Is it possible to influence temperament?

Hello Folks
This might be a stupid question but I would still like to hear some opionions.

The thing is that my L. Parahybana is a one bad-ass T. Generally it is quite difficult to find her in good mood so that I can clean the enclosure, she goes into a threat posture as soon as I open the lid. If I still continue disturbing her
surroundings, she goes into a beast mode and runs around attempting to bite anything that moves. Definitely not one to be handled. I always try to cover her by to plastic tub, as gently as possible. Throwing the tub on her would
surely work, But I am afraid of hurting her. Last time I had to keep trying for several weeks to find the right time for her so she would tolerate being covered by a tub, and I could work on her enclosure. She is about 4,5 inches in
legspan, and It is going to be "fun" doing this once she reaches full size.
Last week she was redecorating and for some reason, I think she did it on purpose...I was watching her...She was making small balls about 1,5inch in diameter out of webs and dirt, and she kept droping them into her water dish. And she
just does not let me clean it It is not possible to move her away from them, and nudging her gently with a paint brush will only result in the brush being bitten.
I tried to expain to her that she is a NW species and her primary defence should be kicking bristles and running away, but obviously she forgot to read the manual. Bristles are bad enough but still relatively easy to deal with. The plastic
bottle trick does not work, since she doesnt know that she is supposed to run into it, not attack it.

Did any of you have any experience with Ts being less defensive by e.g. by turning the temperature of the room down, or exposing it to light.....or anything?

The reason she keeps filling up her dish is because to clear her way to her burrow/hide, in the wild they can't afford to stumble over anything, just move the dish around until she leaves it alone. Regarding maintenance, I would personally put a deli cup over the T while she's in her enclosure and then do maintenance. Maintenance has to be done, you don't want a bolus and poop filled enclosure.. I don't think there's a way you can change the way she responds, you just need to do what has to be done, and adjust accordingly.. I have a very difficult T, and doesn't matter what the temps, light etc, she's always defensive when doing maintenance, exposing some Ts to excessive light makes them skittish and more prone to bolt

Thanks, I kind of figured as much, just wanted to make sure. As I said her tantrums make it hard to even cover her with a tupperware or anything similar. She keeps striking it, and raising her legs,
so it's hard to cover her without using excessive force, especially since she's already pretty big, and will get much bigger still. Sometimes she comes straight at me. So far I have not been bitten,
and I'm trying to avoid this experience
I love her and accept that she doesn't like to be messed with. I guess it just requires a bit more practice in dealing with her. At least he doesn't bolt, she usually stands her ground or slowly
advances trying to strike.
It's funny how different individuals of the same species of a seemingly simple animal whose behaviour is based purely on instincts can have different "personalities". I've seen LP that was even
slower and calmer than my BS. That one didn't show any signs of defensivness even when handled.

If it doesn't like you going in there, just re-house every time it gets excessively bolus/poop-ridden or use tongs. I don't stress much about getting every little bolus and turd I notice...just moldy un-eaten prey that doesn't quite make it to the bolus terminus.
As far as temperament modification goes.....I've noticed that an elevated temperature can turn the 'nice' tarantula into a more...active....tarantula. Food for thought? I also don't handle my spiders.

How big is the enclosure and any chance of pictures? Habitat being incorrect in a small way can cause different temperaments if it's stressful for the t in my experiance.

I have a large,super aggressive MM T.stirmi that I have to put in and take out of the females cage.He does his thing,throws up a threat pose and all,but I just put a 32 oz. deli cup in front of him,and the lid behind him,and scoot. He attacked it once,but I scolded him,and now he mostly just threatens.

If you want to test the "mood" your spider is in a paint brush can work, just stroke a back leg and see what happens. Though I don't do this with my OW aboreals, if they start pacing around or throwing poses I leave them alone. The best time to do cleaning is when it's bright out, most Ts don't like light and you have the advantage of seeing well.

I can tell exactly how the brush against the leg will work, she turns and bites 90% of the time. Ahe has only been in her enclosure for about 4 months now, didn't
take to the half of coconut hide I provided, instead, she made herself a shallow hole in one corner. But she periodically demolishes the hole and makes a new one. I'll'll take a picture and post it when I come home, maybe there is something wrong about the enclosure.
Besides this LP rarely hides, she spends most of the time out in the open, usually calm and not moving too much, unless she's working on something, or something
disturbes her.

Feisty spiders are best in larger cages; gives you more room to work in, and you're less likely to disturb them.

Poec54 said:

Feisty spiders are best in larger cages; gives you more room to work in, and you're less likely to disturb them.

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Also works with skittish spiders, I over home my taps and pokies, they can still zip around the cage in a second but there is just a little more time for me to react.

awiec said:

Also works with skittish spiders, I over home my taps and pokies, they can still zip around the cage in a second but there is just a little more time for me to react.

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And that extra second or two can make all the difference in getting your hand out of the way, or getting a lid back on instead of watching the spider bolt out of the cage.

Poec54 said:

And that extra second or two can make all the difference in getting your hand out of the way, or getting a lid back on instead of watching the spider bolt out of the cage.

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My female P.regalis tested it out, I still only got the lid on right before she got to the top, and she started from the bottom of the cage.

Photos

This is her enclosure. It is made of glass with perforated strip of metal for ventilation. For now it is secured with just a piece of duct tape.




And this is how she says: Hello, might I interest you in a new hole in your finger?

Well, I don't think that it's the cause of her stress, but I can say that lid looks VERY insecure to me. I would highly worry about escapes! Also the possibility of getting her tarsi stuck. The whole lid area just makes me nervous.

As for the thing you were actually writing us about... the spider looks very exposed. Perhaps she wants more cover. Have you considered trying some fake plants or more things to hid in/behind/around? You could also try covering the glass on half the tank... if she stays in the dark half, you know that was the problem.

Thank you, the lid is actually pretty well made, there are no gapes on the sides, it is firm and protrudes a bit at the lower edge, so i think she will be fine, my BS has been in similar, but smaller enclosure for
quite some time without any incident. But she has a hook and rubber band contraption to keep the lid fixed. I might need to make something similar here as well.
Thanks for the tip about coverage. I thought I would focus on learning the basics and pay attention to beautification later...but I guess it can serve a purpose.

Give her a bigger hide as well, that one looks a bit too small..

It is very easy to influence temperaments. Just start a thread suggesting OBTs as a first tarantula and watch what happens to the temperaments here.

I actually got the LP, because I wanted something more feisty than my BS. Well, I got what I asked for and then some. She's more defensive than most LPs I've seen or heard of, and I've done research on them beforehand. But she's fun to watch, a great spider...I'm not regretting getting her. But at least I know that her bite
would be relatively harmless, altough those fangs seem quite large.
However I'm not even considering OBT yet, I know that they should be easy to care for, and are beautifully colored, but still...all in due time

Skrupo said:

But at least I know that her bite would be relatively harmless, altough those fangs seem quite large.

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Harmless? I wouldn't call getting two large fangs thru your finger harmless. There's no guarantee that they won't hang on either.

Poec54 said:

Harmless? I wouldn't call getting two large fangs thru your finger harmless. There's no guarantee that they won't hang on either.

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A friend's adult female rosea slammed me in the hand with her fangs, it certainly hurt, it's very uncomfortable to have *two* 1/2 inch fangs go through your skin. Granted the wound had swelled back down by the next day but it still was not pleasant. Which is why I decided not to get a rosea when I got into tarantulas and why I don't handle, once was enough for me.

edit* changed 2 to two for clarity.