Adult Chile rose webbing lots...

[Ryan Simons]

I understand that they web up a little when they are due a moult.. However, my chile rose has webbed the whole floor, its webbed the plant pot hide to the floor, the water bowl is webbed to the floor and even the walls are webbed!! it seems to think that its a OBT or something, perhaps its copying my OBT which is in the tank next to it??

Now would this be a good sign she is due a moult? she hasn't had one in a few months now. If i drop a cricket in there, she will chase it when it comes near, but wont eat it. she has been doing this for the past few weeks; she was eating fine before this.

There is not a particular patch of web in there to which she will flip over on, it just looks like a house spider has been let loose in there! She has however, dug up some dirt and made a 'hill' which she seems to lay on her belly on....??

Strange spiders these chile rose's!

[wayne balcombe]

hi ryan, interesting spider you have there. i've never known of G. Rosea laying that much web but i'm always finding new and intresting habbits about these spiders from people on here.

firstly if as you say its an adult (mature) and only moulted a few months ago i doubt it would be molting again so soon. i know webbing is something spiders do at times- before a molt and when lining its burrow and in the case of mature males, making sperm webs but webbing the entire enclosure is a new one on me.

all the signs point to a molt (not feeding and webbing) so is it possible this spider is sub adult and not already mature? do you know if its male or female?

wayne

[Ryan Simons]

Yea it is a strange one i have! She also likes hanging upside down from the ceiling from time to time and sometimes likes to bath in her water bowl :S My OBT P.Murinius is odd too as i have never seen it get aggressive, even when i had to pull its home apart last month!! and It barely webs up now its got a few inches of dirt to burrow in!

Im pretty sure my G.Rosea is female, this is what i was told when i purchased it. I will try and get a pic of it when i can. How can you tell whether they are a sub-adult or mature ? heres a pic i took of her not so long ago:-

[wayne balcombe]

well its a lovely looking spider mate, red colour form, not seen too many of these about lately.

you can generally work out when a spider has matured if you know when it came out of its eggsack and the frequency of moults, its alot easier to tell with males as they show physical signs of maturity (tibial spurs, palpal emboli) size is not always a good indicator as this varies substantially. a mature female G. rosea will have a leg span of upto 6 inches whereas a male may be smaller but then i've known females to have matured and still be only about 5 inch Leg span and males that have reached 7inch.

for now i would treat it as if was going into a molt, keep the humidity up a little and persist with the attempts at feeding though remove any un-eaten feeder insects after a day and then try again a week later, keep this up and see wot happens, just bear in mind G.rosea can stay in pre-molt for months befor actually molting, especially if its the penultimate molt.

wayne.

[Ryan Simons]

Ok well i will do as you say then, ill keep a corner of the tank damp and try with some food again tomorrow.

You say about the colour being rare, well its quite strange because when i 1st got her, she was that colour, but after a moult she looked like this....



A lot lighter, more golden and she stayed like this untill her next moult when she went back to dark/red again?! I hope she goes back to the lighter colour after her next moult as i do think it looked nicer!

Cheers for your help wayne.

[Mrs Linda Street]

Yea it is a strange one i have! She also likes hanging upside down from the ceiling from time to time and sometimes likes to bath in her water bowl :S My OBT P.Murinius is odd too as i have never seen it get aggressive, even when i had to pull its home apart last month!! and It barely webs up now its got a few inches of dirt to burrow in!

Im pretty sure my G.Rosea is female, this is what i was told when i purchased it. I will try and get a pic of it when i can. How can you tell whether they are a sub-adult or mature ? heres a pic i took of her not so long ago:-

Hi Ryan, that's a really nice looking T. Is that a moult from her just showing inside the hide? if so you should be able to sex it straight away.

[Ryan Simons]

Hey thanks linda. Na its not a moult unfortunately, its just a bit of bark. Whenever i get the skin from a moult tho, i cannot un stick and untwist the abdomen without braking it and from what i see, you need this part to sex it?

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Ryan, it must be me, I'm not going to specsavers again lol. If you don't get the exuvium before it dries out, just moisten it with some warm water and a spot of washing up liquid, use a soft art/paint brush and gently and open it out, and then you should have no problem sexing.

[wayne balcombe]

i used to put the dried out exuvium in a sieve and hold it over the kettle when it boiled and steam them into submission this seems to work quite well and a little less man handling to the delicate dried skin.

[Drew Acton]

mine has done the same as yours glued everything to the ground with silk and stopped eating shes been in premolt for about 3 weeks now and im still waiting lol

[Ryan Simons]

well, i threw a cricket in her tank today and bam.... she gobbled it up! very odd!! i think she is just a crazy spider lol!

How do i know when they are going to have / had there penultimate moult?

[Ryan Simons]

bumpybump?

[Iain Condy]

I thought my T was in premoult about a month ago, as she wouldn't eat and had a lot of webbing, but she's statred to munch again. oh well I'll just have to wait and see.

[Drew Acton]

mine has finaly rolled over and started to molt and she did the same as yours shes taken about 3 weeks to molt so just give her time.