a water bowl though so shouldn't be dehydrated I wouldn't think. The next morning(today) I found her like this curled up on top of the moss.

I do have one question, other than any ideas why she's so sluggish/uninterested in being alive it seems. on the underside of her legs, the joins seem a little bit split? the photo is kinda blurry so probably can't make it out. Is this normal or a sign of pre-molt which would explain her grogginess I suppose. This is my first time dealing with a larger T so I am completely lost.

 

[Zeirath]

Got a bit better photo of the legs.

 

[Zeirath]

So I moved her to a warmer spot in the room, over near the window, not in direct sunlight but a little tiny sliver of sunlight can be seen in the photo cos of the way my curtains are sitting. Within a couple minutes of being on the warmer side of the room she started moving around, did a lap of the enclosure and then.....faceplanted into the water dish, it's a change at least o-0 this spider seriously loves faceplanting, she HIDES her face so much!

 

[MassExodus]

Zeirath, try making a good starter burrow at one end of the enclosure..all of the Aussie spiders are burrowers aren't they? I've never read much about them. She had a rough trip though, just try to give her time to adjust. If she's in the dish, make a burrow after dampening the substrate.if she crawls into the damp burrow, you know you did right., and I would give a spider that size a bigger dish, just because..Like I said, I know nothing about these, they may be "dry" species for all I know, but try it, see what she does..it can't hurt, especially if she's slowly dying from massive dehydration from that long ass trip through the Aussie heat..in a box...you never know, they generally don't give any signs until they're in serious trouble.

 

[Zeirath]

Yeah pretty sure they are all burrowers, it's funny I made a starter burrow for my Phlogius and she sat in it for a few hours and then the next morning found she had dug an almost vertical burrow in the corner, looks pretty funny actually.

I'll try making her a starter burrow in the damn end of the enclosure and have a look around for something bigger I can use as a water dish, I hadn't expected her to be quite so big so just used what was on hand at the time haha.

Will let you know how it goes, thanks for the advice, it has been a bit cooler this week than it was last week so maybe that could be a factor as well.

 

[MassExodus]

Yeah pretty sure they are all burrowers, it's funny I made a starter burrow for my Phlogius and she sat in it for a few hours and then the next morning found she had dug an almost vertical burrow in the corner, looks pretty funny actually.

I'll try making her a starter burrow in the damn end of the enclosure and have a look around for something bigger I can use as a water dish, I hadn't expected her to be quite so big so just used what was on hand at the time haha.

Will let you know how it goes, thanks for the advice, it has been a bit cooler this week than it was last week so maybe that could be a factor as well.

Is she acting any differently then when you posted this question? You're driving me nuts because I don't know jack about the species and you already have me concerned about her..must be my recent loss of my versi. Plus you posted a pic of her holding all of her legs in front of her, looking like an arboreal, which is freaking me out..keep us posted man. And don't be shy about your questions or concerns here, we aint arachnolords. Boards.

 

[Zeirath]

Funny you say that I made an account on arachonoboards when I got my first T, 6 weeks ago, my account hasn't even been approved yet so can't post, view pictures or anything. So went looking and found this forum, I think I like this one better already =p

She moved from her water bowl not long after I posted the picture and climbed the side of her cage again and just sat there with her legs in front of her like before. I moved her into another container so I could make her a burrow, took a little bit of convincing her to go in the burrow but she's in it now, all I know about the spider is it's supposedly a QLD bird eating spider, which really doesn't help because they are all pretty similar and there's several species. I'm pretty sure she's the same as my little tiny T though, they both have the slightly darker stripe on the abdomen, I might go do a little bit of research. At first I thought she might be a Selenotypus sp because they seem to have a similar stripe-like pattern on the abdomen as well.

 

[MassExodus]

Funny you say that I made an account on arachonoboards when I got my first T, 6 weeks ago, my account hasn't even been approved yet so can't post, view pictures or anything. So went looking and found this forum, I think I like this one better already =p

She moved from her water bowl not long after I posted the picture and climbed the side of her cage again and just sat there with her legs in front of her like before. I moved her into another container so I could make her a burrow, took a little bit of convincing her to go in the burrow but she's in it now, all I know about the spider is it's supposedly a QLD bird eating spider, which really doesn't help because they are all pretty similar and there's several species. I'm pretty sure she's the same as my little tiny T though, they both have the slightly darker stripe on the abdomen, I might go do a little bit of research. At first I thought she might be a Selenotypus sp because they seem to have a similar stripe-like pattern on the abdomen as well.

