Thirsty for Territory (An Amateurs Inquiry)

[Niall Marley]

Hey everyone, I have a question to ask and I hope someone can help me with it.
I refill my tarantulas (a chilean rose, my first) little water cap everyday and everyday it is once again covered in web. There's always less water than when I last checked so I know he's drinking but still, the web is there. Is this ordinary tarantula behaviour? Is my disturbing his web by moving the cap regularly bothering him? If so is there anything I can do to stop this?
I apologise if this is a rookie question; I simply don't want to aggrivate my tarantula - Niall

[Stanley A. Schultz]

... I refill my tarantulas (a chilean rose, my first) little water cap everyday and everyday it is once again covered in web. ...

Nothing odd here. Tarantulas are spiders. Spiders spin silk. It's what they do. As your newfound, little buddy moves around it's container it leaves a trail of silk. It's instinctive.

...There's always less water than when I last checked so I know he's drinking ...

No. That's probably mostly due to evaporation. Tarantulas don't drink very much water, at least enough that you'd notice.

... Is my disturbing his web by moving the cap regularly bothering him? ...

Maybe. Maybe not. Under any circumstances it'll get over it. It won't do any long term harm.

... If so is there anything I can do to stop this? ...

No. And, neither should you try. Accept it and get on with your life.

... I apologise if this is a rookie question ...

You're not a rookie! You're a newbie. And, that's definitely not a bad thing. There are lots of us who never outgrow the label.

BTW, we can deal with newbie questions a lot easier than we can deal with newbie mistakes.

... I simply don't want to aggrivate my tarantula ...

You're obsessing! Sit down. Take several deep breaths. Relax. Everything's going to be all right.

Now, tell us a little more about this fearsome tarantula beast of yours.

1. How big is it? (Leg span: Tip of one front leg to the tip of the rear leg on the opposite side as close as you can estimate. Please use physical dimensions in either inches or millimeters/centimeters.)

2. How big is its container?

3. How long have you had it?

4. How big is its water dish? (Depth X diameter)

While we're at it, did you read http://www.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/roses.html, The Care and Husbandry of the Chilean Rose Tarantula? While that webpage was written particularly for wild caught, imported roses, the general care instructions are still valid for cage bred babies.

In a general sort of way, you should care for your baby rose (if it really is a baby) like just about any other baby tarantula. However, when it begins to exceed about 1 inch (about 2.5 to 3 cm) leg span you should start switching it to living in an arid (dry) cage. Just be sure it always has a water dish with a little water.

Enjoy your man-eating beast!

[Niall Marley]

Nothing odd here. Tarantulas are spiders. Spiders spin silk. It's what they do. As your newfound, little buddy moves around it's container it leaves a trail of silk. It's instinctive.

No. That's probably mostly due to evaporation. Tarantulas don't drink very much water, at least enough that you'd notice.

Maybe. Maybe not. Under any circumstances it'll get over it. It won't do any long term harm.

No. And, neither should you try. Accept it and get on with your life.

You're not a rookie! You're a newbie. And, that's definitely not a bad thing. There are lots of us who never outgrow the label.

BTW, we can deal with newbie questions a lot easier than we can deal with newbie mistakes.

You're obsessing! Sit down. Take several deep breaths. Relax. Everything's going to be all right.

Now, tell us a little more about this fearsome tarantula beast of yours.

1. How big is it? (Leg span: Tip of one front leg to the tip of the rear leg on the opposite side as close as you can estimate. Please use physical dimensions in either inches or millimeters/centimeters.)

2. How big is its container?

3. How long have you had it?

4. How big is its water dish? (Depth X diameter)

While we're at it, did you read http://www.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/roses.html, The Care and Husbandry of the Chilean Rose Tarantula? While that webpage was written particularly for wild caught, imported roses, the general care instructions are still valid for cage bred babies.

In a general sort of way, you should care for your baby rose (if it really is a baby) like just about any other baby tarantula. However, when it begins to exceed about 1 inch (about 2.5 to 3 cm) leg span you should start switching it to living in an arid (dry) cage. Just be sure it always has a water dish with a little water.

Enjoy your man-eating beast!

