Help needed! She's cleaning her legs a lot...

[Bobarian78]

Hello,

I purchased my 1st tarantula at the BTS (a Chilean Rose) and she seems to be settling in ok. However, i have noticed that she is cleaning her legs a lot, and prefers sitting on top of her hide rather than in it. Is this normal. She has eaten two crickets since Monday.

She is on a bed of peat - cocanut?? mixture that was recommended at the time.

What shall i do?

Adam

[Stefan]

Your T

Hello again,

Firstly, it is not important that your spider uses the hide. What is important is that you have offered it to her. If she really wanted to hide then she would use it. She knows its there.

Don't worry about her preening her legs. This is often done by all spiders.

The main thing at the moment is that she is eating...This is very good news. It means that she is happy with what you have given her. It's proberly best not to feed her again for about three days. Three meals a week should be ok depending on the size of what your feeding her.

As for the coconut mixture. I purchased some from the show on sunday.. Its the best thing since sliced bread.

Kind Regards,

Matthew

[Bobarian78]

Cheers for the reply mate,

It's good to know that this is a common trait.

All the best

Adam

[Yinnon Dolev]

Welcome to the hobby Adam!!!

I can only stragthen Matthew has said. You witnessing what is called in the scientific world "normal behavior"

[Neil Richardson]

My chile spent at least a month stomping around her cage when we first got her. Now she's settled down nicely, hardly ever comes out of her burrow apart from when she's hungry.
Yet some days, she'll spend all day sat outside the entrance waiting for me to feed her.

Dont worry about the cleaning, they are very clean animals and can spend many hours just cleaning themselves.

[Bobarian78]

Cheers for all the replies and advice guys

She seems to be really settling in now. I even managed to catch her having a drink this morning, so bonus!

Adam

[Stefan]

Sounds like your Tarantula has a very good home. Glad she went to someone like you and not the adusers that there are.

[Layla McInnes]

Glad she is happy. I once hear one of my bigger spiders drink and there was definate slurping!
Carry on watching her they are fascinating creatures

[Bobarian78]

Saw her hunt and catch a cricket for the 1st time!

I managed to see my new tarantula hunt and catch a cricket for the 1st time yesterday evening. I didn't realise that these spiders could move so fast! It was well impressive, and i know that the rest of you have probably seen this a lot before, but it was well exciting for a newbie like me. She even made a food mat to put it on. Fantastic!

[Stefan]

Great isn't it. The only problem is when you have a large collection like i have, you can't spend all that time watching them catch their food. It's a case of putting it in a shutting the lid.

What you will find interesting... if you get anymore spiders... is that they all hunt in different ways. I have a Red Rump that will run all round the tank three times just to get her meal. While I have a king Baboon that will wait days until the meal pases underneath her before she attemps to get it.

Anyways, happy watching

Kind Regards,

Matthew

[Yinnon Dolev]

Re: Saw her hunt and catch a cricket for the 1st time!

I managed to see my new tarantula hunt and catch a cricket for the 1st time yesterday evening. I didn't realise that these spiders could move so fast! It was well impressive, and i know that the rest of you have probably seen this a lot before, but it was well exciting for a newbie like me. She even made a food mat to put it on. Fantastic!

I'm not a newbie any more, and it's still exciting as hell!!!

[Graeme Wright]

Re: Your T

Hello again,
Three meals a week should be ok depending on the size of what your feeding her.

3 meals a week, talk about power feeding.


feed slings once a week, juviniles I feed every 2 weeks and adult get fed once a month.

Unless you wasnt to shourten your spider life span dont feed it like that

The only tiem powerfeeding imo should be used is to speen dp growth in males for breeding

[Ian Metcalfe]

I would take the advice G just gave with caution .The frequency of feeding would depend on variables like the temperature you keep them at and the size of the meals you give. I personally feed more often than once a month but probally give smaller meals there is no stead fast rules for feeding but if the T's abdomen looks a good size and is not getting smaller you are feeding enough ( I personally like a T's abdomen to be about 1.5 x the size of its carapace)