# Tarantula behavior... some things they do amuse me



## OxDionysus (Jan 20, 2010)

One of my L. Parahybanas moves his fake plant across his cage every night and sticks it in his water bowl. 

Another L. Parahybanas fills her water bowl up with dirt every night.

My Rose Hair picks up the water bowl up and rolls it around.

My C. Brachycephalus digs a hole in the corner and abruptly poops in it.

My T. Gigas catches his prey and "webs" it to the cork bark like he's the predator or something.

And my A. Avic just hangs out on the front door of his cage

Anyone else have weird behaviors?

Reactions: Like 1


----------



## Stopdroproll (Jan 20, 2010)

My B. smithi is like an interior decorator. Right now she is in the process of moving substrate around.

Reactions: Like 2


----------



## Redneck (Jan 20, 2010)

My G. rosea (Rosie) has holes dug all over her enclosure.. She also rolls her water dish around..

My B. smithi (FiFi) attacks her water dish when I fill it up.. Then she stops realizes its not a cricket.. Then goes to drinking water..

One of my P. regalis slings.. Thinks it is some sort of pet hole.. 

The rest of my crew normally sits around.. LoL!


----------



## Jilly1337 (Jan 20, 2010)

I wanted to start a thread like this!!

My I. hirsutum marches around her enclosure like she owns the place.  She will flip from the top to a leaf to the ground.  She doesn't ever try to hide and has very little webbing.

My P.irminia is the opposite.  She hides at all times and I am lucky to catch a glimpse of the time of a foot.

My GBB was in premolt when I got her and is just now starting to show behavior.  She is bold like the hirsutum and all other GBB's.  A master hunter and glutonous eater.


----------



## Ariel (Jan 21, 2010)

My _T. gigas_ literally STOLE its first waterdish. It carried it as far as it could into its hiding place, and attacks the tongs if I try to take it. so I had to add another waterdish....Now he throws dirt or flips over the new waterdish.

My _B. vagans_ sometimes carries around its waterdish. She also attacks it when I fill it up. 

Both my _P. chordatus _and my _A. sp. "Flagstaff orange"_ march around their enclosure as they munch crickets.


----------



## ZergFront (Jan 21, 2010)

- My P.cambridgei is a total bottomless pit. Eats crickets of many sizes, waxworms, the waxmoths and even the pillbugs that are supposed to keep the cage clean! Guess it's "his" version of firing the maids. 

 - All 6, 5 P.irminia and the cambridgei, no matter where the water bottle cap is, they find it and dump their food bolus in it. I've even watched Fang the cambridgei in the act. It was deliberate! Even when every once in a while they have the poop "pellets," I know because they go in the bottle cap. 

 - Nike the irminia thinks he/she's an OBT or Haplo; started digging this little burrow in the substrate where their First Aid Kit sits in front of it. So when I move the kit to a side, I can see the burrow against the cube wall.

 - All come out at just about 10PM unless they're in heavy premolt, especially when the bed lamp is on on the opposite side of the room.


 - And ALL seem to like dining on their fresh molts. :wall:


----------



## Ether Imp (Jan 21, 2010)

My A. _paysoni_ Juvi has a maze like network of tunnels and chambers under the surface of his Venti Starbucks Cup...

...Recently, he decided to dig out the substrate from under his water dish. 

Any time I clear out the dirt from the entryway of his burrow, he just digs deeper and replaces it within 24 hours.

I think I'm going to call him "Doug".

Reactions: Funny 1


----------



## xhexdx (Jan 21, 2010)

I fed my juvie P. cam three crickets the other day.  She killed them one at a time and hung them from the walls of her enclosure.

Once she killed the third one, she gathered all three up and sat on the wall to eat all three at once.

Then she tapped.  First time I've actually witnessed a female tap who was not responding to a male.

Yesterday, I fed her four lateralis, just to see what she would do.

Same thing.  She killed them one at a time, but instead of haniging them, she placed them in a neat little pile till she got the last one.  At that time, she ate them all at once, just like she did with the crickets.

I'm going to keep experimenting with her, but not till after she molts.  She's HUGE right now. :}


----------



## Terry D (Jan 21, 2010)

Interesting observations, yall, This thread is cool.

 My genic thinks it's a weightlifter. It sits atop it's corkbark hide in full view most of the time. When I open the enclosure it runs down the curve of the corkbark into in a vertical head down position to where hide meets substrate and begins tugging violently on it. The only problem with that is that it's pulling on the thing it is sitting on- upside down curls?. Often, it actually moves the hide when doing this. It's hilarious.

Although considered terrestrial, my tripepii is almost TOTALLY fossorial. Occasionally it will peek out from the hole at one end of the corkbark (which it also entirely covered with sub) to see if I have food but remains underground in a maze of tunnels it has created.

