Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know it's been discussed before, but what are the acceptable star gazing behaviors and when do you know when the behavior is too much and the animal should not be bred?

I picked up a male August 08 spider a few weeks ago. He is showing some star gazing signs (I think) and others. The breeder said I could return and do an even exchange, but I want to know where the line is between normal spider gazing and bad neuro signs. He does the turning his head upside down thing, but when I'm holding him and he's wandering around he'll do like a vibrating head shake. He does fine feeding and getting around his cage and into his hide. I'm obviously considering breeding him, so I don't know if I should keep him and this is normal, or return him.
Thanks in advance for your advice.

If you are uncomfortable with it and the breeder is willing to work with you to get you one with less of an issue then cool. But it's just something you have to deal with if you want to work with spiders -- even if you get a non wobbling spider -- if you breed it you could end up with clutches and clutches of wobblers (and vice versa) -- if it freaks you out choose another morph.
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Tosha
JET Pythons
Toshas Blog

It doesn't necessarily freak me out, I'm just looking for that line.
I want to make sure that (1.) I've got a good snake and (2.) when I breed him I am bringing good snakes into the population.
This is my first spider and I want to get a feel for what's good & bad.

Point is, your're never going to have a "good" Spider. The wobbling is associated with the trait, and doesn't look like it's going away any time soon.
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South Central Herpetological

There is no line so don't look for it. Spiders that look like a corkscrew can produce spiders that never wobble and ones that have never wobbled can produce babies that look like Mr. Salty.

It's all good and it gives them character. You wouldn't want to deprive babies of developing their own individuality would you?
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Matt Lerer
Ghi Reptiles

Matt, That last line cracked me up..
It's not good to deprive our snakes.