King babbon (Citharischius crawshayi) question

Zorack

Arachnobaron
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My king babbon is no more than 3cm big, it dug itself a nice little hole, but i noticed she has plugged the hole with soil, so she cant get out and no crics can get in, should this be a prob?
 

Malkavian

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It's been my experience that when a T plugs its burrow it's going into pre-molt.

Just take the crickets out and watch and wait. My pulchra plugged itself in for its first molt and was underground for several weeks altogether
 

jesses

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Malkavian said:
It's been my experience that when a T plugs its burrow it's going into pre-molt.

Just take the crickets out and watch and wait. My pulchra plugged itself in for its first molt and was underground for several weeks altogether
It's been my experience with Crawshayi's that they will do this and stay blocked in for a really long time even as slings. They take a long time to molt. Also even when they are not molting they will sometimes block themselves in, but if you put a cricket up there, they will sense when the cricket is walking around and they will spring through the dirt.
 

xBurntBytheSunx

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mine did this all the time so i just dug through the dirt and dropped the crickets in...it still eats them so its not in premolt! hopefully if i can pump this little beast full of crickets it won't take 20 years to grow up!
 

Arachnoking

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all i would say is that the spider knows best :) just leave it be. they build amazing burrows.
 

xanadu1015

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Relax, it can be normal

Mine does it all the time, even when not in premolt. I dig a little at the hole and he comes bursting out, sometimes tries to take the paint brush inside the hole with him. Don't worry, if they sense food above the hole, they'll come out for it.


Laura
 

xBurntBytheSunx

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mine actually wouldn't come up to eat, maybe that was b/c his burrow is so deep? but they web the lining of their burrows pretty well so you shouldn't have to worry about collapsing it...just poke a little hole through and throw down the crickets
 

Greg Wolfe

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Baboon's in hiding...

I wouldn't worry about your crawshayi being so elusive. My Baboon, even as a sling dug deep into her substrate and I rarely see her. I dump a few crix in there and the next day they are gone, so she obviously senses them on the surface and breaks through to get them.
Most obligate burrowers will from time to time isolate themselves, either for shedding or just to mole out in their burrow.
My blue fang is like that too, only emerging late at night. Which is kind of a bummer, because I want to see her more often. Let burrowers be burrowers...
 

Zorack

Arachnobaron
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its acutally made a hole now where it can get out, well acutally 2 an entrance and exit :p
 

Pajak

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Mine is actually plugged too.
No molts are planned, but T plugged itself.
Normal thing
 

cricket54

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Our K. baboon does come out at night, but Laura hasn't seen him. They seem to do just fine living underground digging new tunnels all the time. I think they have no trouble breathing in there, but I was worried at first about that too.He is a really neat spider though. Laura has a ball feeding him and getting him to come out in the open so we can see him. I heard that these are very slow growing. Is that true? Love the deep red color and ours is real fuzzy looking now.

Sharon
 

James M.

Arachnoknight
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thay grow slllllloooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww. I have had mine for over six months and it has only molted three times and the growth diffrence was not much. It takes around six years for them to mature.
 

David Burns

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My female went from 1+inch to 7 inches in 30 months. She molted 8 times in my care so far. I don't understand why people keep saying they grow slowly. Maybe mine is just a freak.
 

xBurntBytheSunx

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how much/often did you feed? i may have to start power feeding mine if i can get it to grow like that
 

David Burns

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xBurntBytheSunx said:
how much/often did you feed? i may have to start power feeding mine if i can get it to grow like that
I like to feed all my Ts everyday. In the case of my C.crawshayi i would open the burrow and drop in a crik. If she didn't take it the crik would find its way to the surface. After that happened a couple of times I would wait a week and try again. Since You can always see a burrowing spider, though the side of the tank, I would watch for the abdomen to swell and darken slightly indicating premolt. I keep my Ts in a room that is kept at around 80+ f.. I have heard recently that peat moss can slow the growth of a T But I have found no info to back that up. I have always used coconut fibre.
 
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