All rosie owners, please take this poll

[Rabid Flea]

I just wonder how psycho (or normal) your rosie is. I just bought one 3 days ago and I can't for the life of me tell what mood it will be in from one second to the next! First day she was uber-psycho and tried to bite when I was transferring her to her new enclosure. Next day she was fine, very non aggressive, now for the last week, i cant even walk by the tank without getting a threat display from a cute widdle rosie! :eek: :8o And too she seems to know im VERY allergic to urticating hairs and quite enjoys flicking them at me every time she can. :shame: I dont understand because I gave her a custom 20 gallon terrarium fit for a queen and shes still pissed at me! :wall:

If you have more than one rosie, feel free to vote more than once but please make comments here in the posts and share your stories!

[cacoseraph]

it won't let me respond to the poll more than once :(

i bought my female as WC mature. she was sweetness and light for a while, than one day she turned psycho. she was constantly nuts for a long time. within the last four months she has calmed down and two weeks ago she molted. i'm still waiting to try and handle her again

i bought a mature male that was awesome! he seemed very curious and was very docile. the only annoying thing was even though he wasn't a kicker his hairs seemed to make me itch more than anything i have ever experienced. it wasn't bad or anything... but it's the only spider that i had to think about if it was worth being itchy to hold. usually it was =P

[bonesmama]

I've had my Morticia for a year now, and she's only kicked hairs once, not long after she molted. She's my friendliest T otherwise, she'll walk on my hand while I'm doing maintenace,never runs or hides even though I rarely handle her. (She does strike some wierd poses once in awhile,though-she sat with her butt in the air for a week) {D And she hates it when I change her water dish- she actually wrestles me for it, even though I've explained time and again that I'm only cleaning it!

[Rabid Flea]

Sorry guys! I clicked the option for being able to submit multiple answers! I dont know what happened. :( Here is the story on my rosie. I have kept rosies for many years and this is the very first one I have ever had to be psycho. For the last 3 nights she has been doing laps in her cage climbing the glass, climbing on the screen top, and never resting till the day time. When I open her cage she goes into the threat display and starts slapping the substrate. I followed the directions earlier and she has a huge immaculate cage all to herself so I don't think it's anything wrong with her environment. anyone have any ideas?

[odinn7]

I've had mine for 10 years now and never has she given me any problems. I don't handle her but when I put my hand in the tank she will just sit there and let me do what I need to do. I've "spooked" her a few times (perhaps she was sleeping and didn't realize I was intruding?) and the worst I've gotten is she moves quickly a few inches and then calms down. Never has she kicked hairs or made any kind of aggressive move towards me. She is perfectly behaved...well, other than her new habit of pooping in her water now and then.

[rwfoss]

Our rosie was our very first tarantula. Since it was my wife's arachnophobia that was keeping the T's out of the house, I let her pick the first T when she was ready. It crawled onto her hand at the pet shop and has been family ever since. Never flicked hairs, never assumed a defense position, never tried to run/jump off of us when handling. {D

Rick

[CHIPJVELOZ]

I've had mine for only four months. The only time I've seen her give a threat display was when I lifted up her log she uses as a burrow, because I had to remove her molt. Other than that, she has been very calm and stays in her burrow whenever I am cleaning her tank. If I startle her, she usually just moves quickly under her burrow. I would say she is usualy very shy.

[SPIDERBYTE]

I've had mine a month or so, and she's docile untill she gets spooked, then she seems to "teleport" to the other end of the cage, or run up the wall.
She only did that once, (When I made the mistake of touching her rearmost legs)

I've handled her other times, and she doesn't really care for it, she was getting slightly less skittish each time (once a week), but now she's playing "pet rock in the hole"

Im just glad she stays in there when I go to fill her water dish or clean the poo off the walls. :)

[Rabid Flea]

really fast blurry pic of what my rosie does every time i open the cage...
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/h2jeko/Terantulas/G%20rosea/Aug23248.jpg

[prodgers69]

I can't for the life of me tell what mood it will be in from one second to the next! First day she was uber-psycho and tried to bite when I was transferring her to her new enclosure. Next day she was fine, very non aggressive, now for the last week, i cant even walk by the tank without getting a threat display from a cute widdle rosie!

