burrowing slings...ahhh!!!!!

[kellygirl]

my 1 inch curlies stress me out! i am so afraid of touching their deli cups to mist or feed. some of them i havent seen for awhile. i assume that they are eating because the crickets disappear but how do i know that the T isnt dead the cricket gets stuck down there and dies so i just think that the T is eating? what if i am feeding a sling that is in mid-molt or preparing for one and i am putting them in danger by putting a cricket in there with them? i sometimes sneak in at night and see some of them out and about on the top but a lot of them never come out. how can i check on my babies without ruining their burrows?

kellygirl

 

[galeogirl]

If you can, check the bottom and sides of the cup with a bright flashlight to see if you can see the sling in its burrow.

 

[bness2]

I certainly can't consider myself an expert, and maybe I'm just lucky, by my curlie sling has not burrowed at all yet. I provided it a bottle cap to hide under and that seems to satisfy its desire to stay unseen. Whenever I want to check on it, I can just lift the bottle cap. I don't know if this would work with all curlie slings, but you might give it a try. Of course, someone with lots more experience might come along and wreck my whole theory too.

Good Luck,

Bryan

 

[jwb121377]

Hello,
I'm am at present time raising 37 curly slings, and most of mine do burrow too. I find the best way to see them is to look at them early in the morning before they go under ground. Ofcorse if yours is in a deli cup this will be tricky, because you can't just peer in to have peek. You may be able to get around this by having a flashlight handy and shining it on the side of the deli cup.
If the sling is at the top it will run in it's burrow at the sine of the light, thus allowing you to view the moving shadow. It may take a little practice to get good enough to have a good look.

 

[Rookie]

Complete Opposite

I'm stressing out with my first s'ling for the entirely opposite reason. My G.Pulchra s'ling won't burrow at all. He spends most of his time on the sides of the glass, and lately he's been climbing to the top of his jar; i think he wants out
Pulchras are oppurtunistic, so I thought I'd create a small burrow for him with my pinkie finger, since I couldn't think of a good pre-burrow to use (suggestions?). He/She goes in there VERY occaisonally, and I get all excited when he does. I guess I should be happy because I can always see my T, but I worry I'm doing something wrong since he's not behaving the way he's supposed to.
Paul

 

[pamandron]

Re: Complete Opposite

Originally posted by Rookie
I'm stressing out with my first s'ling for the entirely opposite reason. My G.Pulchra s'ling won't burrow at all. He spends most of his time on the sides of the glass, and lately he's been climbing to the top of his jar; i think he wants out
Pulchras are oppurtunistic, so I thought I'd create a small burrow for him with my pinkie finger, since I couldn't think of a good pre-burrow to use (suggestions?). He/She goes in there VERY occaisonally, and I get all excited when he does. I guess I should be happy because I can always see my T, but I worry I'm doing something wrong since he's not behaving the way he's supposed to.
Paul

Hi Paul,
We have a sub-adult female Pulchra that nevers burrow. She likes to stay out in the open. Sometimes, I think it just depends on the spider. We've had spiders that are supposed to burrow and never do. And some that shouldn't , burrow all the time. We also have 8 curly slings and some of them burrow and some don't. Take care, Pam

 

[King_Looey]

My curly used to burrow as a baby, but then he collapsed it in on himself, during a fight with a large cricket. He seems to have given up burrowing for now, he just builds huge walls using substrate.

 

[Tranz]

The diameter of your enclosure needs to be several inches for this to work, but I would try going to a knick-nack shop and getting a small opaque shot-glass type of ceramic, then bury it almost halfway in the substrate. I use a 1 1/8" black vinyl folding chair tip from True-Value Hardware. I place the back of the tip flush against the side of a small round Kritter Keeper.

With my 1 1/4" G. Pulchra sling, it hung out a lot in the chair tip, and then gradually started to burrow around and under it, digging the burrow deeper and deeper until now his preferred place is directly under the chair tip. I don't like the idea of just laying a rock down because I'm afraid it could collapse on the spider.

Also, I use 3 to 4 inches of Jungle Mix, which when packed well is a good burrowing substrate.

Evidently, the opportunistic burrowers like to burrow around or under a solid object.

 

[Wade]

Kellygirl-

If you're worried about feeding a t that may be about to molt, you can always give it a dead cricket. I usually just crush the head. If you leave the cricket on the surface near the burrow, the tarantula will find it if it wants it. If not, you can take it out the next day. The other advantage is that if the cricket disappears, you know that the T got it, since a dead cricket can't move on it's own

Wade

 

[Mister Internet]

I don't know... crickets' bodies seem to have a mind of their own, even when dead. Some of the larger crix I've gotten for my small pedes, I've crushed their heads almost clean off, and looked in the next morning to see that the body had moved all the way across the enclosure, still upright on its legs. Now, my little Stone pedes didn't move it there... and the body's legs would twitch for a couple of days.

Crickets are creepy. I'm thinking of buying a dozen each of Ts and pedes juts to have an excuse to start a lobster roach colony... *shudder* i hate crickets...

 

[krucz36]

i've had some burrowing sling issues too. if you really want to be able to keep tabs on the guys, just don't give them any substrate to burrow in at all. a nice little hide that you can easily peer under, maybe a piece of bark to climb on. i had 5 H. gigas slings that i gave plenty of substrate....two died in collapsed burrows (i'm guessing, i never found one of the bodies). the fact of the matter is that most slings will be fine without loose substrate. i'll probably catch hell for it, but from what i've seen that's the case. a hide, plenty of food, there you go.

 

[Code Monkey]

Re: Complete Opposite

Originally posted by Rookie
...but I worry I'm doing something wrong since he's not behaving the way he's supposed to.
Paul

That's your problem, you assume an *opportunistic* burrower will burrow. Nah, they burrow if they feel like it, not just because they can. Like I said, my pulchra sling has never so much as moved a speck of vermiculite. Some slings burrow, some just sit on the ground, others climb - particularly with slings there is no such thing as 'supposed to' for their behaviour.

 

[MrT]

Kellygirl,
My curly sling burrowed like mad too. So I removed all but 1/4" of its substrate. No more burrowing, no problems.

 

[Rookie]

Oppurtunistic

Thanks CM,
Yet again your wisdom enlightens my Rookieness. I keep reading about people who never see their burrowers, and I would come on here and complain because I have to look at my T all of the time.
By the way, if anyone wants to see Peso, my first ever T, and my pride and joy, you can see him in the watering hole, under 'other pets..again!'. Or, you can look at 'housing change' (posted by me) and just look at Bryan's G.Pulchra s'ling which looks exactly the same as mine. Maybe they're from the same litter.
Paul

 

[kosh]

i just got 10 curly slings from holley and they are split 50/50 between burrowers and non-burrowers........of course ive only had them about a day and a half but 5 of them seem to stay on top of the substrate and 5 of them have nice little burrows going....wish i could see through the deli cups better....i think it is about time i moved them to the babyfood jars and just hope that if they burrow in the vermiculite, that they do it on the side so i can see them!!!! (luckily the 5 that are burrowing now are doing it against the side so i can sorta see them in their burrows through the deli cups with a flashlight)

 

[krucz36]

just transferred a bunch of slings from a communal cage to individual cages. they're about 50/50 burrowers-non-burrowers. one of them has webbed its enclosure all to the hilt as well. it's quite cool
great homer quote there...i like :
"the human wang is a beautiful thing."
and
"son, if something's hard, you should always give up!"

homer is the true hero of our age.