Tarantula biting?

Amimia

Arachnosquire
Joined
Aug 21, 2014
Messages
103
I have an adult G. Rosea and in her cage is a plastic palm tree like plant I got at a petstore. Basically it's her favorite hide (she has a log in the other corner), well today I noticed her leaning against the wall like she was going to climb it, but she had one of the leaflet things in her little palps and appeared to be biting on it. It turns out there are a bunch of bite marks on the leaf. Any reason she's doing this?
BTW, I feed her quite often (probably more than she needs)
 

Storm76

Arachnoemperor
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 30, 2012
Messages
3,797
It's called remodelling. A number of T's (Acanthoscurria spp. are famous for it btw) does this. Nothing to be worried about imo.
 

Arachnomaniac19

Arachnolord
Joined
Aug 23, 2014
Messages
652
Probably just "smelling" it? Sorry I don't have an exact answer.

[Edit]
Wow, I never though of remodelling. I guess I better stay off the boards until I get my brain back on track.
 

EulersK

Arachnonomicon
Staff member
Joined
Feb 22, 2013
Messages
3,292
I've seen pictures on this forum of tarantulas that literally tore apart the foam backing on their enclosures. They're spiders, they do what they want. I like to throw in an appropriate sized paper ball into my active T's enclosures - most of them actually do some interesting things. Carry it around for a few days, bury it, throw it in the water dish, incorporate it into the webbing, etc. Since you appear to have an active tarantula, try that out!
 

miss moxie

Arachnoprince
Joined
Jun 13, 2014
Messages
1,804
I love watching my tarantulas remodel! My MM Euathlus sp. "red" is the king of remodeling.

Here is a video of him doing so with his substrate. Very 'cute' the way he uses his fangs/pedipalps to move it around and 'bulldoze' so to speak.

{Video}
 
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