- Joined
- Aug 9, 2003
- Messages
- 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
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