waterdish and peat???????

[bodc21]

my rosey has a problem with dragging his peat into the waterdish i always clean it out and put new water in but everytime and i mean everytime he always puts the peat back in the water so its always dirty my question is do i always have to change it or can the dirt be left in for a few days?i dont really see a point to always changing it when everytime he puts it back in.thanks-jason

 

[Beth-Tex]

You know......that's a good question......hope someone can answer it because I have a Chaco that always puts his substrate in the water dish & I, also, am getting tired of changing it every day.....and sometimes twice a day.

 

[D-Man]

Pigs in water!!!!

Ha! My Aphonopelma chalcodes pulls that s**t all the time! He dumps cricket legs and boluses in there, too. I clean it every day if need be - I have no problem doing it (wait 'til I have 20 spiders!). If you want to try and curb the "problem," try putting the dish in a different area, or put a big rock in the dish. Problems are fun with these crazy creatures - I love spiders!!!!:}

Peace!

 

[mebebraz]

Ive had a rosie for about seven yrs now, it did that in the first yr or so, now when I water her, I stab my finger in her dish to make a dent then I fill it up, I stopped cleaning the dish yrs ago (everyday that is, i still clean it once in awhile), hasnt hurt her one bit.

 

[Vys]

Well, in the overwhelming majority of the pics of T's and waterbowls I've seen, the waterbowl is full of dirt. Anyways, my sub-adult parahybana did that the first few days, then stopped. Now she just poops in it, just like my dear Avic.

 

[sunnymarcie]

My little A seemanni does that to. I think it's because they are
always creating a new burrow/hide
Dry dirt does not pack well. I have watched this crazy T build,
It carries dirt balls around all the time

 

[genious_gr]

Maybe those T's are trying to lower the humidity a bit, don't know, just a guess.

 

[Code Monkey]

I've seen a lot of theories put forth with everything from they're trying to raise the humidity to your they're trying to reduce it. I'm skeptical of accepting any of these theories because it assumes a tarantula not only understands capillary action, evaporation and wicking, but can make the judgement call on whether sopping up an ounce or three of water in their cage will make a difference.

I've seen no rhyme nor reason about who does and does not fill their water dish. My fillers include my A. geniculata juvenile male, a B. albopilosum juve, a G. alticeps juve, a H. maculata juve, a P. nigricolor subadult male, and a C. fasciatum juve. My trash dumpers include my A. versicolor juve male and a N. coloratovillosus sub female (but only gravid cricket eggs, man does that stink).

I chalk it up to individual habits that make them interesting. I'm sure they have what they consider to be a good reason for these goofy behaviors, but I'm not going to go trying to figure them out without controlled experiments.

 

[Godzilla2000]

Originally posted by Code Monkey
I've seen a lot of theories put forth with everything from they're trying to raise the humidity to your they're trying to reduce it. I'm skeptical of accepting any of these theories because it assumes a tarantula not only understands capillary action, evaporation and wicking, but can make the judgement call on whether sopping up an ounce or three of water in their cage will make a difference.

I've seen no rhyme nor reason about who does and does not fill their water dish. My fillers include my A. geniculata juvenile male, a B. albopilosum juve, a G. alticeps juve, a H. maculata juve, a P. nigricolor subadult male, and a C. fasciatum juve. My trash dumpers include my A. versicolor juve male and a N. coloratovillosus sub female (but only gravid cricket eggs, man does that stink).

I chalk it up to individual habits that make them interesting. I'm sure they have what they consider to be a good reason for these goofy behaviors, but I'm not going to go trying to figure them out without controlled experiments.

Maybe it's less about rational thought processes and more like a sensory ability. If their bodies are getting too much humidity they can probably sense they are bloated. So over time through insttinct they've learned that doing a certain thing relinquishes a certain amount of bloatedness in them. For the record, none of my T's so far have put anything in their water dishes.

 

[Mojo Jojo]

Maybe there are nutritional elements in the substrate that the spider couldn't get to unless that substrate was steeped in the water. It's not like wild ts have access to tap water in the wild. Their stuff is dirty, or at least in contact with other organic material.

Is there any known adverse effects of chlorinated tap water on tarantulas?

Jon

 

[Code Monkey]

Originally posted by Godzilla2000
Maybe it's less about rational thought processes and more like a sensory ability. If their bodies are getting too much humidity they can probably sense they are bloated. So over time through insttinct they've learned that doing a certain thing relinquishes a certain amount of bloatedness in them. For the record, none of my T's so far have put anything in their water dishes.

My problem with accepting these ideas is consider their natural environment. As has been pointed out in books and other sources, there's no such thing as a water bowl in nature - that they use them at all is proof positive they're pretty adaptive as far as their behavior goes. A T is normally in the great wild outdoors, let me tell you what no 25 gram spider is going to accomplish in the great, wild outdoors: changing their local humidity with a bit of substrate moving.

They can burrow deeper to find greater humidity, they can hang out at the surface to find lesser humidity, but if conditions are just out and out too dry or too wet, all they can do is wait until things change. As such, I am extremely skeptical that, adaptive or not in behavior, that Ts can make the connection between altering humidity and filling in the never-encountered-in-their-300 million-years-of-evolution water bowl.

Like I said, I'm sure they have their reasons, but until someone sets up genuinely controlled experiments to study possible reasons, might as well try to assign conscious reasons for why rocks roll down hills.

It IS a phenomenon, but it is also a phenomenon which only fits patterns that are obvious when you don't consider all the factors behind them. Try to look at it scientifically and it's pretty obvious that their reasons aren't going to be so simple as 'I want it wetter' or 'I want it drier'.

 

[belewfripp]

In general I agree with CM but just a couple of thoughts:

In nature sure they aren't going to be able to adjust the humidity of the entire environment around them, but they certainly could take measures to affect the local humidity in their burrows.

And second, as pointed out, they don't have water dishes in nature, but they have adjusted to using them. I think it is entirely possible that in the course of moving substrate around a bunch gets knocked accidentally into a water dish, the humidity elevates a bit, and the spider ends up 'liking' it. A bunch more accidental fillings of the dish and the spider may come to associate putting dirt into the dish with a more humid environment. I also don't think an animal has to understand the scientific reasons behind wicking, capillary action, etc., in order to notice a cause and a result. If the result of a repeated cause suits them I see no reason why they wouldn't willfully perpetrate it in the future.

This is not to say I believe a definitive answer can be made w/out scientific experiment. I think CM is right when he says controlled experimentation is the only way to try and get an idea for sure as to what is going on. But I think it is possible that the traditional explanations are valid.

Adrian

 

[genious_gr]

belewfripp,
I don't think T's are such good learners, I believe its in their genes somehow. But I'm just guessing, of course there need to be experiments...And a thought, Dogs dont understand how chemistry works etc. but still chew grass when they want to vomid or need extra vitamins and stuff