To clean or not to clean

[dazray9]

Hi Dora my LP is in a new bigger tank with solid lid after outgrowing and chewing her way through the steel mesh lid and escaping ! She seems happier now and constantly on display my issue is her constant interior decorating she has built thick webs up all over the front glass making it difficult to see her in all her glory, she did Web up her old enclosure but no where to the extent of this one do I clean some off so I can see her ? I no she will probably do it again and again or is it just somthing I need to just put up with ?

 

[ajh101]

IMHO she is doing it to feel safe and secure. A T that feels safe will be out and about more. You do not want to have to deal with a scared and defensive LP!!

 

[dazray9]

IMHO she is doing it to feel safe and secure. A T that feels safe will be out and about more. You do not want to have to deal with a scared and defensive LP!!

I def would not say she's scared she spends 80% of her time full spread across the front glass on display during the day when there's noise and people walking past her, you just can't see her very well due to the webbing the glass she has never been defensive or aggressive

 

[m0lsx]

she did Web up her old enclosure but no where to the extent of this one do I clean some off so I can see her ?

My understanding is that to produce webbing a tarantula needs to exert energy & thus produce & use proteins. So they only do it when they feel a need to produce webbing. You may not like her idea of home decoration. But it's what she does by nature, when she feels a natural drive to do so. And she is clearly happy in her new enclosure & simply trying to make it feel like home.

The only time I ever damage webbing is by accident, when I cannot open a door or remove a lid to feed without doing so. Please don't damage your T's webbing.

With a GBB. I put a piece of paper across part of the top of it's enclosure, so that it could web under it & not have me damage it's webbing every time I took the lid off. He appreciated my effort, webbed extensively under the paper & used the areas between the paper & the top of the lid as a little loft area.

 

[Heretic]

Ts web to feel safe and know their surroundings, make structural web to places they dont like walking, identify pathways and danger, and to remember where they got food. You will often see them "happy dance" where they get a kill. This repairs the web and is a marker for them. All Spiders make several different types of web, even Ts. When you destroy webbing you are essentially disabling them. Its like our 5+ senses. As Humans we don't realize how important webbing is to the life of a spider. We have a very childish understanding of it.

 

[Leepbby]

My understanding is that to produce webbing a tarantula needs to exert energy & thus produce & use proteins. So they only do it when they feel a need to produce webbing. You may not like her idea of home decoration. But it's what she does by nature, when she feels a natural drive to do so. And she is clearly happy in her new enclosure & simply trying to make it feel like home.

The only time I ever damage webbing is by accident, when I cannot open a door or remove a lid to feed without doing so. Please don't damage your T's webbing.

With a GBB. I put a piece of paper across part of the top of it's enclosure, so that it could web under it & not have me damage it's webbing every time I took the lid off. He appreciated my effort, webbed extensively under the paper & used the areas between the paper & the top of the lid as a little loft area.

Do you have any pics of this I would love to see what you've done with the paper idea. I have a gbb that could potentially benefit from this as well.

 

[m0lsx]

Do you have any pics of this I would love to see what you've done with the paper idea. I have a gb

Rather than hijack this thread, I'll post them as images in my media & link you too them..