You have just described my rosie perfectly, some days I can do whatever I want in her tank and she won't even move, other days, just opening the tank causes a threat display, she has, on more than one occasion even attacked the water when filling her water dish

[Scolopendra]

my rosie, Scarlet is like a marshmallow, she hides from everything and has never even flicked hairs at me much less given a threat display. but then there is Shelob, my fiance's rosie, she used to be fairly sweet but just recently she has truned into satan-rosie incarnate. if you open the lid she goes into defence posture and if anything comes near, STRIKE,STRIKE, its dead. kinda reminds me of my A.seemani

[galeogirl]

I have two rosies; one is pretty mellow most of the time, the other is extremely defensive.

[NYCspiderGuy]

I have a few and usually all are sweet.
I find that the strangest behavior comes around a molt - before and after - but as with all T generalities, I even have exceptions in my group.

My idea has been that they have that same freaky-gene as A.seemani but are calmer to start so less nervous?
I have a fussy friend about whom another writer-friend said, "It is difficult to know how to please this one, but you know right away when you've pissed him off!"
Goes for my rosie club too.

[Jaden]

I've had the luck with all mine. My male has only tried to bite me once (Which was my fault since he was trying to eat.). All my females and the other male have been calm and cool.

[Mistwalker]

My G. rosea is completely calm. Never bites, never flicks. I think you'd have to be twisting a leg out of it's socket before she'd strike at you.

[Puppet Master]

mine can be a wierd about half the time, some days she is a sweethart and will be very calm and crawl into my had and be a good girl and other days she is skidish and will do weird crazy things like she will climb on the wall of her cage and then just slide down, and she will slid down onto her head and stay that way, or she will just climb and slide down and do it again and again for hours, I know nothing is wrong with her cause sometimes she climbs the same spot on the glass and will just hang their and not move, they are abit looney

[Immortal_sin]

I've had a few different ones, and they were all different personality types. Some of them were quite defensive, and some were quite mellow. The one thing they all had in common was unpredictability though!

[jr47]

ive had 3, 2 very calm and one that would run at my hand and just run into it then she would back up and start bouncing and run into my hand again. really startled me the first time, thought she had me. but she never did try to bite me. just a little head bunt and she was fine, i could clean her cage and she would totally ignore me once she had her little fit.

[Cirith Ungol]

You have just described my rosie perfectly, some days I can do whatever I want in her tank and she won't even move, other days, just opening the tank causes a threat display, she has, on more than one occasion even attacked the water when filling her water dish

Hehe... now I don't need to describe my mature male. That's my boy :D

[brigebane]

Of course my G. rosea's are most mothers at this point so that could account for some anger issues. I'd have to say that I really never know how they'll act though.

[natakamani]

My Rosies an odd one. Im beginning to realize everyones are, lol{D For the first month or so I had her she was doing great. Docile, mellow, a cricket every two days. She had her a schedual. Now? Hell, Im lucky to figure out if shes hungry, much less what mood shes in. For example. Last week at one point she reared up in a defensive position for me taking out her water dish. On the other side of the tank. Yeah. But today and yesterday, shes been out, active, and a total sweetheart, "asking" to be let out and whatnot.

She had about a week there where she was taking a cricket or two a day. Now, at last check, she hasnt eaten in 4 or 5 days.

If I wasnt hearing all this noise about Rosies being in general crazies, I would have gotten so worried! As it is, I just enjoy it. She's not boring. :D

[Amanda]

I voted for the only occasional psychotic episode. She's actually never kicked hairs or tried to bite me, but she's been a bit moody since the egg-sac-eating incident. :(

I have to say, though, that she's my most active and outgoing T, and BY FAR the best eater. If I slide the lid off her tank, move the tank, or even move around too much in front of her tank while working on the others, she'll come out of her burrow or wherever else she's been hanging out and walk to the center of the tank facing me and wait. That's the magic spot where food always appears, haha. On the rare occasion that she isn't hungry, I know so because she just stays put. I never have to worry about dropping crickets in and chasing them down 2 days later because she's let them live. I love it!

