is this normal behavior?

[daleeso]

hey all,

i dont know if im just overworried as i usually am but i feed my spider bp every 5 days hopper live. she last ate on thursday (5th feed since ive had her) which will make today feeding day once again. she weighs about 128g.

i fed her a mice a little bigger than a hopper as when i went to the store i get them from they were out of hoppers. the mice i fed her weighed about 12 grams. she fed with no problem. now, what i find strange is that once she fed she went and hid on her warm side hide and has not come out of there since. i have heard they do go on the warm side once they feed to help with digestion which she has always done but on this occassion she went into her hide after feeding thursday and has not come out since. she has from time to time peeked her head out but has not come out as she had done so the previous 4 times where she would come out by the 2nd day.

she also for the first time burrowed on her hide thus moving the substrate into a mound and seems to be laying on the tanks glass right above the UTH which i do have on a tstat.

is this normal for them to stay that long in their hide? should i try to feed today since it is feeding day? should i be worried? i dont want to lift up her hide and disturb her specially on feeding but i dont know if i should since it has been an unusual number of days she has been in there.

any input/suggestions as always is greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone

[The Serpent Merchant]

What is the ambient temperature of the enclosure and the temperature of the glass?I would feed her an adult mouse every 5 to 7 days (adult mouse meaning 15-20grams)

[Annarose15]

Perfectly normal. And yes, you can feed her like usual. She'll likely snatch it up as it investigates her hide! It's also possible that she's going into shed, if she hasn't since you got her, which might stop her from eating. Either way, perfectly normal and no reason not to try.

[BFT12890]

If I read you correctly, this feeding was slightly larger then the rest, if so she is probably just more "full" and is allowing more digestion/cautious time.

Mine will hide during the day after feedings for a few days with her head out of the hide as if to be on guard for predators and all (or just sleeping ), but I have heard/seen her moving around at night occasionally still.

Also i have heard spiders can be a bit "goofy". All in all I would say your ball is just fine

ALSO, make sure your husbandry (temps and humidity) are correct and havent fluctuated since last feeding to cause a change in behavior.

Hopefully somebody more experienced will chime in as well

[evan385]

Yes this is completely normal. Captain Hook hides under her substrate all day, and only comes out at night. Half the time she stays hidden most of the day and night. Also if she is 128 grams well, she needs to be eating 10-15% of her body weight. So I agree you need to feed an adult mouse 15-20 grams. Anything under about 15 grams is too small.

[AK907]

Perfectly normal.

Time to move up a prey size or two. At the least she needs small adult mice, however, it would be beneficial to get her started on rats. Rat fuzzies in the 15-18g range would be suitable. You want to feed her 10-15% of her body weight every 5 days.

[daleeso]

thank you everybody for all the input/advice. as far as my temps at the last feeding the ambient on the hot side was 89 and on the cool side was 81. my humidity has stayed pretty much anywhere between 52 and 55%. as of today my hot side is at 92 ambient and about 90 in the hide where the UTH is right under(and where she has been since thursday). last i measured the temp on the glass where UTH is right under is usually 91F constantly give or take a degree or two as it is controlled by the TSTAT. my humidity is at 55% and cool side is at 84F currently.

i will then attempt to feed it today but unfortunately i bought a hopper already so i will feed it that for this feeding. gowing foward i will go up one prey size. thank you everyone for calming my worries once again. im new at this and learning along with the help of everyone on the forum.

stay tuned update to come

[filipradcliffe]

I just fed my BP. He doesn't go into his hide, he just climbed up his tree branch/plant (which looks like a tree) and he has just been sitting there... I just got another hide for his cool side. (i just got the snake 5 days ago) Is there anything to worry about since he doesn't use is warm hide? (the hide might be too big?, so i got a small hide for cold side)

[daleeso]

update as promised

she did eat and annarose15 was right. she was in shed as when she smelled the hopper and finally came out the hide she had some skin starting to come off. once she had him down she went right back into one of her hides..this time on the cool side.

now that she is in the shedding process, any suggestions from you guys so she can have as best shed as possible? i do read a lot on the forum and it seems most people use moss to help with the humidity and thus aid in the she. should i use some of this inside her "cool side" hide? for now i have a water dish which she can soak in completely but my humidity seems to not go higher than 55% and i only get it that high as i have a wet towel covering 3/4 of the lid and aluminum foil covering that.

what else can/should i do to get the humidity up for aiding in the shedding process.

once again thanks to everyone for their advise/opinions.

[tuffstuff07]

if shes in a tank i like to use the sphangnum moss. Ive had good luck with just a little bit of that tucked into their hides to create a humid hide.