Getting a new trapdoor!

[Midnightcowboy]

As some of you may know, I accidentally fried the red trapdoor spider I had with a heatmat last week :wall:

However, a new one is on its way and I'm setting up the same environment as before for it, only without the heatmat and with some sand mixed in with the 7 inches of peat/vermiculite substrate I was using. I also put more ventilation holes in the sides and lid of the sweets jar I'm using to house it.

What setups has everyone else used to cater for these spiders? I'd be interested to see some pics!

 

[Midnightcowboy]

Well my new trapdoor spider has arrived! Big, good condition, and aggressive as always! Attacked a fondue fork as I was transferring it to its new container I would try and get some pics but my camera is utter crap! I did start a little burrow for it, but in all its madness, the spider made it all cave in. The substrate is pretty loose though, so hopefull it will start digging a new one soon. I've heard that red trapdoor spiders are a bit fussy when it comes to digging new burrows, and it takes them a long time to actually start doing it. My question is: what do they do for the however many weeks they don't have a burrow. Do they just sit on the substrate and rear up in defensive posture every time I open the container lid, or will it spin some form of rudimentary web on the surface? It had webbed the container it was shipped in a little bit, so I'd say things look good. I'm not planning on feeding it until next week. Assuming that it hasn't dug a burrow, does anyone know whether these spiders will take crix and things while the spider itself is out in the open?