[Endora]

i think that mine is weirder then psycho. I tend to always find him upside down lately make his web on the cover. Weird habits most of the time with mini psycho lapses. But i love her just the way she is !

[Natco]

Mine is pretty mellow most of the time. He gives lots of threat displays, but never actually bites, or kicks hair.

[Arlius]

My Rosea is fairly calm, won't do much. I have gotten warned by her though... hands have gotten to close to her without disturbing her (unlike when I am trying to handle) and, faster than I can think she smacks my hand. I didnt think they could hit that hard!
She has never given me a threat display, except for the artificial one once (she wasnt to happy... tocuhed one leg, she would lift it, touched next, lifted, next until all 4 front legs were in the air. It didnt look very threatening though.)

[xgrafcorex]

i have 2 mature females, and i chose 50/50 because one is the extremely calm and just chills or slowly moves along. the other one is pretty calm but has given me some (not very threatening) threat poses...and i have a sneaking suspicion she would eat a potential mate, where as the other would probably just get down :D

[pitbulllady]

I actually have several Rosehairs, and none have exactly the same personality, but I would not call ANY of them predictable! I've gotten full-blown threat displays from every single one, on at least one occasion, and actually been bitten by one of them. All of them have exhibited "panic attack" behavior at some point, running around in terror at the least little disturbance, and then again, I've handled every single one without so much as a hint of a threat display. One thing I've NEVER seen a G. rosea do, though, is flick hairs. No matter how mad or how scared they are, I've never observed this behavior in this species. If a Rosehair does not want to be bothered, in my experience, it will behave in quite the opposite manner from most NW T's, which will usually kick hairs first to let you know to back off, and go on into the threat posture. Every one I've dealt with seemed more likely to bite first than kick hairs.

pitbulllady

[Arlius]

My rosea like I said has never bitten me or given a threat display. It has smacked me a coule times, and once when I was trying to handle it and just wouldnt give up, she got annoyed and kicked up a couple nice clouds. One and only time she has done it.... course I dont make a point of pissing her off either (as tempting as it can be... stupid, dangerous, not very nice, but oh so entertaining...)

[TheNatural]

I have had 3 rosies in my life, and they all had very different personalities. And I say more, I had 1 for 19 years and her moods have changed a lot during ll those years, I mean, she had different phases during her life.

[waldo]

My first T, a rosie, is a complete psycho! I have to use tongs to remove her water dish and she will tag those if she's close.
Sometimes if she's on the other side of the tank then I can use my hand for maintenance but I always watch her real close. I will get a threat display if I remove her lid and once she jumped at my face when I lightly blew on her.

My rosie sling hasn't show any defensive postures but it's skittish, I've held it once and it was ok.

I just recently got what is supposed to be a rosie and she is the mellowest thing ever, has the personality of a rock.

[Katronmaster]

It varries from rose to rose.

Vir - Mature Female - Docile, calm, accepts any handling method and is never even quick about anything.

Spidey - Sub adult female - Skittsih but nonagressive, tends to run away during cage maintenence

Atacama - unsexed sling - Goes threat when the light is turned on, kicks hairs when a human is within ten feet. As soon as the vial opens, it skitters up to bite you.

[Mha8649]

My adult female is super nice I can push her around in her cage and she just moves she never flicks or goes into threat display... Her cage is actualy nice to clean now the newest rosie I got he tries to be all big and bad and flick hairs and run ... I just laugh at him.

[AaronT]

Although I have only supervised my G. rosea for 4 days now, I would say it is very very calm. I had to changed my substrate and it was a bit of a trouble trying to get it out as it tried to move away with every attempt. It never tried to flick hairs or make a defensive stance...{D

[Desert Rose]

Meh rosie, Krunchy is an adult male. He is very moody, but never aggresive. He will either crawl onto your hand strait away, or walk in the opposite direction. He never flicks or bites though. If followed, he will display threats, but he has never attempted to tag me. Although he is moody, it is easy to see wheather he wants you to take him out or not. And yes, sometimes he WANTS to come out, weather its to see me or find a mate, most likely the latter.

