Strange behavior

veronyka

Arachnoknight
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My b. smithi has made herself a little web, and now she's doing something I've never seen before.. she keeps turning in circles and hairing the web.. there are no crickets or anything in there with her, she's just kicking hairs off with her hind legs... I can't tell yet if she's gonna molt but it wouldn't be a big surprise, although she doesn't really have the bald spot yet.. she will soon if she keeps kicking hairs like that :confused:
 

Phillip

Arachnoprince
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sounds like a molt coming...

Blondis do that before a molt and several other do it as well. It wouldn't surprise me if your smithi was about to molt. I haven't caught mine doing it but then again I have a ton of spiders and don't always get to see everything that each one does. Most of the hair flickers do tend to lay down a mat and cover it in hair as a protection from predators.
Phil
 

MrT

Arachnoking
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That's good info. Phil..
Tarantulas are so amazing. Real wonders of nature.

E
 

veronyka

Arachnoknight
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Actually.. scratch my earlier question.. she just flipped over. time to molt :D
 

MrT

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So Phil is right on again.

You the man !!!

:D :D :D

Ern
 

JacenBeers

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In most of the literature I have read it discusses this behavior and my old B SMithi did it a lot. Before molts she would lay down a mat of hairs and webbing. Inthe wild this would protect them from predators. Clever. I know this has been said but I just wanted to say that yes I read that all over the place and i have seen it as well.
 

Al Muoio

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Hair dance

Hey thanks for that info. I will be watching for that hair dance for my B. smithi and B. emilia.
 

veronyka

Arachnoknight
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It was a pretty cool little dance she was doing.. I actually had a feeling she was going to molt, so I made sure to remove the cricket that was in there with her. She's still on her back right now, but I'm sure she won't have any trouble. It's so cool to be able to watch her this time, since the first time she molted back in May I had to be at work during the molt. :D Glad today is Sunday!
 

veronyka

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Dang I have a sneaky tarantula! She laid on her back for the better part of 7 hours yesterday. I waited and waited for her to start her molt so I could watch. Well...... I became occupied for about an hour or so, and the next thing I knew...she was out of the old skin! Velvet didn't wait for me! So I decided to watch her flip back over... well... my girl doesn't like an audience. I had turned away for about 5 minutes and she was back on her legs. Dang it.. missed it again :mad: Oh well:rolleyes: ...I am glad she's done with the molt and has her beautiful color back. She is gonna be bigger and more beautiful than ever! Right now, she is sprawled out, recovering from that molt.
 

conipto

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Originally posted by veronyka
My b. smithi has made herself a little web, and now she's doing something I've never seen before.. she keeps turning in circles and hairing the web.. there are no crickets or anything in there with her, she's just kicking hairs off with her hind legs... I can't tell yet if she's gonna molt but it wouldn't be a big surprise, although she doesn't really have the bald spot yet.. she will soon if she keeps kicking hairs like that :confused:
Hey, here's a question.. how much does she kick hair normally, like, in between molts? Could it be she hasn't kicked enough off to have a visible bald spot?

Bill
 

veronyka

Arachnoknight
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Well.. my question was answered later in the day. She doesn't usually hair unless I touch her with something, which I usually don't. She molted later that day, so that answered my question.
 
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