crazy red leg

[Olan]

I have a 2.5 year old male red leg (smithi). He has been desperately trying to escape from his tank. Day and night for 4 days now he has been pacing and climbing up to the lid. He even was scraping the lid with his fangs. He is well fed and even has a few crickets running around in there still. He has a place to hide which he was very happy with untill this happened. He is certainly not mature either, he is only 3" at his widest legspan. If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them.

 

[MrDeranged]

Has it molted recently? Is it a mature male? Is the substrate moist?

Couple of possibilities...

Scott

 

[Rich]

Check for Tibial Spurs. It sounds like he is mature at 2 1/2 years. He just might be stunted. That would explain his activity.

 

[Gillian]

Olan,
Your guy sounds like he's sexually mature. However, perhaps there is something in the tank that is irritating him. I have a female smithi. If her substrate is either too shallow or, in the slightest bit damp, she will freak.

Peace,
Gillian
p.s., Albuquerque? I live 30 minutes south of you..

 

[ArachnoJoost]

At 2,5 years I think it would be quite fast growth for it to be an adult. Also 3" seems like too small to be mature.
You said there were crickets running around in the cage, maybe he's a bit stressed out by them. How long ago has he eaten? maybe he's going into premolt and wants to be left alone (by the crickets that is...)
Also: how moist are you keeping him. In my experience if the moisture is too high the t's start wallclimbing.
good luck on the solution!
Joost

 

[Joy]

Originally posted by Olan
I have a 2.5 year old male red leg (smithi). He has been desperately trying to escape from his tank. Day and night for 4 days now he has been pacing and climbing up to the lid. He even was scraping the lid with his fangs. He is well fed and even has a few crickets running around in there still. He has a place to hide which he was very happy with untill this happened. He is certainly not mature either, he is only 3" at his widest legspan. If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them.

You might check for a mite infestation. The best way to do this (per Schultz and Schultz) is to wait until night, after the lights have been out a while, then check with a flashlight to see if there are tiny white moving dots on the surface of the substrate.

Too much moisture in the substrate may also cause Brachypelmae to pace IME.

Joy

 

[Olan]

It does seem like he is mature but I looked very carefully for tibial spurs and modified pedipalps but I did not see anything. He has eaten 3 crickets in the past 4 days so I dont think he's hungry. I took the crickets out to rule out them bothering him. I also changed his substrate and thoroughly cleaned out his tank to try to get rid of anything that was bothering him. The substrate was bone dry so it couldn't have been too wet. We'll see how this all works out.