*** He had one episode, where he gathered all the green terrarium moss in the cage, rolled it into a ball and stood on top, guarding it. I attampted to remove the moss ball, and he stayed in threat formation (craining upward) for 3 days. {D I THINK HE WAS HIDING HIS SECRET STASH OF HAPPY IN THE MOSS BALL. {D {D {D

[Mina]

My first thought when I saw the title of this thread was, which one? I have seven! So I answered it about my Spider Queen, my very first T, Octavia. She has her moments, sometimes she is grumpy and sometimes she is calm, when she is grumpy she will push your hand away from her or raise her front legs so you aren't touching her. If she is calm she will step onto an offered hand with no fuss and sit there quietly.

[lizmotobike]

when i got my rosie she had not had food or water on a reg basis (that i know of) for 4 mos. there was no water dish so i doubt she had liquid for longer than that. attacked every little movement at all. she got ten crickets right away, as i did not know any better, and she ate them all, 3 at a time, stuffed into her mouth. she ate continuelly for quite a while. know she has 2-3 cricks a week and is relatively sane. she has molted once.

[baboon man8]

My rosie aka Hershy is the most gentle thing in the world. god bless her:worship:

[jen650s]

I have raised 3 from tiny sling to adult male and purchased 1 guaranteed female after the frustration of 3 males in a row (not that the males weren't great, one of them was an absolutely gorgeous red-phase that matured to one of the smallest adult Ts I have ever seen, I just don't like them dying off so soon). Two of the three males were always docile and sweet, one made OBTs look calm-always attacking the glass, the tweezers, anything that moved:wicked:. He was also an escape artist if I opened his lid and wasn't prepared he was out and down the stairs faster than I could respond :wall: , at least he always went the same place to the dog kennel{D .

The female is in between, most of the time she is calm and composed...but then she erupts into the T from hell:evil: . Flicking hairs, giving threat displays running around her tank, up the walls etc. She will do this for a day or two and revert to a calm stereotypical rosie, go figure:? . Maybe it's just because it's her time of the month or something{D, I don't know.

[beetleman]

i have 3 adult females red phase, they are pretty skittish,and they do rear up here and there,great eaters though,they definitly don't like being touched at all.

[ReccaAnt]

I have only had my rosehair for a few weeks, i've had a Golden Knee for a few months, and saw something with her I hadn't seen before. I have handled her a few times and she's always been curious when out. She loves crawling around and seeing things, but never looks for a place to hide or seems like she's trying to get away.

The other day, she spent at leaste a half hour laying web in her enclosure. Following that she was bringing her rear leg up to her mount, and using her pedilaps and chiclecera(sp..) she was working the tip of her leg through her mouth, then she would rub her rear. Mostly just outside the spinneretes.

Has anybody else seen this behavior? Do you know what it is? She did it for 20+ minutes. It looked really cute, she had all her legs pulled in closely underneath her which made her look really tall, and her body was kinda leaning towards the side which she didn't have her rear leg planted as she was "cleaning" herself with it.

Let me know, i'm curious!!

[RoachGirlRen]

My Chilean Rosehair is fricken INSANE. If she spots any movement, she comes tearing out of her hide in attack mode, rearing up, even though she's the plumpest, most well-fed T I've ever seen. I'm not sure if a tarantula's behavior can be warped by past mistreatment, but she came to me on the verge of death, utterly emaciated, filled with mites, and dehydrated - along with five others, two of which were beyond salvation. The other two survivors, from the accounts of their owners, are equally surly. So perhaps that early lack of sustinence made them a bit hyperagressive? :?

[tinacouch]

We have two in the house,one that is an absolute sweetheart and the other is a evil little so and so. You can't even walk by her cage without (a) getting hairs flicked in your direction or (b) her showing you a nice threat display.:8o

[zimbu]

My mature male is a bit of a psycho... sometimes he'll gimme a half hearted threat display, sometimes he pulls his legs over himself and turns into a ball of leg, and occasionally he'll just walk onto my hand when I'm doing tank maintenance. Oh, and he's afraid of jumbo mealworms.

My female on the other hand, is quite predictable. She's fairly active, ambling around her enclosure at night, and ever since she moulted never ever turns down food (she considers the above MM food most of the time... it has made mating them a hassle). She'll eat crickets on the spot, but with jumbo mealworms she usually carts them off to her half log and eats under there. NEVER threatens me or kicks hairs though, whatever she does.

[robbie]

My rosie was very docile during the winter months and when the summer came along and the temp went back up (low 80s inside) i noticed her becoming more active and she also became more easily ajitated. That is not to say she went all psyco on me, she just showed a little discomfort by raiseng her rear.

[Nivek]

My rosie, which I got 7 years ago and named "Rose" in a fit of childhood creativity haha. She's evil. Not aggressive at all, never flicks hairs or goes into any threat display. She is such a mean spirited spider though! She will crawl around and find a nice spot on your arm, slowly rub one of her back legs all around her abdomen and get a bunch of hairs, and just casually rub them into her chosen spot on your arm. She's the calmest thing I've ever seen though. Just very, very spiteful.

[IdahoBiteyThing]

These are great stories! I have two and they are like night and day. My female, Courtney Love (my favorite pet Hole) has an awesome burrow with two entrances she shoots out of in order to perform her Baboon-ish threat displays. She's worse than my OBT, but never, ever kicks hairs. My other one (yes, Curt Cobain) has kicked hair once or twice but never throws threat displays, always wants to come out of the tank and go exploring. Pretty laid back, just takes a short stroll around then wanders back where he came from. These spiders seem to be all over the page in terms of behaviors. I'm liking them more and more.

[barkobarko]

well my rosie belongs to the OMG group, i bought her from a friend, from her rosies sack, and believe it, its a thing called "like mother like daughter ", from water dish refilling, misting until cage maintenance she always always and always attack on any thing that lands on her area:(
like her mother she acts like an OBT too.

I'm really jealous on you guys that your rosie is a complete sweetheart:8o

[beetleman]

:wicked: i like my red phase rosies(3 females) aggressive,boring they are not{D

[Laceface]

My rosie is a big sweetie. The most shes ever done is slap me, and thats because I was trying to remove by hand a cricket piece she felt was still HERS. Sometimes shell sit in her water (just because I want it), or chase my tweezers while I walk, but shes never vicious about it or anything. Shes a sweetie, for sure!

[R.W.]

50/50

For some reason my rose hair, Zoey, is quite nervous. I'm guessing that this is the reason for her mood swings. She is not normally agressive but usually runs pretty fast when disturbed.

[Ewok]

my rosehair was 50/50 when I had her, one time I htought of picking her up, so I tested her by brushing a straw against her leg. She bit the straw three times and started to climb up it:eek:. That could of been my hand{D. She was about 4-5" in.

[skooma_addict]

My chilean rose was the typical "pet rock" for about three years but then all of sudden she bit my tongs while cleaning up the poor cricket whose remains she placed in the corner. I mean, I could hear the click from her fangs on the wood! Ever since, she"s been the typical placid rosie 99% of the time, but every now and then she gets sassy. Especially with the water dish. I usually gotta wrestle away from her or out of her little cave thingy she turned the log into. All my T's "guard" the water dish...don't know why, but about two or three times a week I gotta pull it out of the cave and refill it (since in the process of her dragging it it spilled everywhere!):confused:

[fartkowski]

I've had my rosea for about 3 years and she has never showed any crazy behavior, not even a hair flick. She only threat posed once when I was pouring the water in the dish. She does show some very VERY odd tendincies but nothing psycho.

[funnylori]

My female is mellow, most of the time, sort of... I guess? She's gotten fiesty before molts, but most of the time she is a sweety pie.

My male hasn't reared at me yet. He'll submit to many kinds of torture before he gets flighty. Especially when torture means a sudden lift with a kitchen spoon into his girlfriend's tank for another over-nighter. He's finally made some babies!

[Zeus9699]

I have never had or even seen an aggressive Rose

[jimidennis_16]

Rose hairs are pretty unpredictable. My male is as skiddish as my Irminia. It's also thrown some threat displays at me.

[Emilyloulou]

I bought my rosie from a local pet shop, it was sold to me as a 3 year old adult male so it got it cheap, but is actually a female, and im assuming adult because she is HUGE. The petshop said the last owner couldnt handle her and actually gave me the tank she was in because they didnt want to disturb her as they were scared. They told me to mind my fingers. I thought maybe they were over reacting until we were driving back and in the car she went PYSCHO, biting the side of the tank, fangs out, threat displays, venom everywhere. I transferred her carefully into a temporary box while i sorted out her new tank and she left a big puddle of venom on the floor and down the side of the box. Since then every time i feed her she gets her threat display out.

[olablane]

Ive got anjelina Ive had her 5 yrs now and she has always been a very sweet lady. No threats or nothing I love her.

[Keith1212]

mines very very calm.

[WitchyGirl]

My Rosie was a little psycho when I first got her, for about two months she wouldn't let me touch her. She came from an abusive environment though. As soon as I got her housing straightened out for her, she became my best friend though.

[Jeri]

I have five, and they are all unpredictable. Sometimes they'll be psycho, others they are pet rocks. Just when you think they have settled into any single temperment, they will change their attitudes just to prove you wrong. The funniest thing is that there is no rhyme, reason, or pattern to their behavior.

[-Sarah-]

My first G. rosea is a real sweetheart :} She was my first-ever tarantula, I'm so thankful I didn't pass her by that day in the pet store. My second one, a freebie, can be a little crazy at times (running spastic around the terrarium if I move it, for an example). Most of the time though, it's cool. They each have their moments when I startle or scare them, but as far as their behaviour goes, they are total sweethearts.

-Sarah

[misfit762]

I've had mine, Babe Ruth for almost 3 months and he's never, ever acted out in any way. Never flicks hairs or attempts to bite.

[CFNSmok.PL]

I have one regular and four red forms. All females and so far all very calm.

Smok.

[HaploFool]

My Rosehair is usually pretty calm though when you attempt to handle her she gets a bit skittish and jumpy. However, once I introduced her to a male and mating took place she got a bit defensive and even started showing some fang.
She all webbed up inside her hide to lay an egg sac now and hopefully she won't be so high strung after the babies have been removed.

[EightLeggedFrea]

Mine has always been mellow, my friends and even my mom handles her. She does, however, scurry around in short bursts of speed when her cage is opened whether it be to feed, water, or handle. When you get her out, however, she slows down. She's never even as much as flicked hairs.

[fishwithoutabik]

I haven't had my adult female long but she is extremely calm and well mannered. She isn't quite the pet rock that I hear they usually are, she walks around a bit and is always out in the open, however she isn't nervous. The one exception was last week when she was in her hide, and I touched her back leg gently. She scared the crap outta me for a sec cause she spun around and smacked my hand! I had never seen her move so fast! but after she reminded me to respect her private hiding spot, she was fine, lol. Lesson learned!

[ancient flowers]

mines normal it just flickers a lil hair but no severe cases at all:eek: :eek: :eek:

[slinky1000]

Hi,
my rosie only used threat display once, that was when i was putting in a new 'hide' for her. usually she allows my hand in the tank without any bother, just disappears to other side of tank. even when i transferred her to a new home, she was placid and behaved. never flicked hairs

[Sir Legalot]

I have three.

nr1. is pitch black with pink hair, 4 inch female, sweet as marshmallows

nr2. is more red in colour, 3 inch female, sweet still, but has kicked hair once.

nr3. looks like your common garden variety(if u live in chile ;) ) , 5.5 inch female, death on eight legs....
.....she is the cuddly little eight legged bloodsucking vampire teddybear from hell....

[jellybean]

shes crazy as in she doesnt act like a rock but not mental in a nast aggresive way, shes never threat posed me or kicked hairs

[calum]

I have one that was a proper psyco bitch. getting a sac from her was crazy.

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bitebitebitebitebitebitebitebitebitebitebitebitebi tebitebitebitebitebitebitebitebitebitebitebitebite bitebitebitebitebitebitebitebitebite

[Jojos]

My rosies are little babies and not agressive at all. One I got at the beginning of December. The other I got this last tuesday the 6.

For now, I'm lucky!;)

[Drachenjager]

Hi,
my rosie only used threat display once, that was when i was putting in a new 'hide' for her. usually she allows my hand in the tank without any bother, just disappears to other side of tank. even when i transferred her to a new home, she was placid and behaved. never flicked hairs

do yall realize this was dead for 5 months? oh well