Some advice about my G rosea

[Dave Grace]

Hi,
First of all I would like to introduce myself, I am a complete T newbie, and have owned my first T for just over a month. My wife bought me some books to prepare myself (Marshall - Tarantulas and other Arachnids / Schultz & Schultz - The Tarantula Keeper's Guide / Breene - Tarantula Care), but over the last couple of days my T has taken to large scale excavating... It has also webbed up entrances or exits to both of its hides. It is now exceptionally black, so I'm not sure if all the hard work is due to my T "Bitsy" getting ready for a moult ? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated have also attached a picture so you can see the excavation site

[Michael Tabor]

exactly what my g.rosea done couple of weeks ago pre moult,sounds completely normal to me mate.

[Dave Grace]

many thanks for the reply Michael, so i take it they get their house in order before hand then... Did you rearrange the terrarium after the moult?

[paul fleming]

I would leave it be.
Just a bit of maintenance (removing dead crickets etc.) every now and again and topping up the water is all that is needed.
She is getting her home just how she wants it,why move anything (except maybe the moult if you can get it) ?
Some of my spiders have a tendancy to fill their water bowls up with substrate,then it's just a case of removing the sub and topping up the water
Good luck with the spid.
Paul

[Dave Grace]

Many thanks for the advice Paul, i'm not sure how much longer will it take for the moult, as this will be the 1st one. Really interesting watching her/him, lots of new webbing appearing all the time...

[paul fleming]

The most important thing to do during a moult is.......nothing.
The last thing you want to do is disturb your spider whilst in mid moult.
Just have to sit back,keeping an eye on her and let her get on with it.
Looking forward to pictures mate......good luck.
Paul
Edit......you also know not to try to feed for a few days after a moult....have to wait for them to harden up ?

[Alistair Kennington]

Welcome

Hi welcome mate,its great when u just start with tarantulas,i only been into the hobbie ashort time compared to others on here myself ,and i lerned most of my knowledge from posting/reading stuff from here,and i also went through the same thing excavations tunneling webing up ect pre moult,with my slings ,it gets easyer to understand the more it happens and u quickly get used to strange behavior of t's,one thing it can take quite a wile to actually "moult" from the behavior showing any thing from tmorrow to two month or more..so dont worry .

[Dave Grace]

Thanks Alistair, seems there is so much to learn, and its a steep learning curve too. He/she has now taken to sitting in either hide and has webbed more again. Should i feed my T or just leave it for the time being, as I'm sure if I put in a cricket or 2 they are going to wreck all of its preperation?

Sounds like a silly question but I was always told the silly one is the one you don't ask !!!

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Dave, welcome to the forum. If her abdomen has gone black, then a moult will be iminent, do not put any food in there, it won't be eaten and can upset her during moult, just leave her quiet and before long you should have a brand new T.

[Dave Grace]

Thanks for all the advice, just another quick query, do i need to cover 3 sides of the terrarium? Reason I ask, is that I would like to see what my T gets upto (to be honest) and covering 3 sides obviously limits this.

Any advice greatly welcomed .

Thanks to everyone above for their advice and comments, much appreciated

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Dave, why do you consider you need to cover the tank?

[Dave Grace]

Thanks for getting back so quick Linda, I was informed at the shop where I got my T that I should cover 3 sides of the tank as they dont like bright lights, so not knowing very much I did. The other reason I got to asking is in most of the pictures I have seen and books I have read no one seems to cover them, or they just have a backing. Must look like a proper numpty

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Dave, you don't look like a numpty at all, if you don't ask you don't know. You don't need to do anything different, no need to cover them up especially if she's in her hide. They do need to know the difference between night and day, and don't use any kind of reptile lights they don't like them, but normal daylight or electric light is ok. A lot of our big T's moult in the open, and never use hides, others moult in their hide and may not come out for a week or more. Don't use camera flash when they're moulting or disturb them at all, and if you've not yet seen a moult, then you'll find it amazing.

[Dave Grace]

Cheers Linda, looks as though the covering will be coming off later on tonight

I would really like to see a moult as they do look really interesting.
I really appreciate the advice and looks like I should have done a bit more research first ...........

[Johan van Vuuren]

Hi Dave, there is no need to cover the sides of the enclosure at all. My experience with G. Rosea is that they also love to see what is going on around them, even my B. Vagans is out most of the time. As long as it is inside its hide it wants privacy. And if all goes well, enjoy your new spider!