How To Know Post-Molt Exoskeleton Is Hardened?

[fluffytocatl]

What it says basically. My first tarantula (t. albo) molted for the first time since I've had her, and I've been trying to be very careful not to disturb her afterwards and making sure there's water in there for her to rehydrate. I know the goal is to not feed again until her exoskeleton has molted, but I've seen a wide range of timeframes (from 1 week to a month for an adult depending on size) and I'm not entirely sure what to look for or how to know I'm looking at the right thing. Her fangs look black to me, but they're also in a reddish area of her body and I'm not sure if maybe they're also red at the tips or pale at the base and unhardened?

I also noticed the underside of her joints being shiny a few days after the molt and they're not quite so shiny anymore, but I don't honestly remember what her joints looked like before she molted. I wasn't exactly looking closely at her elbows, lol.

Low quality spood pics to demonstrate what I mean:

For reference, it's been two weeks exactly since she molted, and she's a mature female. If I had to guess based on my information, I think she may be ready to try feeding again, but I want to doublecheck just in case, because I don't want to damage her fangs. Could I get some confirmation, and maybe some tips about how to know for sure I'm looking at a hardened exoskeleton?

 

[fluffytocatl]

*goal is not feed again until her exoskeleton has hardened.

Just found out posts can't be edited, lol

 

[m0lsx]

For normal sized T's all we do, is not feed any T that has molted during the previous 7 days. So any molts we find from & thus including, the last feeding day onwards. Do not get fed. We have never had an issue. But just to say. We do feed our T's, nice soft crickets & we do leave our larger ladies, for example stirmi's/ LP's. for two weeks after a molt. As we assume, they may take a little longer.

Feeding takes two of us, two hours. So this keeps things simple & has worked well for us. But a T can go months without food. So two weeks without a cricket/mealworm/roach. Is no problem at all, if you want to leave it that long.

We keep a molt diary & never feed without checking the diary.

 

[Tarantula Trooper]

If she's been molted two weeks she should be ready to strap the feed bag on.

 

[x_raphael_xx]

A good indicator is to check the fangs, if they are still pinky-white, they are still soft. You want a nice dark black to make sure they've hardened properly.

 

[Eighth Eye Blind]

The answer, like so much in biology, is "it depends".

The new cuticle is hardened through an interaction of proteins, sugars (mostly chitin), and chemicals called catecholamines. These ingredients get linked together in a fairly complex chemical reaction that also removes water from the new cuticle. The whole process also requires trace minerals such as zinc and calcium that need to come from the T's diet.

Once hardened the new exoskeleton is filled in and coated with a waxy substance to make it watertight. That's probably what you're seeing with the change in shininess you witnessed.

How fast the new cuticle hardens is therefore dependent on the T's nutritional state. A well-fed animal that has sufficient stores of protein and other required nutrients can harden its new cuticle in less than a day. One that has a some sort of nutritional deficiency or has been on a hunger strike for a long time might take several days to get the job done.

So, it depends. I think the one week rule is pretty good. If the new cuticle hasn't properly hardened by then you have a very sick spider and feeding it probably isn't going to do much to save it anyway.

 

[Tarantula Trooper]

Might think I'm crazy but some of the Spoods I've kept for years all I have to do is look at them..... And I know.... They have the I'm hungry and ready to throw down again look!! But usually I still give it a day or 3... Lol,lol. Happy Spoodering!!!!

 

[fluffytocatl]

The answer, like so much in biology, is "it depends".

The new cuticle is hardened through an interaction of proteins, sugars (mostly chitin), and chemicals called catecholamines. These ingredients get linked together in a fairly complex chemical reaction that also removes water from the new cuticle. The whole process also requires trace minerals such as zinc and calcium that need to come from the T's diet.

Once hardened the new exoskeleton is filled in and coated with a waxy substance to make it watertight. That's probably what you're seeing with the change in shininess you witnessed.

How fast the new cuticle hardens is therefore dependent on the T's nutritional state. A well-fed animal that has sufficient stores of protein and other required nutrients can harden its new cuticle in less than a day. One that has a some sort of nutritional deficiency or has been on a hunger strike for a long time might take several days to get the job done.

So, it depends. I think the one week rule is pretty good. If the new cuticle hasn't properly hardened by then you have a very sick spider and feeding it probably isn't going to do much to save it anyway.

This was extremely helpful, thank you!!! Knowing how the process goes and why a spider may/may not be ready is really useful. Can I ask where you learned stuff like this about tarantulas so I can also do more research?

 

[fluffytocatl]

Might think I'm crazy but some of the Spoods I've kept for years all I have to do is look at them..... And I know.... They have the I'm hungry and ready to throw down again look!! But usually I still give it a day or 3... Lol,lol. Happy Spoodering!!!!

That's amazing, wow!! And thank you!! I bought her some feeders today, gonna see if she's up for snacks lol

 

[Eighth Eye Blind]

Can I ask where you learned stuff like this about tarantulas so I can also do more research?

It's simple! Just get a degree in invertebrate zoology.

Joking aside, there's no truly good comprehensive references about tarantula biology. There are a lot of books written for hobbyists but in my experience all of them are about 70% correct and useful info and 30% total BS. There's quite a bit of old "wisdom" in the hobby that's nothing but mythology that's been handed down and simply taken as true over the years.

The same goes for the majority of sites you'll find on the net. I just saw a new post from an "expert" that talked about the differences between B. smithi and B. hamorii. The guy was completely wrong. There's an official publication that explains the taxonomic differences between these and other Brachypelma species that the guy had clearly never even heard of. He just made a video to draw clicks to his site without bothering to learn about what he was trying to teach.

Experienced keepers like the ones you'll find around here are your best source for general info on things like feeding and habitat and you'll get lots of great care tips from them. If you want hard-core biology and biochemistry, tho, you have to dig much deeper.

The basic problem is that there's no money in studying tarantulas so very few people do it. T's don't kill or seriously injure people and they don't damage crops or eat a significant load of insects (versus other spiders) so humans have no economic incentives to fund scientific study of them. The number of people who have truly deep academic knowledge about tarantula biology is probably in the low thousands world-wide and at least half of them are at pharma companies looking for new drug candidates in venom samples.

So if you really want to do research on tarantulas you literally need to do research on tarantulas. All of the expert-level info is locked away in scientific papers and monographs. You just gotta hit the nearest university library and start reading. You'll be up to speed in a just a couple of years. Sorry, best I can offer you.