Rose Hair Gets Mean :(

Greetings,

I have a question about my rose hair. I have had her for over a month now and have noticed a major attitude change.

I got her a petco and after a few days I finally decided to handle her. Seeing that she was the sweetest of spiders I kept her out of her enclosure a good ammount, took her in the bedroom to watch tv etc. She seemed to like the attention but after a week some important things came up and I was not able to pay as much attention to her as orginaly though she was fed, fresh water and the cleaning still took place, just not the handling or touching.

I have now noticed, 2 weeks latter, that her overall attitude has changed.... She now attacks anything that comes near her. She is not agressive enough to run over and snap but if I get too close to her when maintaining her home I have to watch her very closely now because she will attack anything that comes within an inch of her now.

My question is, what could of caused this change in attitude? Was it a form of neglect? Change in the tempature? Maybe some form of tarantula PMS?

I think this is silly but my wifes says its because when I first got the tarantual I showed it alot of affection but then work came up and I couldent baby it as much. I heard this is not posible with tarantulas since they really don't care for affection.

I don't know, maybe an expert here may have an idea.

Thanks

I've noticed that when in premolt a lot of spiders will swat at anything that comes near while under normal circumstances are very tolerant of most objects/situations.They'll swat at crickets without killing them...swat at foreceps when usually they don't mind them.Could be a sign of an impending molt coming on??

It could also be that the spider is starting settle into its new home and feels it now has something to defend...


regards, Mike

I, too, have noticed that many of my spiders tend to get "PMS-y" when they are in pre-moult, which can take several months. I have a medium-sized female Rosehair who is just a terror right now, though she was pretty laid-back when I got her. I've also noticed that this species in general tends to be moody-fine one day and nasty the next. It's just a Rosehair thing, I guess, along with long fasts. I don't think that not handling the spider for any length of time has anything to do with, since I really don't think a spider would even notice, let alone get upset about it. This seems to be the time of year for moulting, since many of mine are either in pre-moult or have just moulted, so I guess that would most likely be the cause.

pitbulllady

Spiders have feelings too.. .

HunterBlackmoon said:

I kept her out of her enclosure a good ammount, took her in the bedroom to watch tv

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Did you watch Oprah?

We have 2 G.rosea and they think they are OBT. We don't handle them and when we got them they were psycho course didn't know that till they settled in lol. Rosehaires are so unpredictable anyways.

I also think perhaps its nearing a molt. If the change was as drastic as you suggest.

Thank you all for your replies.

What other signs should I be on the look out for if she is in pre-molt?

No I did not watch Oprah but I think she did catch an episode of Jerry Springer and she seems to like Judge Mathis.

Stopped eating is a sign and also her abdomen should be turning dark as well

Hmm, she is still eating and I have not noticed any physical changes of any kind.

HunterBlackmoon said:

Hmm, she is still eating and I have not noticed any physical changes of any kind.

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The "dark abdomen" that was mentioned earlier may have started before you got her, or it's possible that you're just not sure what to look for (very common for new T owners...I had this problem for a while). There should be a circular patch on the abdomen, usually on top near the rear, where the skin beneath the "hair" will be white between moults. This is the "normal" way for it to look; the skin is actually transparent there, so you're seeing the inside of the spider, which is light beige/white/colorless. Close to a moult this spot will darken as the new exoskeleton gets ready inside the old one.

So basically, if you don't see the white spot, she's probably near a moult. Spiders will vary in their pre-moult fast, but if she's eating then it's very likely she's not really near a moult.

Good luck w/her!

Stopping eating is no sure sign a G. Rosea is moulting soon, they fast for weeks at a time. it's like they are trying out for those late night info-mercials
"i lost 2ounces on the "no crix, just water diet" LOL

I examined her today and based off what has been said here as well as other sites and caresheets I see no physical indication that she is preparing to molt, however, she is still being a major bitch

I just don't see what happened. She was soo sweet, I was even able to pet he many times. Now she gets pissed if you look at her the wrong way, much like my wife but it has been well over 7 days now.......

Don't worry about it. You might just have one of those psycho rosies. It's still possible she's premolt. Premolt can last anywhere from a week to __ (insert #) months. Rest assured she will molt in the next six months. Could be she is just getting used to her surroundings as others have said.

