Unsure

[ballpython2]

When a burrowing species dies (this would be in the case of a H gigas), will it come out of its hide to die in a death curl or will it just die in its burrow?

This is just a general question, not an emergency so no one worry I was just curious.

 

[Hedorah99]

I would think die in the burrow.

 

[Stylopidae]

I tend to find my dead specimens by smell

 

[maxident213]

I had a 6.5" Haplopelma sp. "Vietnam" or whatever it's called now, whose burrow collapsed while I was on vacation. My friend told me about it and, after thinking long and hard and searching around for info, I told him to leave it be, figuring either A) it may have sealed off the burrow intentionally or B) it's quite capable of digging itself out if it chooses. Well I came home a month later, still no spider. I watched and waited and got increasingly nervous. Finally I just put the tank in the bathtub and started carefully digging. By the time I was done, I had one dead spider, one apparently successful molt, three dead crickets, and the most rotten stench I've encountered in recent memory. *shudder*

Speaking for myself, I will not take a collapsed burrow lightly again. Most of the info I found at the time suggested to leave it be but I will not chance it if it happens again.

 

[ballpython2]

I ask this question because when i moistened the substrate of my H gigas cage it lightly (whats to me to be a lightly covering) covered the entrace with peat moss. so i kind of dug the hole out again but i didnt go to deep i went until i see what i think was more of the tunnel. then I left it alone. Since petco is taking years to get more adult crickets in I didnt feed mhy tarantulas. Is it ok for tarantulas that are 3" inches to be eating adult crickets or should they be on what i guess petco calls pinheads. to me the "small" crickets seem a little bigger than pinheads.

 

[ballpython2]

I ask this question because when i moistened the substrate of my H gigas cage it lightly (whats to me to be a lightly covering) covered the entrace with peat moss. so i kind of dug the hole out again but i didnt go to deep i went until i see what i think was more of the tunnel. then I left it alone. Since petco is taking years to get more adult crickets in I didnt feed mhy tarantulas. Is it ok for tarantulas that are 3" inches to be eating adult crickets or should they be on what i guess petco calls pinheads. to me the "small" crickets seem a little bigger than pinheads.

Should i wait before i dig all the way down or should I do that later tonight??

if I wait a little longer before checking its life statues how long? for a few days more or a week? I know one of my two h gigas is fine and alive because oddly enough made a burrow under a long from side to side instead of up and down like the one i can't seem to find. I thought his side to side burrow was abnormal...is it?

 

[maxident213]

If it appears to you that the spider itself covered the entrance with peat, then I would still leave it be. Pretty much any T will seal itself off from the world from time to time. I was talking more about total burrow collapses, but way more often than not, the T is fine and has, like you said, just walled itself off. If it's approaching a molt, you might not see it for weeks.... or months.... It can be frustrating sometimes.....

In my experience most 3" Ts are quite capable of taking adult crickets, but if you're concerned, or it looks like the T is having trouble, then go for a smaller size.

I don't think a side-to-side burrow is too uncommon, they will dig any which way. My Haplopelma dug down about 8" then about 4" to the side. The burrow was right up against the glass but she webbed the inside so heavily for support that I couldn't see her at all.

 

[ErikH]

Is it the darker of the two that sealed off its burrow entrance?

 

[ballpython2]

Nah erik, the brown one, is the one that is deep down in its burrow.

the black one is the one that made a shallow burrow.

I think you guys are missing something I typed, I said when I misted the side of the tank where the deep burrower was at ( brown one) it sealed off his entrance. so it got sealed off when i was misting.

 

[ErikH]

At this point, I would wait and see if I were you. Unless you feel the burrow collapsed on it, I would probably leave it be for a while and see what happens. I don't know if your misting the substrate caused it to seal up the burrow or not, it could be a coincidence. Slings do this sort of thing all of the time, sometimes for no apparent reason.

 

[green_bottle_04]

I ask this question because when i moistened the substrate of my H gigas cage it lightly (whats to me to be a lightly covering) covered the entrace with peat moss. so i kind of dug the hole out again but i didnt go to deep i went until i see what i think was more of the tunnel. then I left it alone. Since petco is taking years to get more adult crickets in I didnt feed mhy tarantulas. Is it ok for tarantulas that are 3" inches to be eating adult crickets or should they be on what i guess petco calls pinheads. to me the "small" crickets seem a little bigger than pinheads.

yes a 3" spider can eat adult crickets just fine. pinheads are pretty much useless to a spider that size.

 

[beetleman]

i had a malaysian earthtiger die in her burrow w/her eggsack she was still on top of it,it was a bad heat wave and i still kept her moist,but still got real hot all the other spiders were fine,didn't realize until i smelled death from her cage,and there she was at the bottom she was raised from a spiderling,never been mated so the eggs weren't good anyway,but she was huge and awesome. my gigus always makes different entrances to her burrow,she's aways digging at night.