Why?

my 4-5th instar australian hissing T had a burrow that went down the side of the tank a bit so i could see it,then he dug towards the centre a bit then to the side of the tank, i could see him coz he dug towards the glass and made like a little cave,he then covered up all of his burrow apart from that cave bit and he would just sit or move around in his cave for 2 days. mum knocked over his enclosure today (not a big fall,just plopped onto its side) and alot of the substrate fell out,but his cave was still intact,i put th subsrate bak in and gently patted it down,but got worried i might be trapping him incase he had a burrow i didnt see,so i gently got him out and made him a new little burrow.why did he completely collapse his burrow? i dont think its molting coz i gave him a fruit fly and he viciousely took it. the humidity is 70-80% and temp is 20-25 in the daytime and gets down to around 16 at night.

There really is no answer to your question. It did it because it wanted to. Spiders will often do things that seem incomprehensible, or against our preferences. Perhaps it was feeling stressed and wanted to feel more secure. Who knows? It'll come out if it wants to. If not you'll just have to be patient.

cnapple said:

There really is no answer to your question. It did it because it wanted to. Spiders will often do things that seem incomprehensible, or against our preferences. Perhaps it was feeling stressed and wanted to feel more secure. Who knows? It'll come out if it wants to. If not you'll just have to be patient.

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Couldnt have said it better.

That's why they're a great pet to observe. They won't always do the predictable. It'll come out when it's ready.

Just curious... how big is your T? I'd think a 4-5th instar tarantula would be too large to even even notice a fruit fly, let alone go for one.

He fits on a 5cent coin, I feed him every 3rd day and his abdomen looks HUGE! like it might pop