Trapdoor spider questions

[cantthinkofone]

I was on bugs in cyberspace and noticed they had a folding door trapdoor spider and was interested about the care on these guys. Also do they climb (I predict no) thanks in advance

 

[pannaking22]

I actually used to have one of the trapdoors from Peter and it was awesome! I found care to be pretty simple overall. I just kept the humidity reasonably high and tried not to disturb her too often. I would toss a cricket in every week or so and she would devour it (usually when I wasn't looking). You don't have to worry about climbing. I had mine in a plastic container and she couldn't go anywhere. It may also be beneficial to try to pre-make a burrow for her. Just use your finger to make a depression somewhere in the container and she may use that to start off a burrow. That will make it easier later on if you can't find where her burrow is, so you'll have a guessing point.

 

[cantthinkofone]

Thanks a lot. So if I did get one would a critter keeper work? How about the bite?

 

[spiderengineer]

Thanks a lot. So if I did get one would a critter keeper work? How about the bite?

I don't own a folding trapdoor, but I keep my trapdoors in a long jars because they will stay in their burrow for ever pretty much, unless its a mature male. so you can use a critter keeper but you will have a lot of unused area.

as far as bite I wouldn't worry to much about it since you will probably never see it unless it is catching food.

 

[pannaking22]

I kept mine in a plastic jar that was about 6" tall. The folding trap door doesn't need as much depth as other species, so you don't need something super deep. Critter Keepers certainly work, but as spiderengineer said, there will be a lot of wasted space, along with less of a chance that prey will go by the burrow.

The only issue you can have with a bite is rehousing, but I highly doubt you will ever have to. They are very clean and toss boluses out of the burrow to be cleaned up, so mold in the burrow is rarely an issue. They do have a nastier venom overall and are known to have a bit of an attitude, but unless you are actively trying to dig it up you should be fine. Mine was less than thrilled with me moving it from its shipping vial into its new home, so it struck at my forceps a couple times. Very powerful strike, but not a surprise. These are strong spiders, but a lot of fun to have.

Enjoy!