Substrate in water dish?

[Teal]

My P. lugardi fills in her water dish..
My P. chordatus webs hers up..
My Theraphosa sp. "Burgundy" carries his around..

I haven't got a single clue why though LOL

 

[Bill S]

has anyone noticed this as well?

in some of my enclosures,ESPECIALLY the dry loving ones,the water would disappear out of the water dish and next to it would be really moist substrate.
this happens just hours after i fill the dish.
and no,there was no way of it spilling out.
how do Ts move that water out of the dish? :?

If they web over the dish, the webbing draws water out through capillary action and effectively siphons it into the substrate. You can do the same with a strip of kleenex draped from the substrate into the water dish.

Of the theories suggested above in regards to why tarantulas fill their water dishes - the thought that they are disposing of waste into scent-masking water seems the best. Some burrowing species (trapdoors, for example) eject their waste as far from the burrow as they can shoot it. In true spiders, web weavers will eject waste from the webs. The "fresh water toilet" idea seems to be just another variant of this.

 

[flamesbane]

The problem I see with the "masking the scent" theory is that some of the species discussed live in dry climates, and would not be likely to have their burrow near a permanent source of water as this would invite flooding. I also don't think a T that lived in a more humid environment would waste the energy required to carry dirt/boluses over long distances to water. Arboreal T's would have no need to do this as they live far above the ground, but I see some people are reporting similar behavior for them as well.

Is it not possible that the T's are simply placing dirt/food boluses out of their way, and that the water dish just gets lucky? I've read reports of T's piling boluses in a corner, could this not be a similar behavior? I think that assuming the T is putting things in the water dish because there is water in it is a bit over reaching...

 

[micheldied]

The problem I see with the "masking the scent" theory is that some of the species discussed live in dry climates, and would not be likely to have their burrow near a permanent source of water as this would invite flooding. I also don't think a T that lived in a more humid environment would waste the energy required to carry dirt/boluses over long distances to water. Arboreal T's would have no need to do this as they live far above the ground, but I see some people are reporting similar behavior for them as well.

Is it not possible that the T's are simply placing dirt/food boluses out of their way, and that the water dish just gets lucky? I've read reports of T's piling boluses in a corner, could this not be a similar behavior? I think that assuming the T is putting things in the water dish because there is water in it is a bit over reaching...

i know about that,since ive seen it happens with my OBT cause she webs everything up.
but my rosea does not web.

 

[Mina]

The only other reason I've ever heard for them putting substrate in their water was to wick the moisture out of the dish into the substrate.
My GBBs always web over their water dishes and in that case it almost seems that they do it to keep the substrate dry since the water has a hard time getting through the web, they they can puncture the web when they want to drink, and reseal it.

 

[micheldied]

The only other reason I've ever heard for them putting substrate in their water was to wick the moisture out of the dish into the substrate.
My GBBs always web over their water dishes and in that case it almost seems that they do it to keep the substrate dry since the water has a hard time getting through the web, they they can puncture the web when they want to drink, and reseal it.

really?
my OBT webs up the water dish and all the water is wicked out by it.

 

[tarantulagooroo]

hmmmm for flavor hahha lol probably just gets in there from being kicked in or something

 

[Shell]

The only Ts we have that do this are dry loving species, so here is my are my thoughts/ observations.

We used to try and clean out the water dish as soon as we saw dirt in it, but once we did, they would fill it right back up again. i used to get worried about our B. smithi that would do this and would drive myself nuts being on water dish checking/ duty and finally after 2 weeks of cleaning it every day, we sat back and thought about it and decided it was her way of trying to tell us something. So, we stopped cleaning it out immediately, left it for a week or so and then cleaned it out and usually it will stay clean for awhile.

The water dish will make it more humid in the enclosure and i 'think' that they do this when it is feeling too humid for them. Once that humidity has had a chance to clear out, they are fine with the water dish being full and clean again. However, once they start feeling too humid, *POOF* dirt in the dish.

As long as it is not a teeny tiny sling, that water dish being empty of clean water for a week, should have no adverse effects and we have never seen any. Our P. murinus would bury its water dish completely, but then periodically dig it out so it was above ground again. That is when we refilled its water dish and it could be weeks in between. It seems to be fine with the moisture it gets from its food alone and when it doesn't feel it is, it tells us.(in its own way)

Very interesting theory My G.pulchripes is always filling her water dish, whereas my A.avic doesnt bother. I can definately see how this makes sense!

 

[Shell]

My P. lugardi fills in her water dish..
My P. chordatus webs hers up..
My Theraphosa sp. "Burgundy" carries his around..

I haven't got a single clue why though LOL

My G.pulcrhipes fills hers up with substrate, then empties it and carries it around lol I find it highy entertaining to watch even though I have no clue why she does it!

 

[-Sarah-]

The only Ts we have that do this are dry loving species, so here is my are my thoughts/ observations.

We used to try and clean out the water dish as soon as we saw dirt in it, but once we did, they would fill it right back up again. i used to get worried about our B. smithi that would do this and would drive myself nuts being on water dish checking/ duty and finally after 2 weeks of cleaning it every day, we sat back and thought about it and decided it was her way of trying to tell us something. So, we stopped cleaning it out immediately, left it for a week or so and then cleaned it out and usually it will stay clean for awhile.

Haha.. Sarah, our girlie smithi doesn't mind if the dish is full and soil moist! She's weird like that she might be gravid, though, so... hormonal??

 

[C-Rock]

Great thread btw!

My T's do the water dish dance too.
IMHO, much of the water dish trashings/wickings/mounds, etc, resulted from wild nocturnal behaviors.
Seems at night, a couple of my T's become very active, sometimes falling off the top from their upsidedown positions, crashing to the floor (thank the stars there have been Zero injuries over the years!) and then digging around, trashing the water dish.
Wickings also often occur in my collection.
Even my arboreal sometimes trashes the dish.
From my experiences with exotics (reptiles and amphibians), many species will sometimes use the waterdish as a toilet.
Always cleaning but not too much cleaning....mostly removals of exuvia, discarded food waste, cricket legs that fell off, hardened liquid waste clumps.
I just get used to being their mommy ..heh heh.

haven't posted in a while, gotta get my posts up

 

[curiousme]

Haha.. curiousme, our girlie smithi doesn't mind if the dish is full and soil moist! She's weird like that she might be gravid, though, so... hormonal??

Ours doesn't for long periods of time either. In fact it hasn't had dirt in it for over a month, but we turned on the central heat.......It was just a stab at a reason, that seemed to make sense from what we've experienced.

Don't gravid females enjoy more humidity?

 

[Man1968]

I think one of the many interesting rewards of having tarantulas is their remarkable individuality (you can hadly say that any species always does such and such, because they simply don't), and their behaviour with their water dishes is one of of the most fascinating. I have a B. vagans that always drags her water dishes into her cave, always, but other vagans I have never do that. An A. seemanni that frequently empties her water overnight, I do not know how, so that the next morning there is a big wet spot, and sometimes the T. is inside the empty dish with her legs spread out, seemingly very content. And most of my tarantulas, as has been said in this thread, put stuff in their water. A biologist I know, specialized in tarantulas has hypothesized that sometimes they do it in order to lie on top of it for a sort of thermal or humidity control. This would match the behaviour of my seemanni, but, as has also been said many times in the thread, in the end, who knows?