Pelinobius muticus behavior

[A guy]

So I posted this before under a different thread but I decided to make it a thread of its own and give a little bit more detail.

My P. muticus females used to have really deep burrows with blocked entrances. I would have to dig the blocked entrances in order to drop prey and feed them, if I didn't do that they would literally never surface and would have starved themselves to death. That routine dragged on for about 2 years or so.

Until I spoke to Andrew Smith, he told me that in the wild; heavy rains and a drop in temperature is their trigger to surface and feed. So last year, I tried to mimic that in their enclosures. In our house I keep all my tarantulas in the living room, I keep them cooler(68-73°F) during summer time since this is when the AC gets turned on, while in winter is when I keep them in warmer temperatures(76-82°F) because that's when all the heaters are on. During their cool period, I would pour water in their enclosures to give the substrate a good soak, lo and behold both of the females started opening their burrows' entrances and started to actively wait for prey; sometimes I even catch them going out fully to wander around. I would feed them regularly during these cold months and when the temperatures start to get warmer I would stop keeping their substrate moist and would let it get bone dry. This would then trigger them to once again block their burrows and during this period some of them will even molt. I will refrain from feeding them until the temperatures get drop again and I will repeat the process

Photos of their enclosures during cool periods. As you'll see no sign of a burrow or a tarantula since like I've mentioned before at this period, the entrances to their burrows are blocked and they are fully underground.



Next set of photos have been taken just tonight. We have started turning on the ACs in our house for about 5 days now and with that, I started adding moisture to their enclosures. You'll see in the photos that both females(1&2) are out and their burrows are wide open. One of the females is even taking a stroll fully out of its burrow.

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

This behavior isn't unique to P. muticus but occurs in most, if not all, tarantulas that burrow or utilize some kind of hide whether the species is arboreal or terrestrial. Most tarantula keepers usually keep the soil of species coming from regions with dry seasons perpetually dry and when they close up shop, think they are preparing to molt. Sometimes that is the case, but if a tarantula is in "premolt" (whatever that means) for a long time, it could mean they need water.

Tarantulas all over the world regardless of species deal with drought conditions by sealing themselves up in a hide or burrow and wait it out. They also do it in flood conditions as well. It works well in the wild since the humidity in a burrow in the ground, under a rock, or in a hole in a tree is higher than on the outside and slows down dehydration. In captivity it is a death sentence if the keeper thinks the tarantula won't appreciate a good soil soaking and thinks it will unearth itself to drink from a water dish. Given my experience with this type of behavior, I would think it is the water that caused this P. muticus to unearth itself and not so much the temperature change. Besides, soaking the soil with water will lower the temperature in the enclosure anyway.

 

[A guy]

This behavior isn't unique to P. muticus but occurs in most, if not all, tarantulas that burrow or utilize some kind of hide whether the species is arboreal or terrestrial. Most tarantula keepers usually keep the soil of species coming from regions with dry seasons perpetually dry and when they close up shop, think they are preparing to molt. Sometimes that is the case, but if a tarantula is in "premolt" (whatever that means) for a long time, it could mean they need water.

Tarantulas all over the world regardless of species deal with drought conditions by sealing themselves up in a hide or burrow and wait it out. They also do it in flood conditions as well. It works well in the wild since the humidity in a burrow in the ground, under a rock, or in a hole in a tree is higher than on the outside and slows down dehydration. In captivity it is a death sentence if the keeper thinks the tarantula won't appreciate a good soil soaking and thinks it will unearth itself to drink from a water dish. Given my experience with this type of behavior, I would think it is the water that caused this P. muticus to unearth itself and not so much the temperature change. Besides, soaking the soil with water will lower the temperature in the enclosure anyway.

At first, I would also think that it's actually the water that makes them surface but like I've said; the routine of digging up just to drop prey continued for years. Even then, I would give the substrate a good soak but it never resulted to them surfacing on their own. The only time I would see them back then is during rehousings.

 

[kingshockey]

my half grown (maybe) muticus likes the sub to be damp and will constantly wick/spill its water dish for days on end until the sub is how it likes then it will stop and leave its water dsh alone until things get to dry for its liking easier for me to just flood its water dish over to keep things dsmp for it

 

[Frogdaddy]

I love reading stuff like this. Too often we fail to provide the proper environmental cues for our charges. We humans are more.comfortable when the temps/humidity are stable and constant year round. However it may not be the best for our spiders.

Generally most places our Tarantulas live have two distinct seasons. A warmer/wetter season and a cooler/drier season. It's very interesting that your P. muticus respond to a cooler/wetter season.

 

[A guy]

I love reading stuff like this. Too often we fail to provide the proper environmental cues for our charges. We humans are more.comfortable when the temps/humidity are stable and constant year round. However it may not be the best for our spiders.

Generally most places our Tarantulas live have two distinct seasons. A warmer/wetter season and a cooler/drier season. It's very interesting that your P. muticus respond to a cooler/wetter season.

Andrew Smith actually mentions this in his Pelinobius documentary aswell. In the documentary he says that the parts in Africa where P. muticus is from generally has cooler temperatures during its rainy season.