Firstly, thanks for the advice Stanley, I just wanted to double check that there wasn't a deep seated psychological reason for my little beast to be holding onto his water dish as he is, for all I knew it reminded him of his childhood back on the tarantula farm and was the only thing he had left to remember his past
Nah, i'm sorry if I sound obsessive, any pets I keep have a tendency to disappear, die or spontaneously combust so i'm trying to be particularly careful with this delicate Peter Parker muncher.
I am not a newbie, i'm a rookie! Rookie sounds cooler
To answer your questions:
1) 3 - 3.5 inches

2) 6x12 inches

3) Approximately two months ago

4) 1x2cm

The people I bought my tarantula from said it was about a year old and seemed to know what they were talking about (they're the people who directed me here) so I bought the cage with the tarantula.

Thanks again for the insight. It's much appreciated.

[lynn mawdesley]

I think there is probabley only one or two of my collection that dont either web over there water dishes or drag it around tip it upside down or bury it lmao

When it comes to misting their enclosures i tend to mist abit of the side or their web so they still get water

Lynn

[Stanley A. Schultz]

... I am not a newbie, i'm a rookie! Rookie sounds cooler ...

All right, you be the "Rookie." I'll be the "newbie."

... To answer your questions:
1) 3 - 3.5 inches

2) 6x12 inches

3) Approximately two months ago

4) 1x2cm

...

Use a larger water dish. One about the size of a tuna fish can (about 3 cm high X 7.5 cm diameter). Include a rock. The rock should be large enough to protrude above the water, but small enough to allow the tarantula to drink from around it. If necessary, use a slightly wider water dish. This rock is not for the tarantula. It's for the crickets/locusts/whatever as an escape ramp. Especially if you feed crickets. If they dive into the water dish they have a way to climb out.

A larger water dish, particularly a deeper one, will not dry out so fast either, and you'll have more time to enjoy your tarantula instead of running around in circles filling water dishes.

Be sure to read http://www.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/roses.html.

[ty sinclair]

Hi

Hi I have a gautamalen blue which webs all over it's water bowl and it will also flip it upside down and burrow it. Don't no y maybe doesn't like the colour lol. I will leave it there for a couple of days then get it out and put more water in it. My blue femur tips it's hide over aswell so they could just be looking attention lol

[Stewart Shaw]

Hey Stan, the disappearing water act has got me wondering for years. I'm pretty sure there is some evaporation going on but I do not think it is enough to explain a totally empty water dish in one night. I've noticed whenever there is webbing on the water dish, these are the ones that empty out fastest. I suspect there's some wick effect going on, similar to a wick that draws fuel from the bottom of a glass lamp. The strands of silk draws water out of the water dish into god knows where. Plausible? Whether they do this intentionally or not...

[Stanley A. Schultz]

Hey Stan, the disappearing water act has got me wondering for years. ... I suspect there's some wick effect going on, similar to a wick that draws fuel from the bottom of a glass lamp. The strands of silk draws water out of the water dish into god knows where. ...

I'm pretty sure of it. But, the question still stands, "Where does the water go?" The air in the cage can only hold so much. After it becomes saturated no more will evaporate unless no effort has been made to reduce ventilation and the damp air wafts away into the room. Even then, you'd expect that someone would notice all the wet webbing, no?

Does it wick into the substrate? One can check the substrate around the water dish, but you'd think the owner would notice that half the cage is sopping wet after the Chilean rose has been hanging from the walls for a week, no?

Of all the people on this planet I probably appreciate better how unconventional, even bizarre, tarantulas are, but even I hesitate to think that they've discovered some way to dematerialize water without leaving some trace!

Stay tuned as we explore other scenarios...

[Niall Marley]

Thanks Stanley, i'm currently home from university at the moment where unfortunately it's difficult to come by any manner of tarantula water dishes (though i've thankfully found a local pet shop which sells crickets) but i'll be certain to purchase a larger one asap.
I've given that link a read. As far as I can tell i'm doing everything right for the most part though i'm currently using a heat pad which seems to be discouraged. Will this harm the tarantula in any significant way? He seems to enjoy clinging to the heated side of the case.

