Pre-Molt Behavior?

[shannonrae79]

Hello everyone For the past three weeks, my (adult/female) Rose, Charlotte, has become quite restless. She's been wandering around in her terrarium more often and climbing the walls like crazy. She's all over the place!

She's eating normal (3 fat crickets about 9 days ago). She's been drinking out of her water bowl as much as usual. I'm still misting one side of her cage. Nothing about her environment has changed since I got her several months ago.

So, my question is... Is my girl about to molt? What's with this new behavior?


Any ideas?

Shannon

 

[nichjohnsson]

Maybe the temp. or the humidity!

 

[T-Harry]

No, getting agitated is quite the contrary to pre-molt behaviour. If she were in pre-molt she would show signs of lethargy and wouldn't eat.

You shouldn't mist the cage, G. rosea doesn't like high humidity. This isn't necesserily the reason for her change in behaviour, but moist substrate could be a reason for her to climb the walls.

 

[gvfarns]

Basically, what T-Harry said.

I would add to that a couple of other thoughts. It may be completely random that she's walking around and climbing more these days. Sometimes we see a pattern in what is actually just random behavior. She just felt like walking around.

The wet substrate is definitely one reason she would climb walls, if the substrate is wet. Another reason I see T's get on the walls is to attempt to get warm in the morning. That is, as the heaters turn on in my house the walls of their enclosures warm up before the interior surfaces. So my T's are often on the walls shortly after the heater (stupid steam heat radiators) comes on.

Another thought: how long have you had her. If only a few weeks or something, perhaps she's just scoping out her environment or looking for a better place to hang. If you have had her a while and this is just now starting, perhaps it's something different, if it's anything at all.

 

[Mushroom Spore]

I'm still misting one side of her cage.

Yeah, don't do this.

You didn't say how large your T is, but a G. rosea of any real size is 99.999% of the time going to be in premolt for a long, long time. We're talking many months. So unless you have a spiderling I'd say she is almost definitely not "about" to molt.

Can you describe the terrarium further? Odds are either something is wrong with your enclosure or you have a sexually mature male.

 

[redsaw]

Hello everyone For the past three weeks, my (adult/female) Rose, Charlotte, has become quite restless. She's been wandering around in her terrarium more often and climbing the walls like crazy. She's all over the place!

She's eating normal (3 fat crickets about 9 days ago). She's been drinking out of her water bowl as much as usual. I'm still misting one side of her cage. Nothing about her environment has changed since I got her several months ago.

So, my question is... Is my girl about to molt? What's with this new behavior?


Any ideas?

Shannon

Try feeding it more food. It may still be hungery. I noticed that if mine is still hungery/wants more crickets it will be all over the enclosure until I throw a few more crickets in.

 

[G. pulchra]

Are you sure it's a female?

 

[shannonrae79]

Hey there Thank you for your help. I truly appreciate you guys. I love my T's and want to learn how to best care for them. I am officially going to trust you guys with my T-care questions.

Okay, to try and answer everyone's questions at once...

My G. rosea (I've been told) is about 2 1/2 years old.

I've had her since October of 2008.

I have a heating pad on the left side of her 10-gallon terrarium which she seems to love. She's always got a couple legs hiked up on it in the mornings (Ha Ha) and then moves to the top of her log around 9:00am (I'm not kidding, this is her routine). Her home consistently stays around 70-75 during the day and dips down to approx. 60-64 at night (we're having a colder winter than usual, here in Tennessee).

Someone suggested that I mist one side of her habitat (as well as my tiny G. rosea spiderling) in case she were in the beginning stages of molting. I haven't noticed her substrate becoming wet/saturated, but you could have a very good point (for both of my spiders).

Charlotte stays in my classroom (I'm a biology teacher, but this is my first pet T) during the week. I tend to keep a towel over one end of the cage so she can at least have one dark/dim hide-out corner, even though she seems to like her log just fine. Maybe that's keeping things too warm?

Umm, what else... She could be hungry, yes. I'll feed her on Friday.

I've seen her drinking her water as often as usual.

