Fat little G. pulchripes digging a hole to China?

[maggiefiasco]

Fatty taco

• maggiefiasco
• Sep 19, 2017
• 2

Taco the fatty chillin in his hole he;s making for himself

Overhead view of the hide

• maggiefiasco
• Sep 19, 2017

Taco is closing himself off!

Taco digging

• maggiefiasco
• Sep 19, 2017

My fatty G. pulchripes is digging into the corner like crazy!

So my fat little G. pulchripes started digging this hole last week and I've got a question lol

Obviously he's not digging a hole to China, but this is the back left corner of his enclosure and at first it looked like he was going STRAIGHT down. Now that I've examined it fully, I can tell that he's not only made himself a little ramp to breach his plump belly on but it also looks like he's moving allllll the sub from that corner out to the front of his hide. He also appears to be webbing, or trying to... he's certainly not the best webber I have but dang it, he does try.

Several angles here so you can see he's dug down about 2 good inches and he's showing no signs of slowing. This enclosure is originally meant of arboreals I think, but it's a really nice brand new tank so I used it for this spider. At the suggestion of another user, I built the substrate up quite a lot inside the tank to ensure he doesnt have too much vertical space and can't fall and hurt himself... but now that he's become a Tonka truck bulldozer, I have concerns about the loose substrate eventually caving in on him? I've unwittingly given him a generous 6 inches of substrate to work with so he has plenty of room to just keep tunneling if he wants to...

I mean, it's well packed EcoEarth all the way down, but I keep it fairly dry in there for him so I had a brief moment where I imagined him going too far down and getting buried in a brown avalanche of coco fiber?? Can he get hurt by burrowing too far and having a substrate cave-in or am I panicking over an impossible scenario that poses no harm to him?

Smaller enclosures.

• maggiefiasco
• Sep 18, 2017

My slings are in the containers on the left, the middle tank houses Taco the G. pulchripes, the...

Another angle of the tank

 

[Chris LXXIX]

I like that you aren't a 'substrate Scrooge' at all! I love this, seriously

One of the thing I can't stand of the arachnids keeping are 'substrate Scrooge/s', damn...

Don't worry at all, T's know best when it comes to that, btw. I've never had a burrow "collapse" so far, and my T's are basically 70% pet holes.

A note: the third option of your poll (btw the right one) should be: "12 Goddess*"

* 0.1 Pelinobius muticus PBUH (Peace Be Upon Her)

 

[Leila]

@Chris LXXIX, you will be happy to see someone who is Not a substrate scrooge.

I think it is normal for your T to burrow and dig tunnels. From what I have viewed in relation to terrestrial Ts in the wild, they make their burrows in the ground. They secure these with silk webbing, which helps the dirt from imploding on them.

Your T will be ok in the coco fibre.

Edit: AGGHH, you beat me here, Chris!!

 

[Chris LXXIX]

@Chris LXXIX, you will be happy to see someone who is Not a substrate scrooge.

One of the battles I care more, after the one on heresy of course, is against 'substrate Scrooge/s', my beautyful friend

 

[maggiefiasco]

I like that you aren't a 'substrate Scrooge' at all! I love this, seriously

One of the thing I can't stand of the arachnids keeping are 'substrate Scrooge/s', damn...

Hahah thank you! All my terrestrial T's have at least 4 inches of sub, just in case they feel like digging. Who am I to say they shouldn't dig a wonderful burrow! Have at it, little ones... I just didn't realize that Taco had decided to dig directly down like hes going for oil. Let me know when you hit the black gold, kiddo. And molt, while you're at it.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Hahah thank you! All my terrestrial T's have at least 4 inches of sub, just in case they feel like digging. Who am I to say they shouldn't dig a wonderful burrow! Have at it, little ones... I just didn't realize that Taco had decided to dig directly down like hes going for oil. Let me know when you hit the black gold, kiddo. And molt, while you're at it.

You did the right thing

A lot of people, including long time keepers, sometime tend to not consider well an important detail. This detail, is: 'you' never know, nor 'you' can know, if a Theraphosidae (not necessarily an OW pet hole) feel the need/wants to burrow a bit.

