A question Re: retreats

[Tracy Sherwood-Farnfield]

Hi guys, I need to draw on your (collective) experinece.....

Since Ruby (my G rosea) moulted late Feb, she has been a bit skitish.

To explain, previously she had adopted a little cork bark cave as a retreat, lining it in silk and so forth. She would not often be IN it but would sit ON it and would head there whenever I went in to clean etc. and would sit there very happily and let me get on.

Since the moult I think she has decided this accomodation is a bit cramped and she started to investigate the half-flower pot instead, I even saw her sitting in there a few times. Not sure it was up to her standards though because she doesn't head there as her 'safe place' when I go in her tank. Instead she usually heads up a side and then wanders around as I do, she often 'jumps' when I move something near her and then darts in the opposite direction, at one point when she was sitting on the side in the way, I tried to encourage her in the other direction and she reacted like I had just poked her with a red-hot poker! She looked like she might try and pounce on my very soft paint brush!

From my limited knowledge gleaned on T behaviour I am assuming that this reaction is due to not having a designated 'safe place' to retreat to. Is there anyway I can encourage her in this department? She hasn't put down a lot of webbing since the moult either which she had done previously marking out safe paths around the tank.

Any ideas? I would not like to think that she is not feeling 100% secure in her surroundings.

[Colin D Wilson]

I've found after having Grammy's for many years that the only thing that causes any *upset* is the humidity factor, i.e. to moist a substrate.
Once this is sorted they tend to be the master of improvisation and overcome any other factors that "we" think may be unsuitable for them.
many of my lot have changed their *personalities* from moult to moult and take a little time to get back into the swing of things. (i've had roseas dig burrows that a crawshayi would be proud of right through to being a total Nomad and wandering the tank aimlessly and resting as and when needed)
Some have adopted a "safe place" like yours and tend to run into it when they are disturbed, i can almost guarentee that after the next moult they will change, possibly, for instance, sitting out in the open and not being bothered by tank maintenance at all.
as far as your hide being too small i had a rosea in the past who at 3 inch LS still prefered to use a black film cannister to hide in (just placed on the substrate) almost commical when she used it as her abdomen would stick out, maybe this was an example of a spider using the Ostrich system (i cant see you so you cant see me)

I think in the long run it would be best to just leave her to sort herself out as lots of little adjustments, in my opinion, are just causing disturbance.
In their natural habitat they adopt to whatever area they are in.

Colin

[Tracy Sherwood-Farnfield]

Thanks for that Colin, I am properly just being too *mummsey* the substrate is nice and dry so I know that that is not a problem so as you say I shall just leave her too it.

I do like the image of your rosea craming into a film canister though! Very cosy, perhaps she was a hermit crab in a former life!

It will be interesting to see how she changes next moult. I had obviously read comments here about Ts shedding their personalities with their skins, but didn't fully appreciate it until Ruby moulted, it is a perculiar trait, I wonder if it offers any evolutionary advantages, or if it is just a by product of 'growing up'?

[Clinton Hogben]

Wonder if any research has been done on "T" personality changes after moult in theory they have a brain the size of a grain of sand so should not have a personality but we all know this to be wrong
I have had "T"'s go from being the most docile specemin pre moult to becoming the devil incarnate afterwards