My rosie was really sweet too until i dont know what happened. It is more defensive right now. I think it is just rosies...they are weird.

I think it sounds like she tolerated being handled before and now doesn't want you to hold her. I my G. rosea has never been one that let me hold her. She is so unpredictable that you can't trust her. When I had a bunch of little slings that couldn't eat little crickets from the petstore I would search Medusa's tank for the tiny pin head size crickets in there for them. She was irritated by my doing stuff in there so often that she seemed po's all the time. Probably was. She stopped acting this way once I stopped and tolerates my cleaning of her tank better now. It looks like she comes over to see what I'm doing and watches. If she gets too close I touch her back and she backs off. Mine has been eating lots and lots lately so some of her behavior is because she is hungry.I tried feeding her a cricket or superworm every day and she hasn't been as "aggressive" then. Your rosea might not ever act as sweet again and you might want to get another tarantula that is well known to be handleable. There are several you could choose. As people have said rosies are all different in temperment. I have had 2 and they both have acted this way. One was a male and the other was a female. I was disappointed too that mine weren't sweet like people most rosea's are. I bought a B. emilia because it would let me hold it and I was happier. I even have an A. geniculata that I can hold all I want. I've just have learned to enjoy my G. rosea more for her funny quirks. They really are neat tarantulas. They don't just sit around.

Sharon
Sharon

starzzzcollide said:

The "dark abdomen" that was mentioned earlier may have started before you got her, or it's possible that you're just not sure what to look for (very common for new T owners...I had this problem for a while). There should be a circular patch on the abdomen, usually on top near the rear, where the skin beneath the "hair" will be white between moults. This is the "normal" way for it to look; the skin is actually transparent there, so you're seeing the inside of the spider, which is light beige/white/colorless. Close to a moult this spot will darken as the new exoskeleton gets ready inside the old one.

So basically, if you don't see the white spot, she's probably near a moult. Spiders will vary in their pre-moult fast, but if she's eating then it's very likely she's not really near a moult.

Good luck w/her!

Click to expand...

That's weird...had my Rosey for a few months....no white spot...just the rest of the color of the entire body pretty much. She/he is still sweet, eats just fine...in fact has gone from not eating to eating voraciously. I'm talking almost snatching the crix out of mid air once the fall from the feeding tube.

my B. smithi had the "white spot" (though it was more tan than white).

My Brother's Rosey is going through the same attitude change. When we got it, it loved to be handled (would'nt leave my hand) but just recently (as in a few days) has gone into a "I have everyone" mode.

Update!

Have an update for our(Hunter and my T). Seems that after about a week or so after the first post, she was digging under her waterdish. She made a nice tunner underneath. Then she started digging around her food-dish(had to put one in since the mealworms liked to dig). She gathered up most of the piles of dirt infront of her log tunnel that was in the corner of the aquarium and started to web infront of it while inside.
She would come out every now and then to get a drink but did not eat. Then one day I woke up to see the whole front of the log dirted and webbed in. Me and the hubby would spy on her from the back but then she webbed the back up too :} . I thought maybe she was getting ready to molt because she would not come out of the log. We waited weeks for her to come out. I would give her fresh water everyday but still no T.
Then one day out of the blue while checking in on her, I noticed that she came out of hiding. She was really skinny and I was scared she was getting starved. The next day I went out to the pet store and got some crickets for her. She snatched one out of the air as I dropped it in.
So we thought everything was back to normal. Then one day I noticed her back in her log. I looked in on her with a flashlight and noticed a white patch under some dirt. Later that same night, she must have pushed whatever it was infront of the log. I looked again with the flashlight and wouldn't you know it, it was an eggsac.
I'm pretty nervous as to what to do with it. My hubby wants to get rid of it, if you know what I mean. I want to maybe give it to a petstore. I dont want to outright kill the baby Ts if there are any. I've read on here that an eggsac can be infertile. While others have said that Petco are notorious about selling wild Ts that maybe pregnant.

Just thought I'd update you guys on what's going on. We are maybe thinking that is why she was such in a bad mood even at one point she did snap at me twice while I went to change her water out before she started digging.

Sounds like you solved your problem. Don't get rid of the eggsac, and giving the eggsac to petco would probably be equivilent. There has got to be some other option. A close member of this board? Some one else interested in tarantulas you know who would be willing to take it?