# why is my rose hair tarantula drinking excessively?



## insane247 (Jan 7, 2011)

i give her water every day. the dish is dry in no time. she just sits on top of it and chugs the whole thing. the dish is about 5mL. why is she drinking so much?


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## Chris_Skeleton (Jan 7, 2011)

insane247 said:


> i give her water every day. the dish is dry in no time. she just sits on top of it and chugs the whole thing. the dish is about 5mL. why is she drinking so much?


So you witness her putting her mouth in the water and drinking it all?


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## insane247 (Jan 7, 2011)

exactly! she sits over it and crouches in a way so that her mouth is dipped in the water and sits like that til all the water is gone. i thought the water was just evaporating really fast until i saw her doing this twice today already. this morning she was doing this on the wet dirt where the water had spilled a bit. so i filled the dish and she went and drank out of it. she emptied it and i filled it again and now she's sitting on it again. she doesnt move until the dish is empty


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## Thegloryfades (Jan 7, 2011)

What temp is her enclosure at?


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## insane247 (Jan 7, 2011)

i was told i didnt need anything to maintain the temp. so it's room temperature. she seems fine with that temp


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## tarantulagirl10 (Jan 7, 2011)

How big is she? Just for the record, 5ml is only 1tsp. If she's drinking it, she must need the water, just keep it full for her.


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## insane247 (Jan 7, 2011)

including the legspan she is almost 3 inches. she's so small to be drinking that much water. she's finished off two dishfulls today. i dont want to fill the dish again im afraid she'll drink too much


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## tarantulagirl10 (Jan 7, 2011)

hmm I don't know, I'm still a newbie but I would keep the waterdish full. Maybe get a bigger one. Is she eating well? You know the last few days my ts have been drinking more. I caught 2 of my ts in their waterdishes in the last 2 days and they both drank them dry. I think in my case the heat running is drying the air out. I have also started running a humidifier in the room. They know what they are doing. If they are drinking, they need water.


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## insane247 (Jan 7, 2011)

she is eating fine. she eats the crickets as soon as it comes near her. i feed her every 3 days. is that not enough? i was told that you have to do around 3 days. i was also told that they eat whenever they get a chance so just because they eat so vigorously doesnt mean they are really hungry it just means they are taking a chance when they get it because they do not know when another one will come


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## Dangergirl (Jan 8, 2011)

Out of my 24 T's, I fill up only one bowl daily ... thats right, my rosea !
P.S I wouldnt worry about a T drinking "too much" - they know what they are doing !


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## tarantulagirl10 (Jan 8, 2011)

As far as eating, people have different opinions. Some people think you can feed too much, some people think that they will stop eating when they are full. I personally like to feed them whenever I think they will eat. For some this is once a week and for some of the younger ones, this is twice a week. It's just up to you. Do keep her water dish full though. Sounds like she is doing good


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## curiousme (Jan 8, 2011)

If you are tired of it drinking it dry, give it a bigger water dish.  In the wild they might have creeks, or rivers available to them and are just fine  Instead of looking at it as a worrisome thing, look at it as the clearest communication you can get from it.  The T is thirsty, give it a bigger water dish.    Central heating can dry out the air in your house quickly and your T is feeling it.  That said, you haven't mentioned any troublesome behavior besides drinking, so I think thirsty is your best guess for the cause.


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## lta3398 (Jan 8, 2011)

I have 6 rosies, and one is the same way. she eats just fine, and she is nice and plump I just keep an eye on her dish, and refill as needed. So far, it has worked good. I also gave her a slightly larger dish. The central air does contribute though. Since I live in South Florida, I have to have mine on, or it is unbearable in the house. I maintain the house at 74 degrees. so i just have to take that extra few seconds a day and make sure she has water


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## Royal_T's (Jan 8, 2011)

When was the last time she molted? She may be hydrating for an upcoming molt.


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## insane247 (Jan 12, 2011)

i've only had her for a few months and she has never molted since i got her


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## Irene B. Smithi (Jan 12, 2011)

Just keep the dish full.  I have to refill my B. Smithis dish everyday... but I live in a desert... it's dry here, and so is the cage.


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## Armoworrior (Jan 12, 2011)

my rosea does this same thing.  the first time he drank water i was surprised to catch him.  this after i was told that spiders DON'T drink water.  mine did this up entil a few months ago and now he just molted last night


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## insane247 (Jan 18, 2011)

ok so she is going to molt soon. i looked up and they usually spin a web mat to sit on when they will molt and she has started doing that for the past month. how long does this process take?