Yeah don't worry about getting approved there, just use the knowledge stored there for research. Many of the people there are a bunch of know nothing know it all's, repeating things they've heard like it's gospel, with no practical experience or knowledge to back it up. Pfff.
You say she climbed the side of her cage...is her substrate wet or dry? It looked dry in the pictures. Did you pack it when you put it into the enclosure? Burrowing species wont dig into loose sub, it wont hold a burrow. Are they a dry species? And did you find any info about your natives? You gotta research if you're going to do it right, with confidence. Then you'll start wanting to try different things, experiment with different theories. I know you just want your spider to be alright, right now, but she just went through hell and you're going to have to read as much as you can to accomplish that. You'll run into a lot of opinions, and only a little bit of fact...I can only imagine how bad it is for you trying to research your native species, because your country is so restricted in the hobby...it's bad enough here, trying to sort fact from opinion and conjecture when you research something. You've got me interested enough to research it myself, but that won't be until tomorrow, when I'm supposed to be working lmao..I'll get back to you tomorrow. Lets see which one of us can find out the most by then...call it a friendly wager "Steve Nunn" I believe is the name I've heard several times in relation to Aussie tarantulas. There's also some dude from arachnolords that's an Aussie, forgot his name though..and can't vouch for his knowledge or his sensibility, never interacted with him. Talk to you tomorrow Good luck.

 

[Zeirath]

When I put the substrate into the container I wet one side of it, so it was moist but not so wet that water came out when I squeezed it and left one side dry, so she could sort of pick where she wanted to go since I wasn't sure which she'd prefer. I packed it down as best I could, the dry side didn't pack down as well as the damp side, I put the starter burrow on the damp side. I'm not sure if they're dry or not, will be trying to work that out as I do more research, I did do HEAPS when I first got my little T Azkwin, but with so many species it's hard to tell. It probably didn't help I didn't know what half of the stuff means when I was researching, but I'm getting there!

When searching 'QLD bird eating spider' you mostly get Phlogius crassipes, which is basically what my other T is definitely not the same Tarantula, they look completely different, not sure the difference between the crassipes and the goliath, but eh, that's stuff I gotta learn as well.

While not really an information site or anything, this lists a lot of the different species of Aussie T's http://www.thegreenscorpion.com.au/showcats.toy?aid=44068 They are no longer actively selling them though or I likely would have bought mine from them.

Will do more research a bit later tonight before bed and see what I can come up with, there's like 10+ different species of Selenotypus. I just checked out the website which I bought my little tiny T Azkwin, and they have her listed as a Selenotholus sp. On further investigation, the Selenotholus Sp Kotzmans bird eating spider looks almost identical to my larger T ordered from the same pet store but didn't have a species listing. Just sold as 'QLD Bird Eating Spider'. Here's a vid of one:

Interesting interesting, time to go do some more research!

 

[Zeirath]

So, this morning I checked on her and she hadn't moved/done anything, I gave her back leg a little poke to make sure she was still alive and she responded, slow sluggish ick don't touch me! response but still alive. I checked back just before and I can no longer see her butt in the burrow and dunno if you can see it or not but there's a light layer of webbing over the entrance of the burrow with little bits of substrate in the webbing. So she's moved, now I'm just going to have to resist the urge to destroy her burrow to check if she's still alive down there x_X she wouldn't just sit down there in her burrow and slowly die would she?

 

[MassExodus]

Zeirath have you tried feeding her yet? She has a damp burrow and water dish so my next step would be to feed her, since they get most of their hydration from prey. That way, you've done all you can to rule out dehydration. Honestly I think she just had a long, rough trip man, and shes still in that shock stage they go into.. I haven't had time today to research Aussie spiders, too much crap going on here at work. But I'm glad to hear there was some improvement, anyway

 

[Zeirath]

I did try the other day but then removed it yesterday morning, I can try putting another one in there she might be more interested now she's got a little safe hidy hole of her own. I did read somewhere that bigger spiders take longer to recover from shipping shock than slings. Plus yeah 10 day ordeal of being shipped across the state and back probably doesn't help. (I got an advanced tracking number the day it arrived and turns out they had taken the package for delivery three days in a row but never got here!)

 

[Zeirath]

So went to feed her and noticed she's completely blocked up her burrow with webbing and substrate. Do they only do this when molting? I don't know if she'll even have room to molt down there can they molt in tight spaces? She's a pretty big spider I wouldn't have thought she'd be ready to molt as soon as I got her. I just want her to eat or molt or do something and be okay.