Change in old G porteri behavior.

[thedragonslapper]

My old female G porteri has recently decided she likes hanging out on top of the rubber flowers she originally didn't seem care about before and I often catch her partially off the substrate floor at the same spot. Like, four legs on the ground, the other four on the enclosure wall, or pointed upward. She used to either hang out in the open in the middle of the cage or hide away in her log tunnel. She only started doing this a few weeks ago. She also hasn't eaten in several months and refused a Dubia I offered her over a week ago, though that's not unusual. I think I can also see some premolt darkness on her abdomen.

I have had this old girl for 15 years, and given she was most certainly wild caught she may very well be much older. She was also my first T. Is it possible this is her way of telling me she doesn't like the peat moss substrate anymore despite living on it, and in the same enclosure, for most of those 15 years? I'll also add this is by far the weirdest of all my (currently) 4 Ts. The many species I've owned over the years she's the one that continues to baffle me through odd behavior like this.

Also don't mind the red light. It's from an LED used for noninvasive viewing purposes.

 

[aprilmayjunebugs]

Looks a lot like a seriously alarming case of "trying something new" otherwise known as nothing to be worried about.

For real though,, these terrestrial types, they just don't have anything better to do. Sometimes they do the same weird thing for a while and then switch it up with another weird thing and then go from that weird thing back to the other weird thing or a totally other weird thing.

Sitting on a fake plant is not concerning at all, your setup looks pleasingly correct, and your T appears healthy. I'd guess she won't eat until she molts again, but no harm in trying every few months or so.

I'm genuinely curious though, as I haven't yet experienced such slow growing species, how many times has she molted with you in your 15 years together?

 

[thedragonslapper]

Looks a lot like a seriously alarming case of "trying something new" otherwise known as nothing to be worried about.

For real though,, these terrestrial types, they just don't have anything better to do. Sometimes they do the same weird thing for a while and then switch it up with another weird thing and then go from that weird thing back to the other weird thing or a totally other weird thing.

Sitting on a fake plant is not concerning at all, your setup looks pleasingly correct, and your T appears healthy. I'd guess she won't eat until she molts again, but no harm in trying every few months or so.

I'm genuinely curious though, as I haven't yet experienced such slow growing species, how many times has she molted with you in your 15 years together?

Lost count. Though they were few and very far in between. It's been at least a year, maybe longer, since the last one.

 

[birdonfire]

My G. pulchripes pretends the floor is lava when I wet the substrate.

 

[greeneyedelle]

The life of the porteri: Sit, sit, sit, sit some more. Maybe drink, Maybe not. Maybe eat, maybe not. Every two years or so, explore ("What is this? I've never seen this before in my life"). Probably about 2 years ago, I legitimately thought my 13-year-old porteri escaped because she was just splayed across the limbs of a little branch/tree thing that she perfectly blended in with, and she'll do that maybe two or three times a year now? One day she was hiding under the leaves of a fake plant that she's never touched before, and she hasn't gone back since. That scene from Inside Out when Joy says "Do you ever look at someone and think, 'what is going on inside their head?'" For these t's, I just picture a super slow mo spider reaching for the buttons and it takes like 4 months to push one.

She looks VERY well fed, so if that's after months of not eating, then yeah, molt is probably coming at some point. I'm not sure what old age would look like on a porteri (and I'm not looking forward to finding out), but fingers crossed she's just deviating to keep you on yours toes

My G. pulchripes pretends the floor is lava when I wet the substrate.

1000% accurate. Grams are weird