Tarantula Dandriff?

[Spiderguy777]

Purchased a beautiful adult female Rose Hair at a local pet store. For the price I couldn't refuse! She is beautiful, but has some dandriff. They are NOT lice or parasites, I have already inspected for that. What causes this and how can this be treated? Thanks Crossmoth777@aol.com Jay Timberlake

 

[Chris_Skeleton]

You are probably referring to loose urticating hairs. Pics?

 

[Spiderguy777]

Hi, I really wish I could add pictures, but our internet is not high speed and pictues take forever! All the hairs look great, it hasn't rubbed them off or anything, it looks like little flakes of dandriff on the critter. Of course I'm not an expert, so I do not know what urticating hairs are.

 

[Hobo]

I'm going to say that's probably urticating hairs too.

 

[Shimotsukin]

Do you mean dandruff? It's probably a mirror patch.

 

[Spiderguy777]

Dear Hobo,

Can you explain these hairs? What it looks like is human dandriff, only smaller, for the tarantula. Is it normal or a bad thing, I don't care the name, I just want to make sure my little gal is healthy. Thanks!

 

[Hobo]

The hairs on the abdomen can easily come off, and are actually part of a defense mechanism. They are microscopic, barbed bristles that cause irritation and the tarantula may kick these off if annoyed.

Sometimes they come off in chunks so that they look like "dandruff".

It could also be just dust, loose sub or other detritus. Tarantula don't have "skin" like us but an exoskeleton that is shed in one piece during molting. They don't get dandruff

 

[BenjaminBoa]

Just look up these hairs... or find out the way I did when I was 8 and just get a good sniff of them. They're basically like the hairs on a nettle plant or a thistle plant, they poke you, you itch, you go away. Some tarantulas with type I urcticating hairs can kick them, Rose hairs from my experience are pretty clumsy with them but Goliaths and Brachypelmas have better aim and much worse hairs from what I am told. Some T's have type II urcticating hairs, which are not launched but just detach, these are what a lot of plants have. If you piss of an Avic usually it will drop or rub hairs off onto you, the hairs are light weight though so they don't just fall they sort of make a cloud of itchy hairs around the Tarantula. Old World Tarantulas as a rule do not have these hairs, you'll almost never see a pokie or a haplopelma's velvety coat ruined by bald spots or "dandruff" patches, they do have a mean bite to make up for it though. If your girl is kicking them at you that means you pissed her off, if they're just there and shes not kicking them it is probably just stray hairs from when she was stressed at the shop, once she molts she'll have all new hair and none of it will be falling out till you piss her off again.