Cleaning out a spot for a mat?

Stratton

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 15, 2019
Messages
36
I've never paid much attention to it in the past because most of the T.s I was observing all molted in their burrows or just on their molt mats, but talking about the later in this situation I was wondering if anyone else noticed their T. cleaning out a spot for their molt mat?
Again I've seen them make molt mats in the open before but I never looked to see if they cleaned the spot out first. My little girl (A Brachypelma albopilosum) is in premolt now for the last month at the very least. Normal signs, not eating, being a little sluggish, a booty that looks lie it's about to pop, so yeah like almost absolutely sure she's in premolt. Anyways I came in and saw her crawling and naturally she froze because heaven forbid I see her actually move, but I noticed that she didn't so much bulldoze the substrate, but just pushed the leaf litter and dried moss from a patch. She must have been at it for some time because I found several piles substrate in different spots and the only area that was different was the spot she cleaned out.
Has anyone else observed this behavior or do you think it's just coincidental?

I took the second picture without a flash because the flash just drowns out so much detail and makes everything look so flat. But you can see better how I mean she pushed the leaf litter down towards her water dish and you can see that there was a good deal of leaf litter all over to start with.
 
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Vanessa

Grammostola Groupie
Joined
Mar 12, 2016
Messages
2,423
I have never caught them doing that myself, but I can see them clearing out a spot for moulting. Mine seem not to care for the most part, but that doesn't mean that all of them don't care.
 
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