Rosea Having a good Soak?

[rd_07]

most of my T's does that when thirsty or on premolt
even some of my pokies

like this one girl
she seeped the small cup
now she still drinks to the bigger one
anyways thats because she is premolt

 

[Bird Man]

but to the op id say she is probly dehydrated and needed to drink and bath. mine does it from time to time but not often. i have seen her dippingher toes in he water and cleaning her mouth and will occasionally get wet...remember Ts are very clean and it should be a shocker if they bathe too...

Would she be dehydrated even though she had a water dish with water in it, I haven't seen her near the water since, now that I have her next to my MM they tend to stay on the same end of the cage, but no drumming or sperm web.

 

[arachyd]

I thought you said you had just gotten her. She may not have had access to a water dish before you got her.

 

[Bird Man]

I thought you said you had just gotten her. She may not have had access to a water dish before you got her.

That's what I meant, when I got her at petco she did have a water dish with water in it, it was shallow, but wider and longer then the kidney shaped dish she has now.

 

[c'est ma]

Well, this might be farfetched, but maybe she didn't "like" the water at the petshop--too much chlorine or something? Or not fresh enough? I haven't noticed T's being particularly picky about the kind of water they'll ingest, but plenty of other pets are known to shun some "types" of water.

Also, perhaps for some reason she was too stressed at the pet shop to feel comfortable enough to take a long drink.

Just throwing out hypotheses here!

At any rate, all's well that ends well, eh? Good luck with the potential breeding!

 

[Stan Schultz]

... 4.5 hours later I get back from work and she is laying in her water dish like she is having a soak and has been in there now for almost an hour...

While we propound keeping tarantulas in dry cages (because of vermin and infection control) we also do not hesitate to point out that if a tarantula ever spends an inordinate amount of time near the water dish, on top of the water dish or even soaking in the water, we have exceeded the ordinary limits of their ability to withstand aridity. Then it's time to do something about raising the humidity in the cage.

The first step should be to cover the open part of the cage with plastic food wrap to cut off all or nearly all ventilation*. The water in the water dish will evaporate and within an hour or so the humidity in the cage will jump to a far more reasonable level.

If the tarantula still continues to husband the water dish, put in a wider dish or a second dish. This will serve to bump up the humidity one or two more notches.

If that still isn't good enough (highly unlikely) there's something else wrong. My next action would be to clean the cage, use new substrate, move the cage to a cooler or warmer part of your home, or start fiddling with the other parameters we control in our caging regimens.

* We generally need not worry that the tarantula will suffocate. They have such low metabolic rates and their oxygen demands are so low that this is almost impossible unless you hermetically seal them in a glass or metal vessel.

"Splish Splash, I was takin' a bath
Long about a Saturday night...:

(With apologies to Conway Twitty)