She was a little more jumpy than usual a couple weeks ago. She pounced my hand at one point... Not like her at all.

I was told she was a female. How can I tell?

She only seems to begin this behavior between 12:00 and 2:00 in the afternoon and then she's calm. I know. Weird. She's not crazy all the time. But her craziness IS consistent.

Does this help? Any other thoughts?


Shannon

 

[Mushroom Spore]

My G. rosea (I've been told) is about 2 1/2 years old.

How big is your spider? A 2.5 year old rosea is still going to be on the small side. There is a really frustrating tendency for pet stores and dealers to give new owners a rough estimate of the age of the Ts they sell...even if the animal is wild-caught...and the truth is there is absolutely no way on the good lord's green earth to tell a tarantula's age unless someone was there when it was born and tells you. So if that's the situation regarding your spider's age, your spider could be two or five or fifteen for all anyone will ever know.

10-gallon terrarium

How much distance is there from dirt to ceiling? G. rosea don't need a lot of space, but the important part is that there shouldn't be more than about 1.5x the legspan of the animal in height. This goes double if you already have a T that's climbing too much - terrestrials do not climb well and can be seriously hurt or killed if they fall.

Someone suggested that I mist one side of her habitat (as well as my tiny G. rosea spiderling) in case she were in the beginning stages of molting. I haven't noticed her substrate becoming wet/saturated

That is a myth, being misted WILL NOT help a tarantula molt. Especially this species, they come from the driest desert on the planet and do just fine. Reptiles shedding a thin layer of skin are helped by misting...tarantulas are performing a complex internal process that's mostly affected by being properly hydrated on the *inside* (ie lots of drinking water).

Also the usual G. rosea hatred of damp substrate is pretty strong. You may not think the sub is too wet, but I guarantee you the spider probably does.

 

[shannonrae79]

RE: Pre-Molt Behavior? (Photo Help)

How do I add photos to my post? I want to show Charlotte to you guys so you can see exactly how big she is...

Shannon

 

[jallen]

How do I add photos to my post? I want to show Charlotte to you guys so you can see exactly how big she is...

Shannon

At the top of the page where it says arachnogallery click on that then submit image

 

[CWall2001]

+1 on "are you sure it's a female"

That was my first thought. Could be a male "wandering".

 

[shannonrae79]

Good morning... Well, as far as the sex of my Tarantula, Charlotte came from Carolina Biological which is where I get all of my classroom supplies, chemicals, glassware, etc. Only NOW do I have a local breeder of whom I can get future tarantulas.

When I asked one of the on-staff zoologists, he said that that they only ship females because they are more docile? I don't know... Just going by what he said. He could certainly be wrong though. I mean, after all, the first G. rosea they shipped was packaged in an air-tight box with no holes and no indication of it containing a "LIVE ANIMAL". (Idiots)

Could certainly be a male. So, what would him/her name be then? Charlose?


Man, I love being a female who owns tarantulas. I swear almost every single teacher/staff-member and parent at my school thinks I am "gross" (Ha Ha). Half of them won't even come near my desk anymore, especially on the rare occasions that I've handled her.

 

[jr47]

I have had a G. rosea female for years and the first thing is dont mist. Mine hates it. Keep a water dish and feed her, She will do fine without the misting.
Secondly, mine takes spells where she will wonder around. Hang upside down from the lid for days. She will stay in her burrow for days and then set in the middle of her cage for a week. I really dont think Rosea's follow a set pattern like most spiders. I htink sometimes maybe they are a bit confused.

 

[Mushroom Spore]

When I asked one of the on-staff zoologists, he said that that they only ship females because they are more docile?

Ahaha yeah he has no idea what he's talking about. See if you can get a picture of your pet's underside...and it's got to be a clear picture in good lighting. Then someone here should be able to figure out what you've got.

 

[Neophyte]

I could be wrong, but the random behavior points out to your T being a MM if it's kept in proper conditions.

There are a few things you can do to find out if this is the case. Start by taking a good look at the pedipalps and see if they look any different.

Orrrr you can get a pic up of the enclosure and a good pic of your little one up on here :razz: