I went out and bought tarantula toys

Yep, I did. A six-pack of ping pong balls. They smelled a little funny when I first opened the package, so I let them air out for a few days. This morning I gave six of my larger Ts their new toys.
MF G. rosea moved hers onto her web mat and has started webbing it down.
Sub-adult males G. pulchra and B. vagans are ignoring theirs.
Sub-adult male LP is checking his out as I type this, feeling it over with his pedipalps.
Sub-adult females B. boehmei and LP have moved theirs but, now ignoring them.

I wonder what they would do with styrofoam peanuts?

With styrofoam ........ They build monuments

funny... i cut a piece of pvc pipe into the size of a toilet paper roll and used to put it in my G. roseas cage.. she would roll it around like she was playing with it... NOW she doesnt do ANYTHING anymore

Never heard of Ts building monuments HAH but when I had Waldo (B. vagans) in an

Exo-terra.. he ran out of substrate and room, as he was in the corner, then started chipping away at the styrofoam rockwall!!

grayzone said:

funny... i cut a piece of pvc pipe into the size of a toilet paper roll and used to put it in my G. roseas cage.. she would roll it around like she was playing with it... NOW she doesnt do ANYTHING anymore

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My G. rosea used to move all the time. Now it hardly ever moves

HoboAustin said:

My G. rosea used to move all the time. Now it hardly ever moves

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My Charlotte is the same way until about 10 mins ago she decided to spray my left hand with hairs. Its pretty painful XD

I didnt even know Tarantulas play with toys o.o
i might as well give it a try xD

I didnt even know Tarantulas play with toys

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Stan Schultz mentioned something about it, figured I would give it a try.
G. rosea has webbed hers some more. Most of the others seem to have either no interest or have given up interest.

I'm gonna try hot glue a fake butterfly on a string in the avics cage now

Young male LP has decided he wants to be a soccer player when he grows up. He's had that ping pong ball all over his enclosure, including through the water bowl. What a goof!
G. pulchra has pushed his to the furthest corner of the tank away from his hide.

My mom just came to me and announced that my G. rosea "has laid the biggest egg I've ever seen for a spider!"
LOL

Formerphobe said:

Young male LP has decided he wants to be a soccer player when he grows up. He's had that ping pong ball all over his enclosure, including through the water bowl. What a goof!
G. pulchra has pushed his to the furthest corner of the tank away from his hide.

My mom just came to me and announced that my G. rosea "has laid the biggest egg I've ever seen for a spider!"
LOL

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Well it is the national sport of his country after all. :biggrin:

my old male L.p would "play soccer" too (prior to ultimate molt) with the glass rocks from his water dish... wonder if its a sp./genus thing, a male thing, or just a weird t thing

grayzone said:

wonder if its a sp./genus thing, a male thing, or just a weird t thing

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ts are odd beings. but you do bring up a qustion

Funny you should mention building monuments. Last Friday when I was feeding/watering part of the "rounds" (I have to feed in stages, too many for one day), I found this in my G. pulchar's habitat.

Marga

toxic667 said:

My Charlotte is the same way until about 10 mins ago she decided to spray my left hand with hairs. Its pretty painful XD

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If you think that is painful don't get hit by T. blondi hair Let me tell you...lol

I wouldn't try that BS (sorry, in my view it is that...T's don't need "toys", but whatever...) with a Poeci or Psalm or any OW species...could happen they assume it's an eggsack or whatnot and you might run into some pretty bad problems when trying to remove that thing out of the enclosure. Not to mention that would stress out the T in question quite some...unnessarily should be added.

Note: Don't want to offend anyone - I just don't see why a T would need something to "play" with really. I suppose, it's mostly the keepers who want to see some "action" (in terms of "my T is moving - no pet rock / pet hole") I guess...just my view of things *shrugs*

lol my T would probably practice it's beer pong skills.

did somebody say beer pong??? I LOVE LOSING

I wouldn't try that BS (sorry, in my view it is that...T's don't need "toys", but whatever...) with a Poeci or Psalm or any OW species...could happen they assume it's an eggsack or whatnot and you might run into some pretty bad problems when trying to remove that thing out of the enclosure. Not to mention that would stress out the T in question quite some...unnessarily should be added.

Note: Don't want to offend anyone - I just don't see why a T would need something to "play" with really. I suppose, it's mostly the keepers who want to see some "action" (in terms of "my T is moving - no pet rock / pet hole") I guess...just my view of things *shrugs*

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You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but calling someone else's opinion 'BS' is, well, BS.

Since it was suggested by the man who co-authored the Tarantula Keeper's 'Bible(s)', I didn't suspect Stan of suggesting something that would be detrimental to the Ts. I was curious to see what they would do with them.

I view the ping pong balls as 'toys'. The Ts just see them as something else in their enclosures along with plants, hides, bowls, etc. And probably much safer for them than some of the wood, ceramic, plastic and other decorations people put in enclosures for the keeper's benefit. And no different than some of the trash left behind by people that they might encounter in the wild.

Several of my Ts have been known to stack bottle caps (water bowls) much as Captmarga's pictures show. I even had one juvenile Brachypelma move her water bowl/cap to the top of a plant in her enclosure. A few of my Ts 'defend' their water bowls when I add water.
Would you suggest I no longer offer a water source as it might unnecessarily stress the T, or cause a problem if I try to add water or remove it for cleaning?

I did not give any of my 'pet rocks' the ping pong balls. Only the more active Ts that already do 'landscaping' got them. None of my OW or heavy webbers got ping pong balls. Seemed a waste.

I will be pulling the ping pong balls from a couple of the Ts since they show little to no interest. (Uh, I'll be leaving their water bowls...) My sub-adult male LP is currently 'co-habbing' with his ball in his hide, where he moved it while I was at work today. He doesn't seem too awfully stressed, and I really don't think he has any aspirations to hatch it, so he gets to keep his.

Thanks for your opinion, though.

Immature female B. boehmei has wedged her ball into the corner of her hide, as has the mature female G. rosea. These are two of my most laid back Ts, though not pet rocks by any means. Both had meals yesterday, got their water bowls cleaned and some minor tank maintenance. Neither was defensive over their balls, but neither has ever displayed defensiveness over anything.



The immature male LP continues to shuffle his around the enclosure and no longer tries to do the same to his water bowl, which is much heavier than the ping pong ball. Nor is he defensive of the ball, though he continues to be of his water bowl. (He's had water bowl 'issues' since he was about 3".)