Hi All,

Firstly, I've already read Stans Rant and various other sources about contents and structure of substrate so I'm down with what the preferred options are and that generally tarantulas prefer a firm surface to move on.

This is more of a "Other than the ideal situation, what about these things ?" question, if you know what I mean.
Thinking aloud, if you will.

I just recently rehoused my B. albopilosum and he went into his hide and started excavating, using the hide entrance to chuck out the excavated peat (quite dry).
The result is that all the dirt outside the hide is soft, almost spongy.

He never seemed to have a problem with the same substrate in the previous enclosure, but maybe he did and just didn't tell me.

What I've been doing is removing some of the excavated peat and pressing down the rest.

So my real question is :
Considering that the ideal environment should have fairly firmly compacted substrate, should I (for the tarantula's best interest) continue removing and compacting the substrate he digs out, or should I just leave it all as is ?

Again, I'm not an "over caring" type, and my natural instinct is to leave it as is, but all I've read about substrate and peoples experiences seem to point to it being better to avoid soft, loose substrate.

Thoughts ?

I'm no pro but I think if it were a problem for the spider it would've moved it elsewhere.
Also this would be handy to have around when the T decides to close up the burrow/hide like mine seem to like doing :dry:

I would say leave the substrate loose ,some Ts are obligate burrowers and will always burrow ,often Ts adjust the substrate to their likings for example some aboreal Ts attach bits of substrate to their webbing .
as the T will move around in its enclosure and webs the substrate does get a bit pressed down after a while

Sweet. That's pretty much what i was thinking.

@Kudu
Agreed, and mine seems to like doing the same thing. I've been carefully moving just a leeetle bit out of the front so I can look into his burrow, but 1 hour later its covered up again.

@Huzi
Also agree with that.
I've read, and also noticed in his previous enclosure that if they're not completely happy, they'll web over the surface and compact/firm-it-up that way.

Also, this particular guy seemed to love engineering - in his previous enclosure he was constantly moving the peat around and the entrance to his (small) burrow.
But I'm not sure if that was just because it was a small volume (10cm glass cube) and he was "digging in circles"
(ie, digging into one area, have it partially collapse, re-adjust entrance and dig further, etc, etc.)

hi there

my 2 cents worth

My B. albopilosum and N . tripepii both do the exact same thing.

I find it is better to just leave it, at first I also compacted the substrate just to find everything re-arranged the next day.

"Ours not to reason why........"

Congratulations! You've pointed out a situation that hadn't occurred to me as I wrote Subsrtate (for instance).

Darkne55 wrote: ... Considering that the ideal environment should have fairly firmly compacted substrate, should I (for the tarantula's best interest) continue removing and compacting the substrate he digs out, or should I just leave it all as is ?

Again, I'm not an "over caring" type, and my natural instinct is to leave it as is, but all I've read about substrate and peoples experiences seem to point to it being better to avoid soft, loose substrate. ...

My comments were mainly aimed at answering the age-old question, "Why does my tarantula hang from the walls of its cage so much?" Now, I have to rethink that whole issue and probably reword that entire section in the care sheet.

In your specific instance, I wouldn't worry about it a lot. If your tarantula begins to show signs that it doesn't like the loose substrate any more, then I'd make an effort to tamp it down a little. Otherwise it's, "You made your bed. Now sleep in it!"

Enjoy your little, 8-legged, Caterpillar tractor !

:lol: