bite?

[Smulkin]

Had a bit of an unusual experience with our donated arachnid (rosehair) this past weekend - had the lil girl out while I was checking around her cage, refilling water etc and she was quite content to be hanging out - the wife and kids never thought I'd hold her lol!

I was watching her walk around on my hand when i noticed she was kind of cocking her head up a little bit and bringing the fangs out. 'Surely not . . .' I thought - there was no movement on my behalf or anything that would have triggered a bite or even startled her - her posture wasn't aggrivated in the slightest - all legs on the ground . . . well on my skin at any rate.. She kind of dug into the skin a little with them, kind of in an exploratory pinch - almost felt like she was pulling herself forward using her fangs. Though I have not experienced one I venture to say it was not a full fledged bite, just felt like a few pinches.

After I put her back I noticed she'd drawn blood in 3 pairs of linear points but no irritation or anything.

Question for you seasoned keepers: was she just testing the flesh? do they pull themselves along on their fangs from time to time? will they bite unproboked or without signaling agitation through posture?

[mlededee]

i don't handle my tarantula a whole lot because she is VERY shy (thanks i think to the previous owner), but whenever i have she has never done anything like that. my sister also used to have 2 tarantulas that a relative caught in nevada i think, and they never bit or did anything like that either. i've never seen my tarantula (which is also a rose hair) **** her head like that or bring her fangs out that way. it seems like if that kind of thing was common we would know about it and people wouldn't be letting their kids hold the tarantulas at the zoo and stuff. but i guess i could be wrong.

[led4urhead]

I have no idea man ... but it would have freaked me out. I'm a bit scared of spiders

[Smulkin]

Oh trust me it DID freak me out - not huge on handling them primarily because I'm worried I'll crunch it or something, or it will get away (trust me I'd be a bachelor at that point against my will lol) - so I was keeping a close eye in case it decided to bolt. I could feel my forehead furl up in puzzlement watching those shiny black fangs unfold and come slowly down - they seem to have amazingly fine control of them btw. I guess I just feel like a bit of a n00b not having had much experience with them - but i knew well enough not to fling it across the room at Smynx and our son (neither of whom were very thrilled to see it out and about).

[kavmon]

i've had and have a few tarantulas, never has one slowly just dug in. usually they raise their front legs or palipalps ( the two short legs in front) up and kind of stand their ground. if you can see the fangs clearly they always split their fangs open like an upside down v first before they bite. watching for this split is key to know when to say when. every case can be different these are just my expierences. hope this may help

thanks

vaughn

[UberAlice]

I don't know how you guys do it, I'm terrified of spiders...
It sounds like an exploratory thing more to me though, I think a bite would have been much faster and have been provoked.

[Smulkin]

Appreciate the input - never kept any arachnids previously (few mantidae though). Saw no such posturing, and though she wasn't reared up i COULD distinctly see her starting to "smile" right before the fangs became distinctly visible. It definitely wasn't a bite of defense or prey - I agree that would've been quick by necessity - just wasn't sure whether they were prone to use their fangs in an exploratory (perfect term Alice, gracias) way.