My H. Lividium is squeaking and chirping!!!

Pixie

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
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Aug 9, 2003
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269
When I woke up this morning, my boyfriend told me one of my tarantulas was making wierd noises and since he had gotten up a couple of hours earlier. Since they are all in a bookshelf and the noises had quieted down, I couldn't find out who was making the noise he claimed he was hearing. I suspected he was hearing my mature male a. anax drumming as the only thing I heard at the time was light scurrying sounds.

At the time, when I checked on my cobalt and pulled out her enclosure from the shelf she was upside down in her burrow but righted herself quickly from my disturbance. I thought "oh crap, she's starting to molt and I disturbed her".

A couple of hours later, I'm sitting her at my PC (where my bf was this morning) and hear some really strange sounds. From scurrying, loud tapping, hissing, squeaking and at least 2 different kinds of chirps!!!! All these sounds were mixed up in strange orders and followed each other very quickly.

Very surprised to hear this coming from my tarantula bookcase, I stepped closer to listen and try to see who was making the sounds.

Well sure enough, my cobalt is the culprit. I peeked in through the very bit I can see without moving her enclosure and saw and heard her making these sounds. It is by far the strangest thing I've experienced since keeping Ts and I've had for over 2 years and she's never done this before that I've witnesses.

The sounds are quite loud and very clear. What is most impressive are the chirping and scurrying sounds, to hear it, you'd swear a small bird was in the kritter keeper and flipping out!!! The chirping is very similar to that of small birds.

I'm guessing that this is what stridulation is. I haven't read any reports of h. lividiums doing it so I'm quite surprised that it's her. Now I'm trying to figure out why. I highly doubt it's out of fear as she wasn't disturbed at all when she started and it was early morning when the house is most quiet. I'm supposing one of two things:

1. She's hungry and trying to attract food.
2. She's horny and trying to attract a male.

Her behavior has changed in the past month. In the past 3-4 weeks, she has completely excavated her enclosure and made the biggest, cleanest and neatest burrow I've ever seen. It used to be a maze of silk on top of the substrate and she had webbed herself a little burrow but now it's a maze both above and below ground. She put a lot of work into it and did most of the hard excavation work in the matter of 2 to 4 days. The rest was spent webbing everything into place. Somewhere in there is a clay flower pot and water dish but they are carefully burried and webbed into her architectual design.

So any clue as to why she is suddenly acting so differently and especially making these very odd sounds?

Has there been reports of h. lividium stridulating?

I would give anything for a mike right now to try and record these sounds!!!

Any comments and ideas appreciated,
Pixie
 

Dekejis

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
May 27, 2004
Messages
65
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her

sorry, couldn't resist..
 

bodc21

Arachnojason
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Jan 14, 2003
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775
weird never heard of an h.lividum or any haplopelma doing this.
 

Pixie

Arachnoknight
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Aug 9, 2003
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269
It's definitely not a cricket or any other source than the h. lividium. I watched her at one point making the noises and it was definitely her. Hard to explain how she was moving, it was a flurry of quick moves with her front legs, pedipalps and I'm supposing chelicera but I did get to see those clearly. It was short bursts of very quick moves, almost looked like she was having a fit but more calculated in some way.

There were quite a few different distinguishable sounds: scurrying and tapping, hissing and squeaking and at least 2 different types of chirping. The chirping was the wierdest, one was almost like a regular bird's chirp or tweet the other was a very sharp and short "coo" sound!!??

I've never heard ANY tarantula stridulate or make any kind of sounds until today. I've always been very curious but now I'm kind of stumped. I expected a bit of hissing and maybe a squeak, but not all this! lol

Who knows, maybe she did catch a bird! lol Or better yet, now she thinks she IS a bird! lol

Anyone experience such sounds from their Ts? H. lividium or other?

Pixie
 

deifiler

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
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Feb 22, 2003
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Hi Pixie,

I've heard similar noises from my lividum - though not from any other specimens. Upon investigation, however, it turned out the squeaking was related to the digging method used by the spider and how it's friction worked against the terranium's sides.

Who knows though!
 

ShaunHolder

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
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Jan 29, 2004
Messages
828
I just recieved my H.Lividum sling a day ago in the mail. I've read up a lot on the sp. and I've never heard of chirping. Thats really interesting, is there anyway you could get audio of it for us? Is the T still doing it?
 

Garrick

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
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Aug 12, 2002
Messages
313
The noise is her trying to dig through her terrarium. You can sympathize with her and give her more burrowing room (which will result in the same thing), or you can let her figure it out on her own. She'll quit rubbing the plastic/glass after a time (at least until the next time you clean her home and she starts on a new burrow).

-Garrick

eight
 

Pixie

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
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Aug 9, 2003
Messages
269
That makes sense, especially with her recent big renovation. It sure is a really strange thing to witness!!! And I'm still amazed at the variety of sounds she produced.

She's spent so much time working on renovating her burrow that I would feel bad making her start from scratch. But if she's doing this because she wants more space I'll happily oblige her. I have a bigger enclosure available, I just need to go get some substrate.

Should I wait a bit or move her right away?

Pixie
 

ShaunHolder

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
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Jan 29, 2004
Messages
828
The noise doesn't mean she wants a bigger place to be in, it just means she wants to burrow. Like any good H.Lividum would.

Her container isn't unusually small is it? No need to nedlessly stress out your T by changing the tank if you don't have too.
 

Scorpiove

Arachnoangel
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Joined
Apr 9, 2004
Messages
841
Pixie said:
That makes sense, especially with her recent big renovation. It sure is a really strange thing to witness!!! And I'm still amazed at the variety of sounds she produced.

She's spent so much time working on renovating her burrow that I would feel bad making her start from scratch. But if she's doing this because she wants more space I'll happily oblige her. I have a bigger enclosure available, I just need to go get some substrate.

Should I wait a bit or move her right away?

Pixie

They are saying that the tarantula is making the sound by rubbing the glass..... Is that what you witnessed or was it making the sound with no help? :p
 

JohnxII

Avicoholic
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Joined
Feb 21, 2004
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899
You sure did here it from your T

Have a look at [thread=28878]this thread[/thread] and [thread=9608]this thread[/thread].
 

Pixie

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 9, 2003
Messages
269
She's definitely moving when making these sounds and I don't think she's cramped in her enclosure. It's approx. 9"Wx12"Dx10" with 5-6" substrate. She's a good 5" all stretched out but I rarely ever see her that way as she's always tucked away in her burrow.

I'd rather not move her as she's created quite an impressive burrow and seems to be comfortable aside from the noises.

Just to show how loud the sounds were, they were heard from 12'+ with the air conditionner and another fan running. Later on when I heard it, the television was also on and I heard it loud and clear! Got my attention real quick!!! LOL

Pixie
 
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