The 2 pulchras are awesome. They remind me of giant, fuzzy, black Phidippus the way they sit still when enclosures are opened but then spin 1/2 turn to the side quickly. One will ocasionally crawl onto my hand from it's enclosure

The 2 boehmei are night and day. One (prob. male) kicks all the time when visible and stays under it's buried clay pot. It is balder than I am a day after a molt. The other (prob f) is more chill, kicks less and doesn't bald for quite some time

All of the above are veritable chow-hounds. All plow like farmers on meth at times and fill water dishes with sub.

Terry


----------



## OxDionysus (Jan 21, 2010)

Sometimes one of my L. Parahybana (the smallest one) with literally tackle the roaches and tumble like roll for a sec.. really funny


----------



## TarantulaFanBoy (Jan 21, 2010)

My P murinus plays games with my heart. It does the whole Love Hate love hate love hate. :8o


----------



## violentblossom (Jan 21, 2010)

xhexdx said:


> I fed my juvie P. cam three crickets the other day.  She killed them one at a time and hung them from the walls of her enclosure.


She's clearly a demented cricket serial killer. ;P


My B. smithi loves digging up the little rocks that I put in her enclosure, and she'll spend DAYS doing this. She also builds little walls of substrate.


----------



## ¥AMEON (Jan 21, 2010)

*[¥] Behaviour [¥]*

OxDionysus Said:
Quote:*One of my L. Parahybanas moves his fake plant across his cage every night and sticks it in his water bowl.*:End Quote
Mahaps your L. Parahybanas is trying to teach you something
about Flower's  and/or show's you he's ready to take care 
of a real one.

*As for Behavious i have seen with my little one.*

*[1]* My Avicularia Avicularia used to like to sometimes 
hang out on the Door's, But prefer's the sides of 
her Enclosure more .. unless it's due to molt or 
highQuality Tactical Nap Time ...then she's in her 
Lair

*[2]* She is mysteriously Calm.

*[3]* Her strange DeathCurl imitation's resting poses 
That scare me half to death .. had to check up on 
her sometimes when she was in those where she 
would just react like "What ?"
But now i have gotten used to it and just let her 
get her beauty sleep l.o.l






*[4] (Picture above)* 
Found her once having made herself a hammoc out
 of a leaf by anchoring it to the wall of the 
enclosure at various point's and then resting on it.
If she hadnt anchored it it wouldnt have had a 
chance of supporting her weight.

To name a few thing's.


----------



## PaMBiX (Jan 21, 2010)

my p irminia kills multiple prey items at once and stores them till there are no more, i've tried 3 and 4 once and everytime i see his little legs come back out of his whole a few minutes later waiting for more. It takes him till like 20 minutes after there are no more prey items to go back in and eat.

my a. seemani has built an ant hill burrow (similar to an h. lividum) at the front of her half log hide, and the resulting burrow underground is 2 inches from being clear around the whole border of the cage

my AF p. striata once ripped a cocofiber mat background (sold in pet stores as backdrops for hermit crabs) down to make a home behind it after apparently deciding to move out of her log hide after 3 months

my 2" L.P. follows its prey around striking at it and giving threat postures for a good hour before she just tackles and eats it

and lastly, my n chromatus will go around his whole cage looking for a water bowl to throw dirt in. i've tried moving it, but he finds it. he would actually stop expanding  his burrow till i cleaned and refilled it, then the next morning, another few inches of burrow with more dirt in the dish. lol


----------



## violentblossom (Jan 21, 2010)

PaMBiX said:


> my 2" L.P. follows its prey around striking at it and giving threat postures for a good hour before she just tackles and eats it


LMAO. That's really cute.


----------



## mandipants (Jan 21, 2010)

Awesome thread!

My A. geniculata completely fills her water dish with dirt until its her very own little mud puddle, and then just sits on it proudly for hours. 

My 2 B. smithis are totally different from eachother. The juvi female is the sweetest spider anyone could ask for. Never flicked a hair, and never shown a threat pose. My adult is almost completely bald and will flick hairs at the wind for bothering her. 

I have 3 P. regalis from the same sack. 1 burrows, the other two prefer higher up hides, and the biggest one will do flips in mid air when catching prey.

My rosie is super responsive to sound. If I crinkle anything outside his cage he anxiously tries to get to it. I think he thinks it's prey. And he is a pig too. Rosies are known for long fasts. Mine has the same appetite as my A. geniculata. 

I have an OBT that hardly webs, and my L. parahybana props himself up on the edge of his water dish so it looks like he's standing on his back legs. 

Oh, and one of my A. versicolors hangs his bolus from his hide like little christmas ornaments.


----------



## Moltar (Jan 21, 2010)

I have a P. platyomma who seems to enjoy setting her water dish on end. Usually it's wedged between a piece of grapewood and the wall (always vertically on its side) but once she just balanced it on edge right in the middle of the cage. I had to get a picture of that.


