Grammastola Psychosis

[Matt Man]

So years ago we found out a certain percentage of G rosea were a tad on the cranky to nutty side. I have a feeling this may be genus wide, because my G pulchripes is the antithesis of how they typically are. My pulchra has the very stereotypical responses, but when I rehoused my pulchripes she is just downright ornery.
Anyone have any similar experiences with other members of this genus?

 

[Poonjab]

So years ago we found out a certain percentage of G rosea were a tad on the cranky to nutty side. I have a feeling this may be genus wide, because my G pulchripes is the antithesis of how they typically are. My pulchra has the very stereotypical responses, but when I rehoused my pulchripes she is just downright ornery.
Anyone have any similar experiences with other members of this genus?

Yes. G.pulchripes is an cranky o’l rag.

 

[BoyFromLA]

I’ve only had one Grammostola pulchripes. From 1/2” sling stage to 5”, it was always on calm side when feeding, rehousing, changing water dishes. It was never on any sides of cranky, nutty, crazy at all.

 

[Matt Man]

I am wondering if anyone has a nutty Pulchra, Acteon, etc.....Back in the day rosea were sold as a calm, great beginner T and then they found out about 10% were psycho, tossing threat posture, etc.... So I am wondering if there are outliers throughout the entire genus. My pulchripes is just about guaranteed to turn on the brush when you try to get her to move

 

[spideyspinneret78]

My G. pulchripes is still tiny, but he/ she is a sweet (although skittish) little spider. My AF G. porteri is usually sweet and relatively docile, but she's sometimes VERY food motivated. If there's motion in her enclosure she immediately thinks it's food and rushes towards it, trying to bite it. My fiance tolerates my tarantulas but they still make him a little uneasy sometimes. I was trying to include him in the hobby a little more, and let him drop a cricket into some of the more docile NW tarantula enclosures during feeding time. So he drops a cricket into the A. chalcodes and A. seemani enclosures, gaining a little confidence. But when he opens the lid to my G. porteri's enclsoure and starts to drop a cricket in, she gets very excited and lunges forward, looking for a cricket. Scared the crap out of him .

 

[l4nsky]

Pretty sure their are outliers among all tarantula species and animals in general. This comes down to individuality really. Temperament can be generalized, but it shouldn't be taken as holy writ. Robc had a particularly ornery C. versicolor, and there are members here who have temperamental H. chilensis and T. seladonia. On the flip side, there are people who have extremely laidback OW's as well. My big P. regalis girl is the calmest tarantula I own. She's never bolted, has never given me an undeserved threat pose, and only jump scared me once (she hadn't eaten for a month and I triggered her webbing when I was adding water to her substrate). If I ever inadvertently handle one of my tarantulas, I hope its her lol.

 

[spideyspinneret78]

Pretty sure their are outliers among all tarantula species and animals in general. This comes down to individuality really. Temperament can be generalized, but it shouldn't be taken as holy writ. Robc had a particularly ornery C. versicolor, and there are members here who have temperamental H. chilensis and T. seladonia. On the flip side, there are people who have extremely laidback OW's as well. My big P. regalis girl is the calmest tarantula I own. She's never bolted, has never given me an undeserved threat pose, and only jump scared me once (she hadn't eaten for a month and I triggered her webbing when I was adding water to her substrate). If I ever inadvertently handle one of my tarantulas, I hope its her lol.

I agree with this. There can be huge variation in temperament between individuals of the same species.

 

[mack1855]

. This comes down to individuality really

So....are you saying T,s are self aware?.To be an individual or different,you have to act and think different than the group as a whole?.
Please explain this thinking.Anybody?.

 

[spideyspinneret78]

So....are you saying T,s are self aware?.To be an individual or different,you have to act and think different than the group as a whole?.
Please explain this thinking.Anybody?.

I'm thinking that it may come down to simply being more reactive to certain stimuli, having the tendency to flee vs. fight, being food motivated, etc. These things can vary between specimens. I don't think it necessarily requires thinking, some of it could be due to genetics, for example.

 

[mack1855]

Fleeing vs fighting implies making a decision...hmmmmmm?.

 

[spideyspinneret78]

Fleeing vs fighting implies making a decision...hmmmmmm?.

Not necessarily. I think it may be how the animal's nervous system tends to react. I think that a lot of it is more automatic. When presented with a threat, some specimens may flee, but others are more likely to give a threat pose. I guess it's more like a certain response tends to be elicited in certain specimens. Doesn't necessarily require any thought or decision making.

