Pet holes....what’s the draw?

[SteveIDDQD]

I see my m.balfouri way more than my p.irminia, so the irminia is the closest to a pet hole I own... It was actually my LP before, but after last weeks moult it's doesn't seem interested in burrowing anymore.

 

[lostbrane]

I get a strange satisfaction out of seeing my fossorials/obligate burrowers creating/having a burrow. I just think it's really neat haha

 

[Potatatas]

I don't own a fossorial species but my hati hati sling I've barely seen since getting it. I like the mystery of wondering what it's doing in there and how extensive it has burrowed.

just slap a label on a cage full of dirt and pretend there's a spider under there.

My new business venture. Selling jars of dirt that definitely has a tarantula in it, scouts honour.

 

[kevinlowl]

This is like 50% reason why i like petholes.

 

[PidderPeets]

It's the feet.

 

[RezonantVoid]

1. Create a starter burrow along the side of the enclosure, and face that side towards a wall.
2. Introduce the spider and watch it make it's home in the hole.
3. After several days, turn the enclosure around to discover the spider has covered the glass in webbing and left the rest of the burrow untouched.

But seriously, my whole collection is all fossorials. I paired one of my trapdoors 6 months back and still haven't seen it, but I know it's in there and that's enough for me. All my big tarantulas are reasonably active and come out at least twice in 24 hours so they make up for the 40 others that come out twice every 24 weeks

 

[Chris LXXIX]

This is like 50% reason why i like petholes.

OMG, a video from 'The Dark Den'!!!

 

[chanda]

...and just when I start thinking I'll never get a pet hole again, they remind me why I love them! I saw not one but two of my M. balfouri tonight at feeding time - and they were both all the way out of their holes! I can't even remember the last time I saw more than a couple of feet at the entrance - and even that has been rare! One of them retreated into the web tunnels pretty quickly, but the other one stayed out in the open, munching on crickets for the almost the entire two hours I was up there feeding and watering everybody!

 

[Teal]

...and just when I start thinking I'll never get a pet hole again, they remind me why I love them! I saw not one but two of my M. balfouri tonight at feeding time - and they were both all the way out of their holes! I can't even remember the last time I saw more than a couple of feet at the entrance - and even that has been rare! One of them retreated into the web tunnels pretty quickly, but the other one stayed out in the open, munching on crickets for the almost the entire two hours I was up there feeding and watering everybody!

HashtagMbalfouriOwnerGoals



I have to shine a torch in from the bottom of mine's enclosure and hope I can see enough silhouette to distinguish if the little fella is still alive

 

[chanda]

I have to shine a torch in from the bottom of mine's enclosure and hope I can see enough silhouette to distinguish if the little fella is still alive

Lucky! I've tried looking up from the bottom, but they haven't dug close enough to the glass for me to see anything - sneaky little devils! I know there were five of them when I started, but it's been over a year since I actually saw all five. I *hope* they're all still alive under there - but that spotting last night was the first confirmation I've had in nearly a year that there's more than one in there!

What I really need to do is move them to a larger enclosure - I've just been putting it off because, while rehousing a single tarantula (particularly a highly-visible terrestrial) is fairly easy, trying to dig out and rehouse five of them (I hope!) at once is pretty intimidating! I'm most afraid of accidentally hurting one while I'm trying to coax/dig them out. Also just a bit worried about one bolting while I'm busy with a sibling, if they should all decide to come up at once. Still, it would be nice to finally confirm how many are in there. They've been terrible hoarders for most of their lives, keeping their molts in the bottom of their burrows, but recently they've been kicking out molt pieces - and based on what I'm seeing, there's at least a good chance that most of them are still all alive and well in there! (Most of the molt pieces are still tangled up in their webbing, so I can't pull them out to examine without destroying the tunnels - but it looks like I might have 4 or 5 carapaces that are pretty close to the same size - and not too much smaller than the two spiders that I saw last night - so that's promising.)

 

[viper69]

There's a Haploclastus that does the same. Or one of those Asian fossorials. I know it's true cause I saw it on Facebook.

Whoa really?? Species name?

 

[Nightstalker47]

Whoa really?? Species name?

Go back to page one.

 

[viper69]

their collections that they rarely if ever see out.

Agreed- Avics