----------



## Shell (Jan 21, 2010)

My G.pulchripes also likes to carry her water dish around. She will often fill it up with substrate and then move it around. She also excavates and redecorates like crazy.

On the other end of the spectrum, my A.avic literally does nothing, all the time lol


----------



## Jilly1337 (Jan 21, 2010)

xhexdx said:


> I fed my juvie P. cam three crickets the other day.  She killed them one at a time and hung them from the walls of her enclosure.
> 
> Once she killed the third one, she gathered all three up and sat on the wall to eat all three at once.


My old GBB used to do that.  We called it her "cricketball."


----------



## jbm150 (Jan 21, 2010)

Awesome stuff here!

My LP also does that, carries its little fake plant around the tank, oftentimes to the water dish.  I've never seen it move it but its always in a different location.

My GBB sling (maayybe 1/2") has not webbed anything (should I be worried?) and doesn't care if it gets wet.  But if you touch it, it'll try to murder you.  Crickets bigger than it stand no chance, it carries them up into the plant and feeds on their hanging dead body.

My regalis is a constant redecorator and thinks she can play basketball.  She's always digging new tunnels and creating new dirt curtains.  Then she'll tear everything down and do it again.  When she's finished with a cricket, she'll take the bolus to the top of her bark and either fling it onto the leaves of her plant to the side or try to land it into her water dish.  I've seen her do it, damnedest thing


----------



## OxDionysus (Jan 21, 2010)

Oh I almost forgot.. One of my Versicolors will run to the water bowl (after I clean and refill it) and then poop in it. Almost every time


----------



## Shell (Jan 21, 2010)

OxDionysus said:


> Oh I almost forgot.. One of my Versicolors will run to the water bowl (after I clean and refill it) and then poop in it. Almost every time


That reminds me, that I need to rephrase what I said about my A.avic doing nothing, she does poop in her water dish VERY well, so I guess that's something lol


----------



## curiousme (Jan 21, 2010)

Every once in a blue moon, our P. _cambridgei_ will let me pet her toes.  I know petting a tarantula sounds impossible, but in this case it is possible and super d dooper cute.  I will attempt to explain how..........................................................................................
First, this is our neatest T, she is always doing something fascinating, but in this case..................She responds to little puffs of air(I mean little, should you be trying to play a woodwind instrument, you wouldn't make a sound) in her ventilation holes that are at ground level for her.  She will come and investigate them, which for her means trying to fit all her toes through the hole.  The hole is not big enough for her to have any chance of biting me, but she can cram several toes through it.  She then will endure of few petting like movements, just to feel the setae on her legs.  I have been lucky enough to have her do this 3 separate times in the last couple of months and the next time I get her to do it; I will catch it on video, now that we have that capability.

I want to get video of her chasing the sound waves of a didgeridoo being played as well.  That is even cooler, but I can't do that one without Mr. Gone's help.

The only T we have that really ever messed with their water dish, was our P. _murinus_.  It would bury it for months and then suddenly decide to unearth it for a week or so.  We always took this as a sign that it wanted water, so we would fill it up.  Week goes by and the dish is under substrate and web again.  All these Ts rolling around their water dishes, sounds like cuteness overload to me.


----------



## Salamanderhead (Jan 21, 2010)

My Mature female rosie likes to get intoxicated and send me unappropriate texts at all hours of the night.


----------



## coleopteran (Jan 22, 2010)

Salamanderhead said:


> My Mature female rosie likes to get intoxicated and send me unappropriate texts at all hours of the night.


LOL!

My P. cambridgei manages to throw leftover roaches out of its tube hide across the enclosure and into the water dish. everytime. it also only poos on the door which makes for easy cleaning


----------



## starscreamzx3 (Jan 22, 2010)

Moltar said:


> I have a P. platyomma who seems to enjoy setting her water dish on end. Usually it's wedged between a piece of grapewood and the wall (always vertically on its side) but once she just balanced it on edge right in the middle of the cage. I had to get a picture of that.


  Thats just creepy.

My G. Rosea is constaly digging and moving the substrate around and everyonce in a while she will stop and take her back leg and rub her abdomen.....its like she's scratching her butt!


----------



## violentblossom (Jan 22, 2010)

Salamanderhead said:


> My Mature female rosie likes to get intoxicated and send me unappropriate texts at all hours of the night.


LMAO. New signature, ftw!


----------



## valcan222 (Jan 22, 2010)

*6 days in and my first story!!*

alright i got one for ya, my G. rosea wich i purchased 6 days ago did something crazy in my mind. I decided i would try to see if she was hungry i went out bought a few crickets, immediatly as i droped 2 in she chases them around the tank!! almost kicking them like a soccer ball! she soon gets them both in her hide. then she goes in. all i see is her pulling two dead crickets out about 5 mins later. she then took them to the top of her hide and ate them!

looked like something out of a horror movie! really quite funny to watch though

BB


----------

