She's back!

[desert blond enthusiast]

My A. chalcodes, Lady Reginald Von Bartlebee is alive and well and chilling outside of her burrow again! Weeks ago she burrowed herself away and sealed off the entry. She had made a little viewing window where she had burrowed up against the side of the enclosure but had quickly covered that up. I was really missing her. I am happy to say that she's back in view again today. She still does not appear to have molted. I'm thinking her burrowing was a pseudo-hibernation thing. She looks like she's about ready to burst at the seams though, so I'm thinking the molting is going to happen any time now. Here's a pic of her. She's pretty dirty from digging out of her burrow.

 

[Chubbs]

Probably just settling in. Aphonopelma will sometimes burrow, as they do in the wild. Tarantulas don't really hibernate.

 

[MassExodus]

Depending on how cool your room is they may try to do that pseudo hibernation thing, I heard it described as torpor. But mostly she's probably just making herself comfortable and secure. Some will burrow some won't even attempt it, no idea why that is... I love the name by the way

 

[leaveittoweaver]

Looks like it's ready to molt to me too! Nice looking tarantula!

 

[desert blond enthusiast]

Depending on how cool your room is they may try to do that pseudo hibernation thing, I heard it described as torpor. But mostly she's probably just making herself comfortable and secure. Some will burrow some won't even attempt it, no idea why that is... I love the name by the way

Thank you! My students picked it out because they figured such a fancy spider should have a fancy name. We all mistakenly thought it was a male originally, thus the "Reginald" part of the name. When we found out it was female, the kids wanted the name to stay so they added "Lady" to the beginning. They are great kids. They are so curious to learn about tarantulas so I am very grateful for all the knowledge from this forum so I can bring the kiddos answers to their questions!

 

[desert blond enthusiast]

Looks like it's ready to molt to me too! Nice looking tarantula!

Thank you weaver! I'm rather fond of her!

 

[Entity]

Yeah it is good to hear about kids that are interested in something rather than being little punks. Good mentoring @desert blond enthusiast

 

[Megs]

My A. chalcodes, Lady Reginald Von Bartlebee is alive and well and chilling outside of her burrow again! Weeks ago she burrowed herself away and sealed off the entry. She had made a little viewing window where she had burrowed up against the side of the enclosure but had quickly covered that up. I was really missing her. I am happy to say that she's back in view again today. She still does not appear to have molted. I'm thinking her burrowing was a pseudo-hibernation thing. She looks like she's about ready to burst at the seams though, so I'm thinking the molting is going to happen any time now. Here's a pic of her. She's pretty dirty from digging out of her burrow.

Hi there! I just happened to see that you have a desert blond T. I was actually looking for someone on here to possibly answer a question for me. Our desert blond just molted on Friday. Everything looks good but it went from a light tan color to all black after molting. We were told by the breeder that it is a female but it's young so I'm not sure. I just wanted to know if the color will go back to being tan or if we just have an all black tarantula now. Thanks

 

[Chubbs]

The color should go back.