---------- Post added at 09:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:41 PM ----------

i was worried because she kicked a hair off on me the other day. she was always flinchy when i first touched her but never acted defensively. usually once she knows its just me she settles down and will just sit on me and stop trying to crawl away. so i was surprised when she did this but i guess she is just molting and feeling vulnerable. she is still eating tho. just less aggressively


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## Chris_Skeleton (Jan 18, 2011)

insane247 said:


> ok so she is going to molt soon. i looked up and they usually spin a web mat to sit on when they will molt and she has started doing that for the past month. how long does this process take?


That is not a sure fire way to tell. My rosea always has a mat that it sits on. The only ways to really tell are:
-Refusal of food
-Sluggishness
-If it has a bald spot, then the skin darkening and turning black. Once it is black and shiny, you know it is due for a molt.

*Edit: If your T is still eating it is not in premolt.


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## DawgPoundSound (Jan 19, 2011)

Drinking tons of water doesn't always signal an eventual molt with rosea. Unless this was captive bred there could be a high chance of a gravid female rosea, and they are NOTORIOUS water drinkers when gravid. Considering they are from arid environments, this would make sense when carrying over 200 spiderlings. 

 Not saying yours is gravid, but don't be surprised. And is so, you should heighten the feeding a bit. Which could be why she's drinking so often, because she's not getting enough food. My rosea females drank quite a bit, but not entire dish fulls, because they were fed constantly while gravid. 

 So keep us informed on how this turns out either way. With pics!


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## insane247 (Jan 21, 2011)

no she was captive bred. i thought maybe she was getting ready to molt because when i bought her she did not have that web mat in her cage and she didnt start making it until last month and i bought her in october

---------- Post added at 01:12 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:06 AM ----------

she did develop a brown dime sized spot on her abdomen but it's gone now. i dont know what that was. maybe dirt.

another question: the other day i saw her stroking one leg and putting the tip in her mouth. what was that about, grooming?


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## curiousme (Jan 21, 2011)

Chris_Skeleton said:


> That is not a sure fire way to tell. My rosea always has a mat that it sits on. *The only ways to really tell are:*
> -Refusal of food
> -Sluggishness
> -If it has a bald spot, then the skin darkening and turning black. Once it is black and shiny, you know it is due for a molt.
> ...


Chris, please quit making such absolute statements in your posts and I am not just referring to this thread.  There are definitely more than 3 signs of premolt.

*insane*~ Here is a list of signs of premolt that I typed up in an older thread.  However, yours does not sound like it is in premolt, since it is still eating.  Our _G. rosea_ both go on long fasts before they finally flip over and molt and that is pretty normal for the species, though there can always be exceptions to that normalcy.  

I do wonder how you are sure it is CB spider if bought from a pet store, but webbing the substrate isn't only reserved for molting mats.  Here is a picture of our _G. rosea_'s substrate, which is always covered in web, regardless of impending molt.  

The brown spot was probably dirt if it is gone now and the leg movements were grooming.


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## Chris_Skeleton (Jan 21, 2011)

@curiousme

Yeah, I shouldn't have put only. Need to watch the wording :wall:

I'll just start linking your post


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## Bill S (Jan 21, 2011)

curiousme said:


> In the wild they might have creeks, or rivers available to them and are just fine.


Just for the record - most tarantulas, especially from dry regions, do not drink from creeks or rivers.  They often do not have creeks or rivers available close by.  It's more likely to be from small accumulations - small puddles created by rain, water trickling into or past a burrow, dew on the ground, etc.  They may drink heartily when it's available to them, then have to wait a while before the next drink.  This might be what the OP is seeing in this case - a tarantula "tanking up". 

I wouldn't be concerned or even curious unless it continued to do it over a long period of time.  (We haven't been told here whether this was observed only a few times in one or two days, or has been going on for weeks or months.)  I would definitely allow the tarantula to drink as much as it wants - but if it continues for weeks on end I'd want to find out why.


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## insane247 (Jan 21, 2011)

i know it's CB because the pet store said they get their roseas from a breeder who sells them to the store


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## codykrr (Jan 21, 2011)

^ Translates into.  "we have a guy who imports our tarantulas for us". 

Also, I think there is more at work here than just your tarantula drinking often.

if your tarantula has any webs that touch the water dish, or strings some webbing over the top of it, the webbing will wick away they water.  

solution- everytime you water physically pull the dish out, and wipe it off, inside and out.  fill with water and replace.

it could also be that the water is evaporating.   

also for you T hovering over the dish, maybe she needs more humidity. or maybe the water is wicking away/evaporating faster than she can fulfill her thirst.


solution- get a water dish thats about the same size as your tarantula's leg span.  about a half inch deep.  keep it full.


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## insane247 (Jan 29, 2011)

ok so i took the dish out to fill it with water and i guess it was going off on the webbing even tho i didnt c it. but when i did post this thread i watched her drink two full dishes in a row, but not after that. so thanks for the help guys


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