I'm so excited...

and if I wasn't sick I just couldn't hide it! lol Bronchitis stops me from doing a happy dance, but I'm mentally dancing. Toke our new Pink Toe has made her ball home. Shes got it in between the fake leaves and the wall and theres two doors in and out. Its really neat! Tokes just sitting inside all her webbing nice and cozy.

An Rasta the Blue Cobalt, well maybe we were seeing shadows before because this recent behaviour is weird. We think she just made a mat. She had a thin layer of peat moss that she put a thin layer of webbing on, on her log. Her borrows underneath the log but maybe there wasn't enough room? Rastas been out since yesterday and she drug her web to the corner across from the log and has it webbed up the wall sides there. It looks like a mat and shes just sitting on it.

I hope I catch her in the act of molting. That would be SO cool! She better wait until I come home from work. We know what to do to. If she molts she will feel vulnerable and be extra soft exoskeletoned I guess you could say? We won't try and get the molt out for at least a week so little Blue girl won't hurt herself or us. I still just can't wait to see one though. I've never seen a T molt up close and personal, just over the internet.

An someday when Jeff gets a few hes going to put one in the Boss's desk and scare the crap out of him and just run around playing pranks on everybody at work that day. lol Thanks for reading and I will keep all you Invert lovers updated.

Pictures. I just got a colbalt blue today and would love to see pics of there tunnels. BTW, how long should it take before she makes one? I have a good depth of bed-a-beast mixed with bark chips. Thanks

Cobalts seem to prefer inhabiting pre-made burrows rather than making their own burrows. Try making a burrow several inches deep but no more than 2" wide. You can make it right up against the side of the cage so the tarantula will always be visible to you. Once they settle into the burrow, they're not really that mean. I recently took in a lot of WC adult H. lividum for my friend who imports them, and this was how I got them acclimated without any problems. (I'm a total pansy when it comes to aggressive spiders.)

I know every caresheet suggests a basic terrarium with 3" of substrate, but I find that a tall, narrow container with at least 6" of substrate works better.

Sorry, I don't have any pics. I suck. If I had a camera though I could get some nice ones, thats what sucks. It took our Blue Cobalt a couple months to fully get "into" her home. Their like little Robots. Still very strange to me. First she went under her log stayed there for a couple weeks, then made a burrow under it, stayed like that for about a month and just recently we thought she was making a web matt but no, she was just bulldozing around and making more exits/entrances to her tunnel. An ExoTerra tank might work well for an H. Lividium, pretty much anything so long as they have the room to burrow their hearts out. Rastas in a cricket keeper now, but Jeff is psyched about updating her to a ten gallon with TONS of dirt. Just keep watching her and be prepared to be fascinated!