This is why is always important to offer several inches of substrate.

Brava, maggiefiasco

 

[Kendricks]

Obviously he's not digging a hole to China

Oh stupid clickbait title then!! 

 

[cold blood]

over size enclosures seriously encourage not only extensive burrowung, but also extensive hiding. I experimented with 100s of slings, 150 of which were pulchripes, the results were staggerring....literally every one in over size enclosures dug a burrow and hid away like the unabomber. At the end of the experiment the ones in over size enclosures were all 1/2-1/4 the size of the ones kept in smaller enclisures.

Now yours is a juvie, so its not going to obsessively hide like a sling, but it will spend a great deal of time birrowing and moving sub.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

over size enclosures seriously encourage not only extensive burrowung, but also extensive hiding. I experimented with 100s of slings, 150 of which were pulchripes, the results were staggerring....literally every one in over size enclosures dug a burrow and hid away like the unabomber. At the end of the experiment the ones in over size enclosures were all 1/2-1/4 the size of the ones kept in smaller enclisures.

Now yours is a juvie, so its not going to obsessively hide like a sling, but it will spend a great deal of time birrowing and moving sub.

Yes but there's nothing wrong my man, why T's has to be necessarily visible when we can enjoy the pleasure to see lots of dirt and burrows?

There's nothing better for the eyes than see holes, burrows, tunnels, digging etc if you ask me

 

[Swede Baboon]

Chris ... Youre Italian dude
Of course u like Holes

 

[cold blood]

Yes but there's nothing wrong my man, why T's has to be necessarily visible when we can enjoy the pleasure to see lots of dirt and burrows?

There's nothing better for the eyes than see holes, burrows, tunnels, digging etc if you ask me

I didn't say there was anything wrong...I specifically pointed out that this observation was for slings and didn't really apply to her juvie other than it would indeed be expected to dig more frequently with more room.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

I didn't say there was anything wrong...I specifically pointed out that this observation was for slings and didn't really apply to her juvie other than it would indeed be expected to dig more frequently with more room.

Uhm... ok. For a minute I was under the impression that you didn't like at all the best Theraphosidae enclosures which are, basically, always a "no spiders visible, tons of dirt, and a hole/tunnel".

Screw visibility, I say. Who need/wants visible T's, after all?

It's all about ninjutsu T's, the plague of ninjutsu T's!

A burrow, and nothing else to see: now this is what a man needs to see

 

[cold blood]

Uhm... ok. For a minute I was under the impression that you didn't like at all the best Theraphosidae enclosures which are, basically, always a "no spiders visible, tons of dirt, and a hole/tunnel".

Screw visibility, I say. Who need/wants visible T's, after all?

A burrow, and nothing else to see: now this is what a man needs to see

haha, no...im all for extra sub once ts get bigger...but not for slings....i mentioned it because the extra room=more digging was something i observed in that experiment that applied to this t.....the rest was just supplimentary info.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Chris ... Youre Italian dude
Of course u like Holes

False my dear friend from Viking-Landia

I'm 101% of 'politically correct' and the word/term 'hole/s' doesn't remind me at all necessarily and always about walking, talking, 0.1 Homo sapiens at all.
No matter their 'Gucci' bags or fashion smartphones

I'm a gentleman, basically, and an old school one: the ones that smoke, in pure gently 'cold' Winter, in front of the chimney with a good glass of Glenlivet, a pure mixture of 60% Bill Bailey's Balkan Blend + 40% Dunhill 'Early Morning', with my dear and lovely 60% wool 40% Cashmere blanket straight on my legs, reading an old book about the Italian Kingdom and Fascism, happy but sad at the same time, no matter, because the world is taken over by modernity und insanity.

I'm reaching my 40, after all. I need moderation

 

[maggiefiasco]

Hahaha i love all the replies to this thread! You guys are comedy gold and so informative, thank you so much!!!

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Hahaha i love all the replies to this thread! You guys are comedy gold and so informative, thank you so much!!!