Tarantula secreting liquid from the mouth

toast4nat

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Mar 20, 2011
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Hello all. This morning I noticed my B. emilia sling was secreting a clear liquid from its mouth against the side of the KK. I vaguely remember reading something about this occurring and it not being anything to worry about, but I cannot seem to find any information on it via the search. Could someone explain this to me?

Also, is it water, venom? A google search suggested it could be either. What do you guys think it is and why does it occur?

Here's a pic, it's not very good but you can see the shiny droplet against the tank. The other white stuff you can see there is the remnants of where a price sticker once was, so ignore that.

Edit: I found the answer. It's just cleaning its fangs. :D

drop.jpg
 
Last edited:

Tonys spiders

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Sep 23, 2011
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This is your Ts way of drinking from its own little cup. They gather moisture into a droplet and will drink from it and you will notice if your T is startled it will just drop it. In your pic she has a pretty large droplet of water; she must have been thirsty ;)
 

toast4nat

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Well if she'd just get out of her dang hole she'd find a plethora of water in her dish XD
But anyway, interesting, I've never heard this theory before. I would guess she'd gathered the water from the meal she had the previous day? Otherwise, I don't know where she'd have gotten it from, seeing as she stays in her hole 24/7.
 

grayzone

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maybe from condensation with the substrate? its DEFINITELY drinking
 

jbm150

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I've seen drops of liquid in my enclosures, often near the Ts, even when I haven't added water or misted. I've always attributed it to a grooming session and it's left over drool.
 

Kungfujoe

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this is pretty interesting.. i learn something new everyday here..
 

High_Rolling_T

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This is your Ts way of drinking from its own little cup. They gather moisture into a droplet and will drink from it and you will notice if your T is startled it will just drop it. In your pic she has a pretty large droplet of water; she must have been thirsty ;)
I have never heard this... where did you get this info from?(Curious, not talking down to you!)

As far as it being water, I've had a Grammostola rosea do this in an entirely bare enclosure(was in a Kritter Keeper while I cleaned out her enclosure), so I don't know how it could have gotten a water droplet from thin air.
 

toast4nat

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My theory is that it is regurgitating liquid from its past meal to clean its mouth parts. I base this theory on the fact that this happened relatively soon after it ate and that the only place I could think that it could draw this moisture from is the meal itself. Just an idea though. However, it did drink the droplet back down after it was finished "cleaning". Interesting behavior.
 

Tonys spiders

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My theory is that it is regurgitating liquid from its past meal to clean its mouth parts. I base this theory on the fact that this happened relatively soon after it ate and that the only place I could think that it could draw this moisture from is the meal itself. Just an idea though. However, it did drink the droplet back down after it was finished "cleaning". Interesting behavior.
This is correct it could have been from a meal previously(in regaurds to the comment above to me). I took an invertebrates class at my college in which we learned most animals can and often will store small amounts of water in order to hydrate during drier times.
 

High_Rolling_T

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My theory is that it is regurgitating liquid from its past meal to clean its mouth parts. I base this theory on the fact that this happened relatively soon after it ate and that the only place I could think that it could draw this moisture from is the meal itself. Just an idea though. However, it did drink the droplet back down after it was finished "cleaning". Interesting behavior.
This is a good theory. However, in my case, I feed my G. rosea every two weeks and I was doing the cage maintenance on the week in between; so she had not had a meal for a week.

---------- Post added 11-18-2011 at 07:31 PM ----------

My H. lividum does this frequently.
Funny you mention this. I just picked up my H. lividum's enclosure to look at how much it had expanded its burrow due to a very large increase in the size of the dirt mound around it's hole. Looking from the bottom, I could see it had the liquid sitting under it's mouth. This is the only other T of mine that I've seen do this.
 

thruthetrees

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I have been making notes of when my Ts do this... it seems like it happens 2-3 weeks before they molt but that could be coincidence.
 

Formerphobe

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My GBB recently 'showed me' her tarantul-ized cricket:

Then several hours later did this:

She is a recent acquisition (July 2011) and is the only one of my spiders that I have ever observed doing this. I think the key words here are: "that I have observed"... She appears healthy in all other respects.
 

Kat Berg

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My L.Para did this too the day before it molted. Based on my observations and previous post I have a theory the Ts could be secreting this liquid to make themselves smaller so they can wiggle out of their exoskeletons. I believe that it could be more of a last resort type thing though because my T just drooled on the side of the enclosure and left it there.
 

Hunter Brown

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My B. smithi is doing the same. He is also sitting in his water dish, is that normal as well?
 

Tenandra

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I know this is an old thread but thankyou I noticed mine doing this after a move today. As it was after a move I thought I might have stressed her so came here to check.
 

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Ilovethepp

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Sep 4, 2020
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I know this is an old thread but thankyou I noticed mine doing this after a move today. As it was after a move I thought I might have stressed her so came here to check.
Interestingly my T. vagans is doing the same thing and I too moved her into a new enclosure today. Also I doubt that it is remaining liquid from her last meal since that was a month ago.
 

mantidmum

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Sep 13, 2020
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I love message boards, old topics are always new to the newbie. Just saw my G. pulchra (2cms) do this and was freaking out... okay, deep breath. I'll be fine. :embarrassed:
 

SniffanyB

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Jul 8, 2020
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I have a GBB sling and noticed clear liquid yesterday and tonight it has an orange tint to it. It is in premolt so maybe that’s the cause. It seems fine in all other aspects. Glad I found this thread. Like message above. Deep breaths...calm down....

Noticed 5 minutes ago, went to take a quick pic to show and it’s GONE!!! Ts are freaking amazing and weird all in the same way! I love them.
 
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