My H. lividum has recently been behaving like an arid species. She left her burrow 3 days ago, and has not gone back in it since. Should I be concerned about her health, or just enjoy the fact that my H. lividum is not shy? Also, I'm curious, can a H. lividum adapt to a dryer enclosure? So I don't have to worry about mites. The book says obligate burrowers which typically require a humid enclosure, can adapt to being kept as an arid species. Does anyone have any personal experience regarding this? I'm not going to take away her burrow, I just want to keep her enclosure dry.
Obligate burrower gone arid.
- Thread starter jgod790
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IME, yeah, you can keep 'em dry.
I keep mine dry, with a waterdish no problem, though I keep the ambient humidity up by blocking some ventilation, and I'm sure it's a lot more humid for her underground. She's molted fine and eats regularly.
I keep her in peat.
For about a month, she went through a phase where she left her burrow and built a small web enclosed space in random parts of the tank during the day, and resumed wandering at night.
Then, she apparently rediscovered her burrow, excavated quite a bit, and has returned to pet hole status. I suspect perhaps they do this in the wild to relocate occasionally, but that's just a guess.
Here is a post by Stan Schultz (author of the TKG) on H. lividum and humidity requirements. The thread is a good read as well.