cave in??????? problems problems problems

da_illest

Arachnoprince
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Dec 6, 2003
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1,290
well, i put my a. seemani sling in a tank about 1 to 1 1/2 feet tall last night and i put a lot of dirt in it nicely compacted so the sling can burrow as you can see in my pic here... well i woke up today and i saw the the sling had burrowed about 4 inches deep, it was all neat and stuff.. he had put all the dirt he dug out in a pile right beside his entrance, so anyways the tunnel looked reaaallly small even for him (he had tunneled next to the plastic wall) but i was like whatever he made it so he must like it... then i went out and when i got home today the tunnel was still there but this time i could barely see the sling and about an inch up his tunnel was full of dirt up untill the top! So i got scared and dug him out thinking he was dead, it turned out he was VERY alive and running around like a mad man... do they do that?? i mean dig and then fill up the tunnel with dirt?? or was this a cave-in??? i put him in a little container with an inch of moss for now... should i put him back in? and should i compact the moss untill it's hard as brick?
 
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Silver.x

Arachnoangel
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Oct 16, 2003
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Soil always works well with smaller animals, its a bit easier to move around. Just soak the soil and compact it down, then re enter him in. If it happens again then make the container smaller or soil layer thinner.
 

KoRn

Arachnosquire
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Dec 7, 2003
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dude. relax alittle more man. the T might have had an inch of dirt that he just dug and was gettin ready to carry that up and throw it out of the burrow.

unless u mean the burrow only needed another inch to be full.. than thats a different story
 

rapunzel

Arachnodemon
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Jan 17, 2003
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Alex, they do that..

i have had slings that make a burrow then will fill it all up except for their little space-they are sealing themselves off, perhaps to molt. My curlyhair sling was the worst at it.

Make sure it isnt in too big of a container if it is just a sling-how big is the sling? It may only need a pillvial size right now..pack it down, start a burrow, use like a pencil to push a spot down, and see what he does. If it does it again, it is just trying to hide.

Good Luck, slings can be nerve-wracking. :)

Kim
 

da_illest

Arachnoprince
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Dec 6, 2003
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i think he is in pre-molt but it didn't look like he had room to molt in there! i think i'm going to take dave's advice and put him in a smaller container with only 3-4 inche's of moss... hope my sling doesn't die! *fingers crossed*:(
 

rapunzel

Arachnodemon
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Jan 17, 2003
Messages
750
he wont die..

let me tell you the story of my crazy a. geniculata sling:
It made a burrow and it molted in there, and looking at it right now, it is so squished in there, I have no idea how it is gonna stretch out its legs or anything at all. It looks like it didnt survive its molt- but it did. It knows what it is doing, apparently.

Im telling you, they make you a nervous wreck.
Better to have them in small containers though, or else it is too hard for them to find their food, and they get "lost" in all that space, and will just use a small area anyway.
 

belewfripp

Arachnobaron
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Aug 17, 2002
Messages
344
I wouldn't really be overly concerned. I have a Pterinochilus lugardi that I got shortly before having to leave for my last semester of college in NY. This was a few years ago, and when I got back I found the entire tank appeared empty. Under the plastic hide was nothing, no tunnel entrances, everything was just dirt. So I sifted through the stuff (being dumb then, I used my bare hands) and what do you know, buried under all the dirt, perfectly healthy, was my P. lugardi as well as the remains of a molt. Basically, unless it is a really tiny spiderling dealing with a really heavy substrate, if the spider can dig its way in, it can dig its way out if it needs to. Their oxygen needs are very low, and though my lugardi may have only been like that for a day or two, for all I know it could have been 2 weeks.

Adrian
 

DnKslr

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 6, 2003
Messages
1,255
My curlyhair sling was the worst at it.

Yup! My curly hair has a weird habit of sealing itself up in the little cave. I can see into the bottle though and I can tell it's still ok. I figured when it wants to come out it will. A week later, I see it has opened the entrance and was sitting at the opening. It was hungry:D
 
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