Tarantula filling water dish.

Today I watched my G. pulchripes, 2+ inches dls, fill its water dish with substrate. It was pretty hilarious to watch it roll up a ball of dirt, purposely walk over to the dish (a bottle cap filled with water) and drop it in. The dish is now under an inch or so of coco-fibre and webbing.

It has done this a few times, and I've read of it as well. The reason for this behaviour is usually 'Spiders are weird'. I'm just wondering what might be the motivation for this. It can't be just to entertain me.

Some spiders just like to change things. I'm sure it's instinctual, but why? I do not know haha but as you mentioned it is very entertaining.

I too have a pulchripes that is constantly moving things around. What I'm most interested by is how strong they are relative to their size!

My specimen has dug up, overturned and buried his hide (5 hour energy bottle cut in half) on multiple occasions!

EDIT: I forgot to mention that my Chaco also buries his water dish regularly... ...I don't know why I keep filling it up haha

One theory I've heard is in the wild they instinctively place garbage in puddles because it gets washed away next rain, and apparently mistake water bowls for puddles.

My G. rosea treats its water dish like a trash can and toilet. It makes cleaning up spider poop and boluses (boli?) very easy, but the problem is that she still wants to drink out of it.

MrDave said:

The reason for this behaviour is usually 'Spiders are weird'.

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They're evolved their behavior over thousands of years. Just because we don't understand it doesn't make them 'weird'. Any shortcomings are at our end, not theirs. We take them out of their habitats & put them in our houses and wonder why they do things that don't make sense to us.

Think about it. Why would they put soil in a water bowl? Because that's a low spot and they're filling it in. That's makes their digging less conspicuous to other animals, especially predators. Also keeps them from falling in or stumbling over a low spot near their retreat; sometimes they have to dash back in quickly and don't need an obstacle course.

Spiders are hydrophobic. Standing water freaks them out. This tends to be most prominent with the terrestrials. Given the opportunity, the ambitious T will make an effort to eliminate this threat to their lowly homes and tunnels. Proactive topside maintenance lowers the risk of later damage inside the burrow.....it's an insurance policy of sorts.

Yes, I'm making this up as I go.....but it may be as good a theory as some. The cool part is the mystery in it all, and that no one really knows......

Jack III said:

Spiders are hydrophobic. Standing water freaks them out. This tends to be most prominent with the terrestrials. Given the opportunity, the ambitious T will make an effort to eliminate this threat to their lowly homes and tunnels. Proactive topside maintenance lowers the risk of later damage inside the burrow.....it's an insurance policy of sorts.

Yes, I'm making this up as I go.....but it may be as good a theory as some. The cool part is the mystery in it all, and that no one really knows......

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Really? I got aboreals who leave bolas in water dishes.... I through out bad W/dishes this week a few times they smelled awful.

Ultum4Spiderz said:

I got aboreals who leave bolas in water dishes.... I through out bad W/dishes this week a few times they smelled awful.

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A number of species do that; Theraphosa have some of the most vile water bowls you can imagine. I use cheap disposable water bowls for all my spiders because of that. Between feces, boluses, and drowned crickets, I can't in good conscience expect them to drink out of those fouled bowls again. I get them by the sleeve at restaurant supply stores, 1oz and 3oz. I use the lids from 16 oz plastic water bottles for slings.

Arboreals do seem especially fond of disposing of boluses in their water bowls. It's far too often to be coincidence. More than half of my collection is arboreal, so I see this every day. For them, off the ground, they're not dealing with puddles, but with places that hold water briefly in trees: in epiphytes, rough bark, and crotches of branches. Perhaps spiders are using these spots for trash disposal, as they're usually flushed out after a good rain. They certainly wouldn't be deliberately fouling the limited water sources they have available to them.

Everything about tarantulas, from their shape, size, color, markings, temperament, sex ratios, number and size of slings in a sac, etc, to their behavior has been carefully developed over thousands of years to be beneficial to their survival. We just have to watch them and figure it out.

