Toffee Bean
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- May 9, 2024
- Messages
- 0
Hello,
I am brand-new to the tarantula hobby, and I decided to purchase a 2 inch long juvie B. hamorii as my first tarantula.
I have had my new t for almost a week now, and I'm starting to grow worried about them.
When I got them, I noticed that their colors were a bit dull, their abdomen was quite large, and they had what seemed to be a bald spot on their abdomen that had grown dark, which, based off of my research, are potential signs of premolt. However, according to the employee that helped me purchase the t, they had eaten soon (potentially a day) before I got them, so I thought I might have misread the signs and decided to put them in the enclosure I prepared for them.
For the first few days, they did not seem stressed at all. They would sit in their enclosure on my desk and hardly move anywhere for the entire day. They still do, but yesterday, I noticed that they were in what might have been a stress curl. I refilled the water dish and tried to feed them an injured cricket that same day, but they wouldn't eat. I took the cricket out after only a minute or two because the t started to hide their face from it. After that, I left them alone and tried to limit light and movement from me as much as I could.
This morning, I checked on them again, and I noticed that they've climbed the walls of their enclosure, which they haven't done since I got them. Thankfully, there's less than 3 inches between the top of the enclosure and the substrate, but the height is still making me nervous and I'm planning to put more coco fiber in that specific corner the first chance I get. The only specific change I noticed between these behaviors and the behaviors they were showing before yesterday was the addition of a space heater, and even then, I didn't see them in the potential stress curl until about three days after I put the heater in.
I try to keep the temperature of the enclosure in the 22-24°C range to be on the safe side, since my apartment can get a bit cold at night. My apartment is usually fairly humid already, so I keep the substrate dry and focus on keeping the water dish filled. I try to keep noises and vibrations to a minimum (i.e. I close doors very carefully, on the occasion I use my desk or put objects on it, I make a conscious effort to not budge the desk, I step softly around my bedroom), but there are noises outside my control, such as when someone decides to mow the grass on my complex or a plane flies by. My apartment gets a lot of sunlight, but some of the photos shown here are as bright as it gets where the t is at.
But, again, there haven't really been any significant changes to the environment since I got them, so, are they stressed? Is it premolt? Is it too soon to truly know what normal behavior is for this particular t?
Sorry for the mini novella, I wanted to include as much relevant information as I could. Below are images of the t before yesterday, yesterday, and today respectively.
I am brand-new to the tarantula hobby, and I decided to purchase a 2 inch long juvie B. hamorii as my first tarantula.
I have had my new t for almost a week now, and I'm starting to grow worried about them.
When I got them, I noticed that their colors were a bit dull, their abdomen was quite large, and they had what seemed to be a bald spot on their abdomen that had grown dark, which, based off of my research, are potential signs of premolt. However, according to the employee that helped me purchase the t, they had eaten soon (potentially a day) before I got them, so I thought I might have misread the signs and decided to put them in the enclosure I prepared for them.
For the first few days, they did not seem stressed at all. They would sit in their enclosure on my desk and hardly move anywhere for the entire day. They still do, but yesterday, I noticed that they were in what might have been a stress curl. I refilled the water dish and tried to feed them an injured cricket that same day, but they wouldn't eat. I took the cricket out after only a minute or two because the t started to hide their face from it. After that, I left them alone and tried to limit light and movement from me as much as I could.
This morning, I checked on them again, and I noticed that they've climbed the walls of their enclosure, which they haven't done since I got them. Thankfully, there's less than 3 inches between the top of the enclosure and the substrate, but the height is still making me nervous and I'm planning to put more coco fiber in that specific corner the first chance I get. The only specific change I noticed between these behaviors and the behaviors they were showing before yesterday was the addition of a space heater, and even then, I didn't see them in the potential stress curl until about three days after I put the heater in.
I try to keep the temperature of the enclosure in the 22-24°C range to be on the safe side, since my apartment can get a bit cold at night. My apartment is usually fairly humid already, so I keep the substrate dry and focus on keeping the water dish filled. I try to keep noises and vibrations to a minimum (i.e. I close doors very carefully, on the occasion I use my desk or put objects on it, I make a conscious effort to not budge the desk, I step softly around my bedroom), but there are noises outside my control, such as when someone decides to mow the grass on my complex or a plane flies by. My apartment gets a lot of sunlight, but some of the photos shown here are as bright as it gets where the t is at.
But, again, there haven't really been any significant changes to the environment since I got them, so, are they stressed? Is it premolt? Is it too soon to truly know what normal behavior is for this particular t?
Sorry for the mini novella, I wanted to include as much relevant information as I could. Below are images of the t before yesterday, yesterday, and today respectively.
Big plus on you doing the research! 
