Burrowing Red Island Birdeater

[Carsten]

Hi,

I got my first sling the other day. A Phormictopus atrichomatus (Red Island Birdeater). He/she is already around 2" (not sure if you can still call her a sling ). Today I noticed that it started to dig deeper into the little hideout I made for her and carrying all the substrate away. Very cute to watch her . Now, since there is very little information available on the internet about this species, are they avid burrowers? Something I need to consider once I put her into a bigger enclosure. Anyone has experience with them?

Cheers

 

[spidey noob]

now im not a 100% shure on this, (only 60/40) but i think tss had some of these for sale backend of last year & in the description they were burrowers.
looks like the tank u got the T in is deep so u could add some more substrate & see what happens (not all burrowing spices burrow in captivety)

 

[Carsten]

Thanks Spidey noob. I will add some more substrate but at the moment don't want to disturb all the work she has done already . Considering the full grown size of the species it will be interesting to see what kind of tunnels she digs. Anyone else has experience with this T?

 

[Therasoid]

Hi,

I got my first sling the other day. A Phormictopus atrichomatus (Red Island Birdeater). He/she is already around 2" (not sure if you can still call her a sling ). Today I noticed that it started to dig deeper into the little hideout I made for her and carrying all the substrate away. Very cute to watch her . Now, since there is very little information available on the internet about this species, are they avid burrowers? Something I need to consider once I put her into a bigger enclosure. Anyone has experience with them?

Cheers


View attachment 9586

Hi Carsten,
These are in the Theraposinae sub-family, they are an opportunistic burrower. Since yours seems to be near a juvie stage and is wanting to burrow, I would add more substrate now. These can be real bulldozers, what else do they have to do besides eat and drink in their enclosure all night? [emoji3]

 

[Carsten]

Hi Therasoid,

Thanks for the info. Yes, bulldozers seems to be the right word from what I can see . When I bought the T yesterday they were still keeping her inside this tiny round plastic containers for slings. I transferred her now into a Faunarium (Mini 7"x 4"x 5"). Will this do for the moment or should I place her already in a bigger enclosure?

 

[Denny Dee]

Really depends on how often you want to transfer her. Phormictopus are fast growers. Being opportunistic burrowers, there is no such thing as an enclosure that is too big (not saying too high) as they will spend most of their time in the burrow. So if you don't want to deal with transferring as often, I would go bigger. Either way would work though if you don't currently have space or budget. Gorgeous spider BTW.

 

[Therasoid]

Really depends on how often you want to transfer her. Phormictopus are fast growers. Being opportunistic burrowers, there is no such thing as an enclosure that is too big (not saying too high) as they will spend most of their time in the burrow. So if you don't want to deal with transferring as often, I would go bigger. Either way would work though if you don't currently have space or budget. Gorgeous spider BTW.

+1 Agree with Denny.
A large enclosure is fine, it will grow quick and only increase the size of the burrow to meet its needs. [emoji3]
IMO the burrowers seem to settle in a new enclosure quicker than straight terrestrial and arboreal species. The past few years I've only purchased slings to raise and find this to be true in most all of mine. Then again I'm partial to most species in the Eumenophorinae and Ornithoctoninae sub family. [emoji6]