Excavating Entire Enclosure

[T Freak]

Why would my nhandu coloratovillosus all of a sudden be excavating his entire enclosure like it’s digging literally everything out from the bottom and carrying up thru it’s bark hide to the surface one bit at a time and piling the sides up all the way to the top with substrate and it’s still going at it after 2.5 days of it. Pretty soon the entire bottom will be dug out and I’m afraid it’s going to collapse. It’s in a 4x4x4 cube now and I have an 8x8x8 exoterra nano on the way be here in about a week. It’s even piled it’s water dish with substrate and tbh I’m not even sure where or how to add a new one or fix this one to give it water. Any suggestions or ideas???

 

[Blackdog]

Mini bull dozer. That is why I hot glue the water dish in the corner even on the ground

 

[DustyD]

I have three G. rosea that started out about 1 inch and each dug caverns puting the excess on top.

The dens have been in place more than eight months and I have to believe webbing is securing them in place. The Ts essentially made a den out of their whole enclosure. They are about 2 inches now and at some point I will rehouse them.

Not looking forward to digging them up, as T Freak suggested, but some of the dens they made are wonderful.

 

[T Freak]

Mini bull dozer. That is why I hot glue the water dish in the corner even on the ground

Don’t see how this would help. It would still get covered. Any suggestions on how to add some water?

 

[sunset]

Don’t see how this would help. It would still get covered. Any suggestions on how to add some water?

Sometimes the T's do this. My g.polchra is always filling it's water dish, n my c.cyana's will also webb up and put dirt in the water.

Since yours is under n you can see it, until it's ready to rehouse, just put a new cap in. No biggie. You can't stop Thier behaviour. They get most of their water from their prey. As long as it's not a tiny young sling, I'm sure it'll be fine w a new water dish up top. It's just how it goes sometimes. Ya gotta go w the flow lmao.

 

[m0lsx]

My A chalcodes is Hohokam. I named her after the indigenous people who irrigated the Sonoran desert.

One of my A seemani's has moved one half of it's substrate onto the other half & an N carapoensis juvi has in effect moved all of it's substrate up half an inch off the bottom of the enclosure.

Some T's feel like they have been genetically cross-bred with caterpillars.

 

[Enn49]

I have had as many as 5 water bowls in one container for this very reason. I find that if I overflow the bowl a bit so there is a small area of moist substrate around it your T will do fine.

 

[Blackdog]

Don’t see how this would help. It would still get covered. Any suggestions on how to add some water?

My bad for not suggesting to always collect potential water dishes to be prepared to add another! 5 that is something I don't wanna see and I thought my tortoises bulldozed

 

[Arachnoclown]

Don’t see how this would help. It would still get covered. Any suggestions on how to add some water?

While my excavating Ts are hard at work bulldozing the entire enclosure I just remove the dish. When they slow down I put it back. Eventually they will slow down with the digging...usually with age. As long as they are eating regularly you don't need to worry about the water, they should be hydrated enough(dehydrated spiders don't bulldoze the earth). Just put it back when they take a break. As for the caving in...they are really good diggers. They usually line the tunnels with web. Even if it does collapse they will dig themselves out. Just make sure you don't have really heavy objects in the enclosure like rocks, bricks, heavy water bowls ect...

 

[Arachnoclown]

Here's a really old video of my juvenile Pelinobius muticus "King baboon". She cleared out the bottom and webbed it up, it never collapsed on her.

 

[T Freak]

Well seems it slowed down and I was able to get another water dish added in there. I’ll just keep watch and modify as needed. I do have that exo terra on the way so that should help. Thanks everyone.

 

[Graham 1234]

Is your room getting very hot in this heatwave , might be digging for somewhere cooler.

 

[TillyMJ]

My Honduran Curly Hair, Quiyl, does this all the time, she rolls hers up. Webs and rolls, she is quite a bizarre little beauty!

 

[T Freak]

Is your room getting very hot in this heatwave , might be digging for somewhere cooler.

No not really. I keep it about 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit by use of a/c when needed so it stays about the same temp around 76 or 77 usually. My Chaco golden knee sling has been buried in his hide too ever since he was moved from his deli cup. Closed off the entrance and all and only opened it up to pull a piece of superworm in and closed it right back off.

 

[T Freak]

Iv since been able to feed nhandu a roach. He stopped digging and was sitting at entrance to hide and I presented a roach which he took eagerly n ate it in the tunnel and now stays down below in its new tunnels. I plan to just provide water and keep watch especially for a moly to maybe happen and after that I may transfer to the new exo terra coming Monday.

 

[Graham 1234]

No not really. I keep it about 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit by use of a/c when needed so it stays about the same temp around 76 or 77 usually. My Chaco golden knee sling has been buried in his hide too ever since he was moved from his deli cup. Closed off the entrance and all and only opened it up to pull a piece of superworm in and closed it right back off.

Yes I've got loads I hardly see.

 

[Salatia]

My A.seemani arrived and was housed into a sling tub. Next morning was the warmest day we'd had so far at that point (since we've had even worse days, but the Ts handle it way better than me as this is the UK, so all good) and I was checking water dishes only to find theirs was all substrate and a good amount of the bottom of the tub had been shifted. They were already approaching the size where I would have rehoused, but I like to ensure they can get to their food early on until I know how confident they are etc. In this case, I decided to put them right into the next size up I had rather than letting them get settled and then having to start over.

1.3l braplast tub now has what resembles a small volcano at the back, and after a few meals the caldera was plugged. So we'll see who emerges. Ended up glad I'd decided to rehouse to this tub.