Strange experience with a brachypelma albopilosum

[snakehandler]

I have this spider for over nine years now.
At one point someone suggested i should give it a bigger cage.
So i took it out of his plastic box and placed it in a bigger terrarium.
Then he refused to eat for two months.
So i placed him back in his plastic box and then he refused to eat for another five months. Only recently since christmas he is taking crickets on a regular basis again.

 

[Swtbrat]

Oh Wow,I don't like spiders but I still like pictures.
Can we see him?

Brat!

 

[snakehandler]

yeah i'll take a pic later..

 

[Mike]

I find that mine (7 at the moment) REALLY prefer a smaller cage to a bigger cage. Mine sometimes go off feed for amounts of time, for seemingly no reason. As long as there's no visible health problems, it was probably just stress related.

 

[snakehandler]

yeah they like small cages. they feel more secure that way.
some applies to snakes. for lizards its the other way round.
they need room to move.

 

[Stef41]

I agree with the others, smaller usually suits a Tarantula better. And if you insist on going bigger, make sure there is plenty of wood/foliage/hides etc. so that the T can always hide somewhere.

On a different note, spiders can just be picky sometimes. Luckily all of mine eat like pigs, but I have had friends on a different (Tarantula) Forum talk about certain spiders of theirs not eating for several years.

One buddy of mine had a Rosehair and she just randomly stopped eating one day when he tried to feed her, and didn't eat again until that same month, 4 years later.

It's crazy but they have incredible sustainability.

However, I could perhaps remind you that the general lifespan for a B. Albo (like most Brachys) is around 5 to 10 years, and for males it's even shorter.

If you've had yours for 9 years I would definitely say it's a female, and it's possible that within the next year to a couple years she will begin to near the end of her life and could thus develop strange eating habits.

But enough about that! I would love to see pictures of her! B. Albos are so cute, with their curly hair, hehe. :-D