behavioral quandrey

[Spike]

Questio 1 Okay this to me is interesting question because I am a real newbie to this hobby =D I just baought a chilaen rose hair I have had her now for 3 days . This may seem like a dumb question to some I apologize in advance. On the first day I bought this t she was very cooperative and non skittish very seet in other words. On the socond day I was even inclined to handle her. I was amazed at her disposition toaotaly and u8tterely docile. i heard to many stories here any ways. On the third day I always use this brush to see her mood the first thing i did ws to pat the ground to let her know I ws there. The next thing I did was to brush her lightly she irricated. Then when I went to touch her pedepalps which I have done in the past she striked!@!!!!!!! Now what I think is the strike to the ground was to abrupt and it startled her the rest just pissed her off my question is what do all the vets think about this???



Question 2 which ties in to the story when she struck at the brush if I wold have tried to handle her would she have bit. Now I ask this If only I have tried and hour later?????

Question 3 Now my finnal question is many people talk about how tarantulas are very primitive including in thinking. If you were to handle a T after testing the mood and it sseemed okay is there still a chance of a bite without warning for risidual past accounts like the one that happened in question 1??? Or is it possible to handle the T after words with now ill effects no matter how harmful and/or bad the previous situation might have been??? in otherwords are they elephants or are they bees??? How does there memory work time wise and what is the liley hood of a "sneak attack" why does this happen??? Thanks sorry for all the fuss just very curious

 

[luther]

Reports vary for how long a tarantula can stay in a "bad mood". Some report aggressive behaviour for weeks.

I would like to suggest that, if this is a new pet, you leave it alone for a couple of weeks. Let it make itself at home in it's new environment and feel secure. This will help it to relax. It is, after all, a living, feeling creature and not a toy. A relaxed and secure tarantula is more likely to display more natural behaviour and probably live longer too.

As for the likelihood of her biting you it sounds like she was warning you off. Some rosea individuals can be quite aggressive, even though they have a good reputation as a species. Many tarantula keepers don't handle their pets at all. Most handle rarely and only a minority handle regularly (IMHO).

 

[sunnymarcie]

The strike you provoked could have been a feeding response.
Has she eaten yet?

Try to feed her and let her settle in, she will be fine
And no more poking her in the face, just think how that
would make you feel

 

[Buspirone]

My rosie fake strikes. Scared the living crap out of me the first time it happened. She will just tap me real fast with her peds and front legs then scrurry off a fewsteps then calmly walk away like she's big stuff.

 

[jesses]

Originally posted by Spike
Question 3 Now my finnal question is many people talk about how tarantulas are very primitive including in thinking. If you were to handle a T after testing the mood and it sseemed okay is there still a chance of a bite without warning for risidual past accounts like the one that happened in question 1??? Or is it possible to handle the T after words with now ill effects no matter how harmful and/or bad the previous situation might have been??? in otherwords are they elephants or are they bees??? How does there memory work time wise and what is the liley hood of a "sneak attack" why does this happen??? Thanks sorry for all the fuss just very curious

I'm going to catch flack for this, but Tarantulas don't have memories and they don't think. They act almost entirely on instinct, and once you observe your T for a while, you will notice that they have a behavoir that is predictable like a computer program. This isn't to say that every T in a given species will act exactly the same, but individual T's seem (to me) to have a programming that they will rarely deviate from. The programming does seem to change over the course of their life.

If they attack you, its not because they are mad at you from yesterday because they don't remember yesterday, they just react to whatever situation they're given. Example, no matter how many times you wreck your spiders' web or burrow, they will always rebuild it. They won't remember that it got wrecked last night and predict that it will be wrecked again. Rugbydave will probably back me on this one.

Another case in point, 99% of the times that I open the top of any of my Ts' enclosure, its for feeding. You would think that after my T's have experienced the vibration of the top opening, followed by food falling out of the sky, that they'd learn that the top openning means food is coming. Half of my T's won't move when the top is openned, and the other half run into their hide or burrow. So I would have to question whether T's can even respond to conditioning. As opposed to say, my dog who starts doing running backflips when I open the closet where his treats are kept.