Odd tarantula behavior, anybody seen this?

[crocsnhots]

I was changing the water in my Ts enclosure, and when I do that, usually I just sit her on my hand since she's calm and unoffensive. Today when I did that she did her usual thing of walking around and then I felt something sharp on the top of my hand... I figured it was just her little claws since they often feel like that, but I looked over anyway to make sure she wasn't close to falling or anything, and her fang was up ON my skin. :eek:

I'm thinkin "ah she's gonna stick me" (lmao) and I walked her onto my desk before she could. But I was under the impression that when a tarantula is gonna bite you its gonna be quick, not slow like that. I'm assuming that when they decide they want to bite ya, it's just gonna happen, they aren't gonna sit there and think bout it. LoL :p

Has anyone ever seen a T do that? I don't really know if she was gonna bite or what, but she had plenty of time if she had wanted to do it as I felt the sharp sensation for a few seconds before I looked over to make sure she was alright. If she had bit me I'd expect it would actually hurt somewhat and I'd see the punture wounds and there'd be a burning sensation or something. But I've never been stung by a bee or bit by a T or anything. :rolleyes:

So what exactly was she doing? Considerin givin me some venom perhaps? :p Any thoughts on what just happened would be extremely helpful! ;) :p Thanks!

Here's a pic of her so you all can see who I'm talking about... :)
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/3326Tonlog.jpg

[manville]

Hmmm...I think she is warning you that she doesnt like to be handled. Rosies can be defensive sometimes.

[Vanan]

There has been discussion about such behaviour on other forums, mostly a rosy being the culprit. Suggestions were anywhere from, warning signal to "tasting" the ground.

[iguanafreak]

IMO T's shouldent be handle can cause stress on the animal....
I only own ONE T and True spiders....
And maybe she dident want to be handle prolbaly giving you a warning sign "enpuph is enouph"... maybe you should lay back on the handeling a bit ?..

[crocsnhots]

Thanks everyone for your responses. :)

iguanafreak, I don't handle my Ts very often, Ts are too delicate to handle with any regularity, I usually put her on my hand rather than in a delicup or container as she hates going in them for some reason, she'll bolt out when I attempt to 'walk' her into one and gives me a hard time (I think it's bout time she got used to them tho :p ;)). So rather than fight with her causing unnecessary stress and running the risk of injuring her, getting her to walk onto my hand while I remove food scraps, do partial substrate changes and give her fresh water is much easier (and safer for her). However, all my other Ts and inverts all go into delicups and containers for cleaning and maintenence, they aren't so fussy about the delicups. :p :)

[LPacker79]

Why do you remove the T from it's enclosure to remove prey remains and to change the water? It's completely unnecessary.
Also, how often are you doing substrate changes? The substrate only needs to be changed should it start to smell, or develop fungus or parasites. No need to disrupt your eight legged friend's environment otherwise.