How Important Is Burrowing Behaviours?

[Sagar Nigam S_JN]

I was interested to get this forums opinion on this, how important is it to allow naturalistist burrowing behaviours in burrowing spieces, i.e with very deep substrate so they can mimic the wild?
Ive got a spiderling Pinkfoot Golieth (theraphosa apophysis) that i guess is about 4cm and has never had the opportunity to burrow, and is feeding voraciously and doesnt mind being manuvered about. I recently filled up her substrate as much as i could to allow for the cork hide to stay in the tub (which is a large tarantula tub i got from thespidershop.co.uk which are very shallow for some reason.) And alhtough she seems to be takeing her time to moult this time, as she is in heavy premoult at the mo, i think this might be called normal behaviour as she has been getting darker by the day and today her abdomen seems to have swelled a bit and she looks quite rough and black so im guessing it might be tommoro.

I also have a Cobult Blue and a Phlogius which are both about 2cm.

I waws just curious if anyone had tried keeping burrowers as terrestrial Sp. with a hide and maybe a shallow end to allow a bit of burrowing, say to deepen a point under a piece of cork bark.

I remember one point that was mentioned in a book or something where they said that an important point about wild burrows is that moister level differs in the burrow from the general atmosphere and may be important for the T.
Another point is that back in the 90s people in the hobby used to keep their Ts on vermiculite and wet paper towels and such, does anyone know what kind of effect this would have?

Another thing, when I first got my adult B.Emilia she always used to dig burrows, but when i was setting up the substrate i was paranoid for the first week that it might collapse on her so kept on filling in the burrow and packing down the sub, and generally tweeking the terrarium, and ever since she has not bothered to build another burrow and is satisfied with a half cocanut hide, and feeds very well and is generally happy.
Has this ever happened to anyone else?

[Lee Corless]

I have noticed this A few times with my own H.lividum. My new one and my old one. Even though there is plenty of substrate and I have started a burrow for them they just refuse. I had a coconut shell for my last one, and my new one has a fake rock with a archway in, that she has webbed up and has made that her home. I do think it is important to have enough substrate to allow burrowing as they sometimes dig down to keep cool and regulate temperature. I would not worry to much, The spider knows best, maybe it does not want to dig a hide because it feels safe in the environment you have created. Also I would not worry about burrows collapsing, they are all lined with webbing and are structurally safe. Even if it was to cave in the spider would easily dig its way out, as long as the soil is not to compact.