Clumsy tarantula is a worry

[Chris R. Jones (Sirunus)]

Yesterday Cora, my Mexican Redknee, tried to climb up one of the glass sides next to her hollow rock. But as she lifted her leg off the rock she slipped and fell off! She landed on her hollow rock with a thud. Ouch. Fortunately it wasn't the heaviest of all falls, she wasn't even an inch off the rock. But as she landed it sounded like she has a hard exoskeleton. She moved like lightning, flipping back over on her feet and dashed into the corner. I think she startled herself. Fortunately, she seems unhurt and it wasn't long until she attempted to climb again. I moved the rock to the other side she has an easier time climbing (she always seems to slip on the side against the heat mat) and I made a cushion of moss just in case she falls again. I hope she's alright.

[Stefan]

lol. spiders are funny. They do have an outer shell as i call it. I find that spiders don't like their houses beening moved and played with, how is your spider taking it?

[Chris R. Jones (Sirunus)]

She just sits there and does nothing pretty much. But she does move out the way when she needs to. Today she nearly climbed out the terrarium, but I ushered her back in. She seems fine and completely unhurt from the fall, but it scared the heck outta me. I'm going to put some artificial plants on that side so she can climb them instead of the slippery glass. She's a clumsy little thing. Hopefully she'll try, uh, less ambitious climbing expeditions after that ordeal. As for the mesh lid, she has no trouble with that (it's an "ultra-fine iron" mesh. The holes are small even clumsy Cora has no trouble climbing on them.)

[Ian Foxon]

I wouldn't bother with the plants. It's almost certain she will dig them up and scatter them around the place.

Your Tarantula is probably climbing either because she is learning the dimensions of her home or because she views the whole terrarium as her burrow and is looking for a place to sit and wait for prey. It is their natural position to be on a vertical surface whilst doing this. Try to make sure she does not have more than twice her body length to fall during this time. Her abdomen has no armour and can be easily damaged on sharp objects or long falls.

If you want her to burrow successfully you will need to provide some quite deep substrate. With some variations in consistency. I have had success with 12" of peat, sand and bark chip mixes. Nowadays I have stopped using peat altogether to avoid mites and have had good success with Vermiculite and sand mix. It needs to be kept slightly damp and packed hard to keep it's shape but works well.
Myself I wouldn't bother though as if she does burrow you won't see much of her anymore, unless you can entice her to build near the side of the glass.

You need to exercise caution with that wire mesh. I have had small Baboon spiders get hung up on the stuff by their claws and need dislodging. If not spotted in time this can cost a leg. Worse still I had a Cameroon Rusty Red who took a disliking to the stuff and tore through it with her fangs link by link. If I had not caught her in time she would have got out and probably damaged herself severely on the sharp edges whilst doing so.
I have removed all mesh on my cages and glued perspex with airholes in it's place.

Ian

[marie metcalfe-brachygirl]

if she likes to climb then i would give her some cork bark to climb on.
for substrate i personally use peat/vermiculite mix for all my brachys, it has good water retention for humidity and does allow for burrowing, though i tend to find only the 'red rump' group bother to burrow.
one or two aquarium plants are attractive, but as already stated they do tend to get pulled about when the spiders are re arranging.

[Chris R. Jones (Sirunus)]

Hi all,

I really want to buy some more stuff, but my debit card is screwed.

She's gone into a corner and has sat there for days. This is after dropping a big fat juicy gut-loaded mealworm next to her (she seems to have eaten the whole lot!). She only moved to face the opposite direction and that was it and when I was misting the the place and that was it. There's evidence that she's been drinking out the shallow dish because it has gotten shallower and dirty. I cleaned it a refilled it for her. She still hasn't gone into the cave. It's as if she dosen't know it's there, though the terrarrium is in a place sheltered from sunlight.

[Ian Foxon]

Sometimes they stop eating or doing anything for months.
If you continuously change her surroundings she will become stressed and never settle.
It's all perfectly normal behaviour. Stop worrying, she is fine.
I would quit trying to feed her for a few weeks and see what happens after that.
As long as she has fresh water she will be ok.

Ian

[Eleanor]

Jagged is right. I'm sure she is fine. My red knee will sometimes sit completely motionless (apparently anyway) for hours or even days, and at other times she'll be climbing all over her tank and up the walls. She dug a big burrow when she was smaller, but she hasn't actually bothered going inside it at all for months now, despite being a somewhat nervous personality (she's a nutcase). She just doesn't feel the need to hide. Don't worry if their behaviour doesn't always make sense - sometimes they are just odd!

[Stefan]

A little tale.

I dropped a mexican red knee from chest height onto a thin carpet. I thought she would die but she didnt. Hows that for survival.

[Chris R. Jones (Sirunus)]

She's climbing the glass again, and she keeps falling off. The largest fall for her possible would probably be about 9 inches (which is about four times her body length). I can't make the substrate any deeper than four inches otherwise there'll be an avalanche everytime I open the front glass doors. She seems to have always be landing on her feet. The substrate should cushion the fall, but what I'm really worried about is her landing on the water dish or the cave. There are no sharp objects but the cave and water dish are solid like rock. Is it normal for a tarantula to keep slipping on the glass?