[Stanley A. Schultz]

... i'm currently using a head pad which seems to be discouraged. Will this harm the tarantula in any significant way? ...

The usual arguments are

1. The extra heat is a strong desiccator. It tends to dry out everything and mummify the tarantula.

2. Extra heat in a tarantula's cage is difficult or impossible to control unless you can rig some sort of fool proof thermostat. If you're not absolutely certain to control it perfectly by hand you could easily come home to the smell of well roasted tarantula one of these warm spring or summer days.

... He seems to enjoy clinging to the heated side of the case.

But, is it clinging to that side of the cage because of the warmth or for some completely unrelated reason? Look carefully for subtle or obscure reasons like that side of the cage being darker, or every other side having something unpalatable about it.

For that matter, why is it clinging to the side of the cage at all? The overwhelming majority of tarantulas soon get tired of trying to maintain their wall hanging habit (left over from being wedged in a tight fitting, vertical burrow or a vertically oriented silken nest) and come down to "flat land" within a few days to a week. All the food's down there as well as a ready supply of water. Besides, it's too much trouble trying to just hang there without having the other side of the burrow to brace against.

If yours is still up there on the side, maybe you need to don your tarantula thinking cap (Yes, I'm being silly, but it's way past my bedtime!) and try to figure out the cause.

Just a few clues and suggestions ...
Best of luck.

[Niall Marley]

So would your suggestion be to disregard the heat pad? I am fine with the idea so long as I don't come home to a Taranta-ice lolly one day; Aberdeen's not the warmest of places.
The majority of the time my tarantula is hanging around on the ground, webbing over his water dish, shuffling around in his hidey hole and so on but whenever he climbs onto a wall it's always the heated one without fail. It may be, as you mentioned, because the heated side tends to be darker but if that were the case surely he would just spend more time underneath his shelter?
By the way, when you mentioned a 'tarantula thinking cap' my immediate thoughts were drawn to this giant stuffed tarantula which sits on your head with it's legs coming down over your ears....I want that hat!

[Craig Mackay]

it's difficult to come by any manner of tarantula water dishes (though i've thankfully found a local pet shop which sells crickets) but i'll be certain to purchase a larger one asap

I just use lids from coffee jars etc. These are lightweight which makes them ideal for lifting out of defensive tarantula tanks with tweezers. The ones you can buy in pet shops tend to be heavier so put your hands at greater risk.

[Stanley A. Schultz]

... By the way, when you mentioned a 'tarantula thinking cap' my immediate thoughts were drawn to this giant stuffed tarantula which sits on your head with it's legs coming down over your ears....I want that hat!

Have you ever seen either of the videos Giant Spiders of the Lost World or Giant Tarantulas? They're effectively the same video, one issued by Survival Anglia, the other being reissued a year later by Time-Warner.

Rick C. West of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada submitted a proposal to Survival Anglia about making a documentary of Theraphosa blondi in Venezuela. When he was granted the funding, he met a camera crew in Caracas and traipsed out into the rain forest to visit a small band of South American Indians, the Piaroa. During the course of filming T. blondi (and apparently T. apophysis as well) he became good buddies with the shaman of that band who had adopted the giant spider as his patron spirit. The shaman had several, special spider hats, made of bee's wax and charcoal dust, that he wore when he was "communing" with his patron spirit. (The South American Indians have been using a wide variety of psychoactive plants for millennia in their religious ceremonies.)

When Rick and the camera crew finally left the village for civilization the shaman gave him one of those hats. Somewhere in storage back in Calgary I have a photo of that hat hanging on Rick's wall. When we finally return there this fall I'll do my best to find it and post it as an addendum to this thread.

Or better still, since Rick often monitors this forum, if he sees this maybe he can post a photo of the hat being worn by the shaman.

Here is the reference for that video. Apparently it's no longer for sale as new, but you may be able to pick up a used copy someplace.

Brett, C (producer). 1993-4. Giant Tarantulas. Survival Anglia, Summit Television. Reissued by Time-Warner Communications as part of their "Predators of the Wild" series.

Cheers,

[gary spencer]

Hello stanley i bought your book its my bible just want to say thanks on opening up the hobbie alot more for me many thanks look forward future work. many thanks G.Spencer