The red phase Chilean rosehair (Grammostola rosea) has been the most fun spiderling (of the five obtained last month) to have in the classroom. No question there…
Unlike many excavating spiders, this one tends to stay near the opening of its burrow or outside the burrow, making it an excellent display specimen.
It has proven to be a relatively fast growing, active, good eater who spends a great deal of time excavating a series of tunnels throughout the cup. The spiderling immediately climbs up the side of the condiment cup when it is opened and is quite docile and readily handled.
It is doing extraordinarily well. Because its doing so well, I’m somewhat hesitant to move it to a larger container, though I think that should occur within the next several weeks.
Dave — do you provide an additional (supplemental) heat source for your rose hair or your desert blonde during the winter –like a heating pad? With the cold winter weather here in Montana and the cooler temperatures in our house, our desert blonde spiderling is not seen much. Thanks. Hope to see you at SASI again this year.
Hi Glenn,
Great to hear from you! I do not provide any supplementary heat, though I do have all of the tarantulas in my classroom, which is kept at 72 during the school day and 65 during the evenings.
The spiders were certainly much less active at home (64 or less most of the time) during Winter Break.
Looking forward to SASI this summer!
I am now even more jealous than I was before. This is fascinating. Any photos of this spider doing any of these things, are enjoyed immensely over here in Australia. Do you actually see him/her burrowing? Is material brought up from the bottom and distributed on the top?
You seem to be seeing different behaviour between individuals. If so, is that between individuals of the same species? I have observed that with the black house spiders I watch here, but would like to know if that is observable with other species elsewhere – partly to get some clue as to how much I might be reading into my observations! This highlights the difference between exact and less-exact science! I’m really interested to know if you can detect whether the differences are due to individuality, or are more due to species-specific behaviour.