Tarantula chewing stuff

[LucasNorth]

My A. avic wakes me up at ungodly times in the night with her chewing on the back of her exo terra enclosure. Its a fake rock wall made of i presume styrofoam and she chews it up all night. Very noisy What do?
Disregard fake time stamp. Camera is old and i havnt changed settings

 

[KnightinGale]

I don't know how attached to the background you are, but I just pull those out of any exoterra enclosures. I find them a pain in the arse since they don't seal all the way around the back. Mealworms would get lost underneath, crickets would hide on top and behind. I never had a tarantula chew on the foam, but crickets did and it started to look messy anyway.
They peel off quite easily and don't leave marks behind...plus then you have a little more enclosure space to do what you like with.

 

[killy]

I needed a larger hide for my LP, and placed a styrofoam cup in his enclosure temporarily - the next morning there were little bits of styrofoam all over the place and the cup looked like, to quote Jim Croce, "a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone" - I removed the offending cup, styro-bits and all, and worried that I had unintentionally poisoned my tarantula. Those fears subsided as he to this day has suffered no ill effects. But it's interesting because I don't know why he chewed the styrofoam, whether out of disgust at my terrible taste in furniture, or because this is some sort of T pastime, or boredom - there's got to be a reason and I'd sure like to find out what it is.

 

[captmarga]

I gave a couple of Ts hides made from the compressed cardboard starter-planters (about 2" across and 3" tall). Intended to start seeds in, recycleable, but also biodegradable as eventually they would rot away. One doesn't care. One chewed away part... the third has nearly demolished it, chewing it into tiny bits. It doesn't seem to have affected her (and her fangs are fine, I checked).

Marga

 

[LucasNorth]

But she loves the walls. Its how crickets can get off the ground and into her embrace. I suppose your right in saying its how much i love the wall because i am getting annoyed at having to wake up because of her chewing.
Cool to hear other peoples stories on that though, i thuoght it was very interesting when i caught my pink toe in the act of eating her wall

 

[Hobo]

None of my arboreals chew it, but nearly all of my terrestrials with styrofoam chew it. I'm guessing it's just digging/burrowing behavior. It's not too much of a stretch to say that they may encounter something similar in the wild (rotting wood/plants, clay, etc.) and chew through them if they're in the way.

 

[KnightinGale]

Haha, there is that. You can make something new for her though with branches, corkbark etc. (non-noisy things) arranged against the back. Crickets will climb all those things too, as well as plants and whatever they can to get to "safety". There are several people around who make their "wall" type backgrounds as well and they generally look better than the stock ones. I don't know what materials they use but maybe someone will chime in who does or with a specific name... You could always check out the section about enclosures to get an idea of what others have done.
Sorry I can't tell you how to just get your avic to stop chewing. With mine it's always re-arranging the plants. Apparently I never put them in just the right spots.

 

[eporter]

my rosea does that all the time with this plastic flower i stuck in there and with the substrate...apparently its a better designer then i am lol

 

[LucasNorth]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk0ahajh71c
Robc has a tutorial on how to make backdrops, pretty cool

 

[ruca49]

But why do they chew on stuff? Is it to clean their fangs or something along that line? Get moisture out of it...I am baffled.

 

[Hobo]

But why do they chew on stuff? Is it to clean their fangs or something along that line? Get moisture out of it...I am baffled.

My guess, a few posts above yours:

I'm guessing it's just digging/burrowing behavior. It's not too much of a stretch to say that they may encounter something similar in the wild (rotting wood/plants, clay, etc.) and chew through them if they're in the way.

I've also read somewhere it may be behavior used when they are trapped in a collapsed burrow; find a weakened area and start biting/chewing. It was used to explain why they chew ov ventilation as well.

Again, these are all guesses, but I'm fairly sure they don't do it to clean fangs or get moisture.

 

[advan]

I've had Poecilotheria and Psalmopoeus chew on backgrounds and corkbark.

Newly rehoused P. subfusca chewed and incorporated it into her web/dirt curtain. It's her house, she decorates how she wants.