My GBB's webbing habits are puzzling

I can't for the life of me figure out why my GBB juvie sticks to this strange webbing cycle:

- After every molt, as soon as it hardens up, it takes off all the webbing it made over the course of the previous instar and apparently eats it. That makes sense. The T prepares to web anew for its newer, larger self and also recovers whatever leftover nutrients the web may still have.
- Then comes the strange part. For 2 to 4 weeks after molting, it doesn't web at all. It's still an enthusiastic feeder, but it spends most of the time hanging around on the platform I put in for the T to hang the web off of. So hunger is apparently not the instinct that triggers webbing.
- After 2 to 4 weeks, the GBB suddenly webs all over the enclosure, usually overnight in one go. It's not nearly in premolt yet, so it's unlikely that premolt self-defence against intruders is the instinct that triggers it.

Long story short: my GBB webs right smack in the middle of instar, which makes no sense to me. Tarantulas are weird! :biggrin:

Odd, but as you said: They're weird. And they know what they're doing. I like oddballs, don't you?

Honestly that isn't quite so unusual (except perhaps the munching on the web). Most of my webbers do so in spurts-in fact very few of mine seem to do so constantly, even those that are supposed to be heavy webbers. My MF GBB also starts major remodeling directly after a molt-can't say I've noted her eating her web, but like many Ts, I was able to observe her tearing down and moving sheets of webbing with her fangs. This is part of the fun of keeping tarantulas-getting to observe their behavior.

Belle Fury said:

Honestly that isn't quite so unusual (except perhaps the munching on the web). Most of my webbers do so in spurts-in fact very few of mine seem to do so constantly, even those that are supposed to be heavy webbers. My MF GBB also starts major remodeling directly after a molt-can't say I've noted her eating her web, but like many Ts, I was able to observe her tearing down and moving sheets of webbing with her fangs. This is part of the fun of keeping tarantulas-getting to observe their behavior.

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To be honest, I haven't actually seen it eat the web, so that's more of an educated guess based on the fact that other spiders are known to consume their own web. Also there's no way the GBB could dispose of it in any other way short of burying it in the substrate like a dog, but that's even less plausible. :biggrin:

RussoTuristo said:

Also there's no way the GBB could dispose of it in any other way short of burying it in the substrate like a dog, but that's even less plausible. :biggrin:

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honestly his wouldnt suprize me as one of my rosea burries her poo and a gbb poops on wall like an avic wiel also silking his leftovers up and hanging by a thread where he hardly goes [makes me think of the old hanging pirates courpses at a port to ward off other pirates] Tarantulas are just as weird as humans XD