My B. vagans has built a wall around his hide. I know that generally means that they are about to molt but he did it the second day I got him. I have only seen him eat once. Should I be putting food in there for him or not? I dont want to put food in there incase he is molting but I dont want him to go hungry if he isnt molting. Any ideas?
Vagans question
- Thread starter Lucara
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It could just be creating a "hide". Some burrow, some are terrestrial, and some will make do with whatever they have. You keep calling it a "he", have you had it sexed? And how large is it?
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I have one of these guys also a few other species. I did an experiment of my own using my Brazilian Giant Blonde (Nhandu vulpinus) ( I used this guy because they are fast growers so I had many molts i could try it on) by leaving live crickets in there during every molt and nothing happened at all. What I did notice was that the N vulpinus did heavily block up its door way entrance on an impending molt because it knew there was a few crickets in there. I did it for about three or so molts and never had an issue once. The other reason I think my crickets didn't try to eat the T during the molt is because they were well fed and watered and since they were adult crickets all they wanted to do was mate they actually would stay on the opposite side of the tank. Since then I have tried this with other terresterials like my OBT and bird eater they both also just blocked their entrances so crickets cant get in during the their molt. So the only time I think your T would be in trouble if you left crickets in its enclosure during a molt is if your Ts were molting but you didn't give them anywhere to hide during the molt. So a Tarantula thats left out in the open to molt will probably get damaged/killed by hungry crickets / roaches. My B vagans has a cave hide I always try to leave one or two crickets in there all the time because I power feed all my Ts to make em grow faster. When my B vagans has a molt coming it does just what yours did blocks off its entrance and doesn't come out until its either hungry enough to or its finish molting.
My Vagans is 1 1/2" and its not sexed but you gotta call it something other than "it" and since im not interested in breeding that species i'll stick with a he. =P Any that I want to breed I stick with a she. 
Well its been around a week now and I still havnt seen anything different. I will take a picture of it so you guys can see.
Well its been around a week now and I still havnt seen anything different. I will take a picture of it so you guys can see.
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When I first got Gracie, she did the same thing... she dug down, built a wall over the entrance and didn't come up for a week or more. I just made sure there was water and offered a bug every other day or so... taking it out after a hour, if she didn't nab it.
About 2 weeks passed and she's still in her hole, but she rushes out to grab her dinner and back in her hole she goes. She's just about 1", too. I think it's just something some of them do, especially if they have enough substrate and "furniture" to do it.
And no, I'm not sure Gracie is a girl... but I had a Grundo (MM) and I'm hoping for a girl this time 'round.
About 2 weeks passed and she's still in her hole, but she rushes out to grab her dinner and back in her hole she goes. She's just about 1", too. I think it's just something some of them do, especially if they have enough substrate and "furniture" to do it.
And no, I'm not sure Gracie is a girl... but I had a Grundo (MM) and I'm hoping for a girl this time 'round.