need some help with juggernaut, my t. blondi

[ozzytoys]

hello all, i have a few questions regarding the sudden change in behavior i have noticed with my big guy over the last 2 weeks.

i will start by saying when i picked him up (march 13, 2012), he was near 4" and dingy brown (like an old wallet). i loved the color, and it fit his/her name. well, since i got him juggs has lived in the same habitat, with a cave for hiding. i have always fed him roaches, one a week. juggs would ALWAYS be in his cave, so i had to tweak the placement oh the cave to drop roaches into it alongside the glass.

well, i was able to see the only molt juggs has had since last march, which gave him the beautiful black/grey with red hair colors. WIN! i waited till it was safe to feed again, and we ere back to our hiding and once a week routine.

now, as of mid december, i had to find a new source of roaches. it was truly ridiculous to find them in a store in my area (50+ miles even), so i built my own colony. the exact same time i got these roaches, juggernaut left his cave. he spends all his time out and about, resting on the x-men action figures i have buried in the substrate.

to this day, i have not seen juggernaut in his cave for longer than 10 minutes. i figured he was hungry, and i fed him outside. then he ate again the next day. and the next day. juggs has eaten 3 of the new roaches in 3 days, and i didn't feed him yesterday. his abdomen is nice and plump, and he isn't slow at all. still very fast and active, attacking water and eating anything that goes inside.

so, can i overfeed my juggernaut? is it possible that juggs could be ready to molt? should i feed him if i know hell eat it, even 5 days in a row? i know there isn't "the tarantula whisperer", but this complete change in behavior has me curious. (i know juggs is fine, it's not going to die).

i would appreciate any replies, as this is by far the youngest T i've kept and i'm not sure what to look for. (this pic was taken yesterday)


254 by ozzytoys, on Flickr

 

[Solucki]

I'm no expert and probably wrong as I've never owned a blondi but could be a mature male? Or penultimate? Or something about his environment is bugging him. Humidity? Temp?
Is he spending a lot of time trying to climb glass?

In second thought, probably too small to be mature, you said 4"

 

[ozzytoys]

actually no, he's never displayed signs of stress (now rocky, my WC utah T, he is healthy but HATES his lack of freedom). you pose a great question for me though, at what stage would i be able to tell the gender? rocky is a boy, with the little leg things clearly visible. chewie, my rosie, is a girl, and is lacking those leg things. in all honesty i would love juggernaut to be a girl, but i'm happy just having juggernaut. when i picked up juggs from the store that ordered him for me, i was told that it was the smallest of the type the shopkeep had ever seen (i trust them completely, a massively impressive amount of love and care go into their critters, THE LIVING SAFARI, SLC, UT)

 

[Solucki]

Well, the leg things or tibial spurs indicate a mature male which they use to grapple with the female during mating Not all species have these, however, a mature male sole purpose in life becomes to mate which means restlessness and constant wandering as he will soon die in a few months. Sadly, his life is coming to an end. He will lose interest in eating. If you want him to live on through his children, I'd recommend posting him in inversationals to send him off for breeding.
To determine gender of a subadult. Best way is to examine a molt for presence or absence of spermathacae.

 

[ozzytoys]

wow, thanks Solucki, that's great info. the reason i have rocky is he was on his "walk about" and wandered into a family that would have smashed him. my boss at the time, their neighbor, stopped them and she caught him and brought him to me. he was about dead, and i have gotten him back to health. i know what is ahead of us, i just want him to be safe and fed till the time comes (which, honestly, has been a surprising 12-13 weeks, with no signs to warn me of it coming soon). thanks again, and i'll continue to watch juggernaut for anything out of the NEW ordinary.

 

[spiderengineer]

theraphosa genus do not have the tibal hook also I think that is a T. stirmi and not a T blondi. T. blondi leg hair would go farther up. yes its possible to overfeed a Theraphosa so he could be in pre-molt. they can be power fed just like any T.

 

[freedumbdclxvi]

theraphosa genus do not have the tibal hook also I think that is a T. stirmi and not a T blondi. T. blondi leg hair would go farther up. yes its possible to overfeed a Theraphosa so he could be in pre-molt. they can be power fed just like any T.

if I recall correctly, T apophysis do have the tibial spurs - blondi and stirmi do not.

 

[catfishrod69]

You should feed him once a week, keep an eye on his abdomen. If its too large, dont feed that week. If its getting small, feed a couple times that week, or a larger roach. I just fed my female L. parahybana 8", last night for the first time in around 3 months. She is always so huge that i dont want to risk bursting her abdomen.

Your mature male you were given. You have two options, either let him go (somewhere out in the wilderness) so he can possibly find a female. Be sure its not like 20 degrees out though. Or you can keep him and let him pass of old age. Being that he is wc, and there are alot of different Aphonopelma species outwest. Some of them overlap territory. So you cant be certain what species you have, so best not to mate him with any females at all.

 

[spiderengineer]

if I recall correctly, T apophysis do have the tibial spurs - blondi and stirmi do not.

yeah I think you are right about the T apophysis. also I don't think its a Mature male looking at you other photos on flickr you have of it. I mean he could be a male, but if he is I don't think he has mature then.

 

[ozzytoys]

is it true that a t. Stirmi does not have the pink lines on the knees? just read that somewhere else on the 'net. also, i will be quite upset if this does indeed turn out to be something i didn't pay for. now, does the t. stirmi grow as large as a t. blondi?

ps, the mature male we are all referring too is not juggy pictured above, but this guy, ROCKY (for he "went the distance" to find me):


IMG_0543 by ozzytoys, on Flickr

 

[spiderengineer]

my stirmi has the pink lines you are referring to the only real way to tell the difference is how high up the hairs on the legs go. T blondi go up higher than what juggernauts hairs stop at. T. stirmi can reach around maximum T blondie size but on average T blondies usually can get up to 12 inches while T stirmi around 11.5. As far as buying a T stirmi thinking its a T blondi is a common thing. I bought my T stirmi at a pet shop under the assumption it was a T blondi but it turns out it was a T stirmi, its just that the two are so similar that you need to know what you are looking for. I will admit I'm not an expert so I could be wrong but I am 95 percent sure its a T stirmi

 

[freedumbdclxvi]

Stirmis do grow as large as blondis.

 

[spiderengineer]

bye the way love the name you chose

 

[catfishrod69]

As far as the stirmi/blondi thing, i cant help you there. I hate Theraphosa.

Now your mature male, Rocky, he is for sure a Aphonopelma. But its impossible to ID him, so best not to attempt breeding, as he will more than likely end up making hybrid babies. Hope he lives a while for you.

 

[sugarsandz]

One of my tarantulas came from Living Safari as well. They are always really nice and seem to take great care of their animals. I go to both locations and have never had any problems. There is another really cool store in SLC that usually has between 20 - 100 tarantulas and the like.

 

[Tarac]

I would like to add, please don't release Rocky either- never a good idea to release any animal you have kept in captivity back into the wild for a whole host of reasons.

I don't see anything wrong with your T. stirmi being out and about. Mine goes through phases too. He/she is obviously eating and such so I wouldn't worry.

Just to clarify because it sounded a little unclear in your post- most of a male tarantula's life they do not have the palpal bulbs. Those show up when the go through their "ultimate" molt. Only way to know for sure, assuming your T doesn't have the bulbs yet, is to examine an exuviae as mentioned. At that size your T should be very easy to sex with the naked eye.

 

[Chris_Skeleton]

That is T. stirmi. T. blondi will have setae on the patella (knee); yours does not.