They clearly have a reason for this behaviour(Poec54's theory sounds pretty good) as so many do it. So calling it "being weird" sound off.
I prefer "spiders be spidin'. "

Poec54 said:

They're evolved their behavior over thousands of years. Just because we don't understand it doesn't make them 'weird'. Any shortcomings are at our end, not theirs. We take them out of their habitats & put them in our houses and wonder why they do things that don't make sense to us.

Think about it. Why would they put soil in a water bowl? Because that's a low spot and they're filling it in. That's makes their digging less conspicuous to other animals, especially predators. Also keeps them from falling in or stumbling over a low spot near their retreat; sometimes they have to dash back in quickly and don't need an obstacle course.

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Yeah, I was looking for something better than 'weird' as an explanation - something based on its evolved behaviour. This makes sense, though. Except, maybe, that there's other low spots that its ignoring.

It's also blocked off the entrance to the hide. Its done this before prior to molting, but this time its outside its hide, blocking its own access to it. Wondering why they do things is as much fun as watching them do it.

---------- Post added 11-19-2014 at 10:03 AM ----------

I'm gonna steal "spiders be spiding'" and claim I made it up.

---------- Post added 11-19-2014 at 10:10 AM ----------

Cavedweller said:

One theory I've heard is in the wild they instinctively place garbage in puddles because it gets washed away next rain, and apparently mistake water bowls for puddles.

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Interesting. Maybe instead of just dumping the dish back into the enclosure I should dump it into the garbage. I can rarely find the boluses my spiders leave, so perhaps they've wrapped them up into the dirt they put into the dish?

I'm just guessing here, but it could be instinctual due to the fact in nature often water flows away, therefor they may be putting their boluses and rubbish etc in the water thinking it will be washed away from their territory.

In any case, it's really annoying lol

SuzukiSwift said:

I'm just guessing here, but it could be instinctual due to the fact in nature often water flows away, therefor they may be putting their boluses and rubbish etc in the water thinking it will be washed away from their territory.

In any case, it's really annoying lol

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But we're intruding in on a successful behavior that's been fine-tuned over thousands of years. We need to look beyond our convenience and try to accommodate the spider to act like it does in the wild. These aren't domestic cats and dogs that we can expect to behave in a manner that meets our approval.

Poec54 said:

These aren't domestic cats and dogs that we can expect to behave in a manner that meets our approval.

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My girlfriend's dogs and cat do not behave in a manner that meets my approval. I would prefer that they act more like spiders, personally. :biggrin:

vespers said:

My girlfriend's dogs and cat do not behave in a manner that meets my approval. I would prefer that they act more like spiders, personally.

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True, but they are trainable to some extent, or we couldn't live with them at all; they'd destroy our houses. Spiders on the other hand, we have to accept them as they are.

vespers said:

My girlfriend's dogs and cat do not behave in a manner that meets my approval. I would prefer that they act more like spiders, personally. :biggrin:

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I hope you don't want a Dog or cat to act like an Orange baboon? Dog or cat Either can be trained , dogs usually more so than cats.

SuzukiSwift said:

I'm just guessing here, but it could be instinctual due to the fact in nature often water flows away, therefor they may be putting their boluses and rubbish etc in the water thinking it will be washed away from their territory.

In any case, it's really annoying lol

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when my spiders poop or leave boluses in their water dishes, i take them out, clean them and refill with fresh water.
so i guess it works in captivity too.

Poec54 said:

But we're intruding in on a successful behavior that's been fine-tuned over thousands of years. We need to look beyond our convenience and try to accommodate the spider to act like it does in the wild. These aren't domestic cats and dogs that we can expect to behave in a manner that meets our approval.

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I never said I don't accommodate them, I just said it's annoying, as in inconvenient =)

---------- Post added 11-21-2014 at 07:35 AM ----------

timisimaginary said:

when my spiders poop or leave boluses in their water dishes, i take them out, clean them and refill with fresh water.
so i guess it works in captivity too.

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This is what I do also, and what every keeper should do