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!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="daphnep" data-source="post: 38970" data-attributes="member: 3527">Wow. First of all, thank all of you for your replies.  This has been a frustrating experience, and your support means a great deal to me.  Here are a few things I wanted to respond to right away:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I microwave her sponges weekly to sterilize them.  She seems to like the sponges a great deal.  They are her first choice for drinking.  I can take them out, but if I sterilize them, is there another reason I would do so?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Our house is in a place that loses power more often than what could be considered normal, and our living room is quite cool for most of the year anyway.  She uses her heat rock a lot.  I have read that rose hairs are desert spiders (which is why I keep her cage material dry but try to build up a bit of relative humidity), and so they can stand lower temperatures.  I can take the heat rock out to see what happens.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I also researched the spots on her abdomen, and the consensus was that this is what her abdomen might look like if she is irritated and is going to urticate hairs.  Thank you for verifying that for me!  I was sure she was covered.</li> </ul>So if the spots are not mites, I cannot see a single moving mite on her now, I have not seen a single moving thing on her, and I have not actually seen anything that could be a mite, it is entirely possible she does not have mites on her.  Therefore it does seem that her new personality is this angry creature who rises up at every stimulus, and the molt was the reason for the change.  This is totally sad.  She was so settled and at peace before, and now she looks unhappy, if spiders can be such a thing.I am going to take out the heat rock, clean her water dish, and see what happens if I take the sponges out.  Sunday is the day I clean the bowl and zap her sponges anyway.  In a few days I will pop back in to report her behavior.  One last hope is that feeding her will take this edge off.  Oh snap ... is it possible that the crickets she had before her personality change had pesticide on them or were "off"?  That wouldn't cause her to act in such a way, would it?  Does that even ever happen?Thank you all so much again, by the way.  You all are a great support and make me feel less helpless.  Heart.</blockquote>

Verification