 

[l4nsky]

So....are you saying T,s are self aware?.To be an individual or different,you have to act and think different than the group as a whole?.
Please explain this thinking.Anybody?.

I wouldn't go as far as saying their self aware, or could recognize themselves in a mirror, or anything along those lines. They're primarily instinctual animals that react to external stimuli. Those instincts can either be dialed up or dialed down, which people anthropomorphize as personality. We're specifically talking about temperament here, but let's consider other instinctual behavior like prey drive, burrow usage, response to perceived threats etc. When you keep multiples of the same species, you'll find that one is flightier than another, or one never uses its burrow, or one goes absolutely bonkers for red runners. This is what I mean when I say individuality, no two are the same in every facet of their behavior. They may be similar in one regard, but polar opposites in another.

 

[spideyspinneret78]

I wouldn't go as far as saying their self aware, or could recognize themselves in a mirror, or anything along those lines. They're primarily instinctual animals that react to external stimuli. Those instincts can either be dialed up or dialed down, which people anthropomorphize as personality. We're specifically talking about temperament here, but let's consider other instinctual behavior like prey drive, burrow usage, response to perceived threats etc. When you keep multiples of the same species, you'll find that one is flightier than another, or one never uses its burrow, or one goes absolutely bonkers for red runners. This is what I mean when I say individuality, no two are the same in every facet of their behavior. They may be similar in one regard, but polar opposites in another.

I think that's a great way of explaining it. Due to genetics or environmental factors, the degree to which a stimulus triggers a response, and the degree to which instincts are expressed can vary between individuals.

 

[mack1855]

But,instinctive animals acting as individuals are just being motivated differently to stimulus.
Got it ....acting like an individual,

 

[spideyspinneret78]

But,instinctive animals acting as individuals are just being motivated differently to stimulus.
Got it ....

Well they are individuals, their DNA is individual and the conditions that they endured during development, etc. are all slightly different for each spider. And these things can affect the way each animal responds to its environment.

 

[mack1855]

Well they are individuals, their DNA is individual and the conditions that they endured during development, etc. are all slightly different for each spider. And these things can affect the way each animal responds to its environment.

So,they learned differently from various stimulation?.Two indentical T,s, learned two separate lessons from the same stimulus?.
Like a dog being trained in different circumstances?.
And dogs can learn?.hmmmmmm.

 

[Sterls]

My Grammostola pulchra is incredibly skittish. The moment I touch the lid of it's shoebox it starts skittering all over the place. 3.5" or so juvenile.

 

[spideyspinneret78]

So,they learned differently from various stimulation?.Two indentical T,s, learned two separate lessons from the same stimulus?.
Like a dog being trained in different circumstances?.
And dogs can learn?.hmmmmmm.

No, I wouldn't necessarily call it learning. Environment can affect gene expression, and an animal's DNA may predispose them to react a certain way to different stimuli.

 

[LucN]

I've owned my G. porteri for almost 7 years and a half now. During the initial transfer to her cage, obviously, she was a bit skittish. I've yet to have a threat pose from her. She just thinks anything in her enclosure is food. She often attacks the water stream if she's nearby when I'm refilling her dish. During the last transfer, she was just stubborn, would take several proddings with the paintbrush before she walked into the catch cup. Never wheeled around to attack the brush, which surprises me. Who knows ? Her personality over her next molt may change.

 

[l4nsky]

But,instinctive animals acting as individuals are just being motivated differently to stimulus.
Got it ....acting like an individual,

I think the lense your viewing this through is a bit distorted and your anthromorphizing invertebrates by projecting human qualities on them. Individuality is defined as the quality or character of a particular person or thing that distinguishes them from others of the same kind, especially when strongly marked. That quality or character isn't inclusive to thoughts and actions. I have several individual (read different color varieties) pothos plants. By your logic, they must think and act differently to be considered individuals? How, they're plants? So they must be the same right? Yet if you place a yellow variegated pothos next to a silver queen pothos, you can clearly distinguish between the two, making them individuals. We can dive even deeper into this. The color these plants display boil down to their genetics, where one gene might be suppressed, one might be expressed, or one might be missing completely to produce the individual color. In the same way that genetics control the color of an organism, genetics also control the instincts of an organism. These genes that hardcode for instincts can be more or less pronounced in each different specimen of the same species in the same way as color. Since these aren't as readily or visually apparent as a sharp color contrast, people mistake this as signs of intelligence or thought processes when it couldn't be farther from the truth. Instincts, like fight or flight and prey drive are autonomous, no thought required.