Regal jumper, had her since June. She has always had a hammock in the top corner, and this week she has been down in the substrate instead, pushing at it and tucking herself under a piece of bark.
The enclosure opens from the top and I have definitely wrecked her hammock a few times getting in. She ate four days ago. Is going low something they do, or have I pushed her out of the top?
Two other reasons to rule in or out before you assume it is the enclosure. Pre-moult spiders hide away in a sheltered spot, often somewhere unusual, and go off food and get less active, and four days without eating is consistent with that. And a mature female may produce an egg sac even without mating, which she will guard in a retreat.
Either of those means leave her entirely alone. Do not dig her out to check.
Check there is no lamp directly above. They will go low to get away from heat or bright light.
@hammock_up_high · yesterday · 3 replies
You have probably pushed her out of the top, and the top-opening enclosure is the mechanism. Regals and bolds build silk retreats up high, usually in a corner near the lid, which is precisely where your hand goes every time. Destroy it enough times and a spider stops building there.
So she may simply have relocated to somewhere you do not reach. That is not burrowing in the species sense, it is a spider choosing the one spot you leave alone.
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@gone_into_substrate · yesterday
Is that fixable without buying a new enclosure, or is the opening the whole problem?
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@opens_from_front · yesterday
Front or bottom opening is the real fix and it is why those are sold. Short of that, give her anchor points she will prefer: twigs, fake leaves, something wedged across a corner away from the lid, so the best spot in the enclosure is not the one you keep opening.
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