King Baboon Habits

cweg

Arachnopeon
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Nov 5, 2002
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I have a KB thats five years old and about 5 in legspan. Does any one have a KB? I would like to hear about their behavior. Does anyone know if the male has the large rear legs like the female?
I,m new here. Great forum!
 

Wade

Arachnoking
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Aug 16, 2002
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I have a king baboon, and I rarely see it. They are serious burrowers! Their stridulation sounds like amplified rice crispies, which is kind of cool, if you like provoking large spiders to hear it. Assuming it was out of the burrow, which it never is.

Despite almost never seeing it, I still like the thing for some reason.

Wade
 

cweg

Arachnopeon
Joined
Nov 5, 2002
Messages
44
How old is your KB

Do you know if its a male or female? I really like this spider and am hoping mine is a female. I've had he/she for 5 years. Only in the last year has it really developed an appetite. Mine is very calm unless disturbed. Then look out!
 

chaset

Arachnosquire
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Sep 9, 2002
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Im not sure about king baboon life spans but i doubt males will live for 5 years
 

Ultimate Instar

Arachnobaron
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As I recall from a previous thread, the males look a lot different from the females. Also, there are very few males in captivity since the wild caught imports are almost all female. The only available males are captive-raised from eggsacs from gravid, wild-caught females. As far as behavior goes, I think there may be quite a lot of variation. I have a long-term captive female, 7", that stays in her burrow. However, she dug all the way to the glass wall of her aquarium. She likes to stay there even during daylight so I get to see her all the time. I think that wild animals may become accustomed to an easy life in captivity and tend to lose some of their aggressive tendencies. Of course, we've all read about psycho H. lividums that NEVER calm down but, hey, that's part of their charm :).

Karen N.
 

Immortal_sin

Arachnotemptress
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I have one (at least, I *think* I still do!). she never comes out of her burrow, that I can see, and I've had her since June.
She is probably close to 6" or so. Wish I could tell you more, but that is about it.
I am thinking of changing her to a container along the lines of what I put my H lividum in. I can now see them when they burrow, and I feel better knowing I can check on them anytime
 

Lasiodora

Arachnoangel
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Oct 11, 2002
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You could try sexing its molt. That would be one of the easier ways to do it. If you ever get one anytime soon, since they are such slow growers.
BTW welcome to the forum.
Mike
_______________________
"QUESTION:
WHEN WILL THERE BE PEACE ON EARTH?
ANSWER: WHEN THE EARTH FALLS TO PIECES!!"
Tupac Shakur
 

Alonso99

Arachnobaron
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Sep 18, 2002
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I have one and shes really mean, she stays in her burrow but usually comes out once a week or so, I caught her drinking last night.
 

Joy

Priestess of Pulchra-tude
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Oct 12, 2002
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Originally posted by cweg
I have a KB thats five years old and about 5 in legspan. Does any one have a KB? I would like to hear about their behavior. Does anyone know if the male has the large rear legs like the female?
I,m new here. Great forum!
No, the males have enlarged legs as immatures, but lose them upon maturing. It's presumed that this is because the legs are used to assist in digging, and a mature male has no need to dig.

This is also one of the species where mature males lack tibial apophyses (spurs), making it a little tougher to sex them. I've attached a picture of one of my mature males below.

It's possible that a 5 year old tarantula could still be a male, especially if it was purchased as an immature, since this is one of the slowest growing species there is. Most of the mature specimens on the market are WC females, however.

C. crawshayi is an obligate burrower, and is reputed to make some of the most extensive burrows of any tarantula species in the wild--up to 5' in depth. Ideally they should be given a vivarium with deep substrate that allows burrowing. They don't need extremely moist substrate--in fact this is thought to be harmful to them, causing them to lose legs. I usually keep mine so some moisture shows in the bottom soil layers, plus provide a large water dish.

They tend to prefer vertebrate prey IME. My own practice is to give them nothing else once they get some size on them, as fishing crickets out of a burrow is a tremendous pain.

Good luck with your crawshayi!

Joy
 
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Immortal_sin

Arachnotemptress
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Jul 17, 2002
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digging up Zindzhi

well, all of this talk gave me the incentive to dig my poor KB up....
she was not at all happy, as you can imagine, but as she has not eaten in 4 months, and I haven't seen her in 6, I was getting worried.
Here she is, in all of her stridulating glory.
Also, she is MUCH SMALLER than I remember her being....my memory doesn't even go back 6 months LOL
She's looking good though, so I assume she knows what the heck she's doing
 
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Wade

Arachnoking
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Cweg-

I am resonably sure mine is a female. I have had her for about the same amount of time as you've had yours, but it was about 3" in legspan at that time. Now, I'd say she's mabe 5"-6", slow growing indeed! Hard to say for sure, it's been a long time since I've seen her!

On the humidity issue, I've heard many widly variable accounts, from swamp wet to bone dry! However, I've found Joy's description to be about right...moist enough that there's visible moisture in the lower part of the substrate, while staying fairly dry up top. I keep mine in a container with a fully ventilated top. I've noticed if I let it get too dry in there, she'll seal up the burrow (she also does that when molting).

Wade
 
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