Hello! My B Smithi is around 3 years old and I’ve had it since the size of a nickel. I am not sure of it’s gender. This is my first tarantula and I need some advice! I recently had to transport my T a couple hours by car and a few days later he stopped moving. My T hasn’t moved for about 5 days now even when touched by a paint brush. it hasn’t moved to get water and doenst seem to be ready to molt. T is sitting on its stomach with legs loosely on its side but not quite tucked in. I am able to use the paint brush to gently move its legs and no reaction. Is my T dead?
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Is my Tarantula dead???!!
- Thread starter taylorET
- Start date
AndyBunn
Member
- Messages
- 49
- Location
- Telford, Shropshire, United Kingdom
it doesn't sound good. But you never know. might just be very stressed from the car journey. Is it due a molt? Sometimes tarantulas do molt upright.
I would leave it alone for a week but keep an eye on it. Provide water and keep humidity optimal.
Or you could take it to a vet.
i hope your Smithi is alright. You try not to stress out yourself. easier said then done I know.
I would leave it alone for a week but keep an eye on it. Provide water and keep humidity optimal.
Or you could take it to a vet.
i hope your Smithi is alright. You try not to stress out yourself. easier said then done I know.
AndyBunn
Member
- Messages
- 49
- Location
- Telford, Shropshire, United Kingdom
it doesn't sound good. But you never know. might just be very stressed from the car journey. Is it due a molt? Sometimes tarantulas do molt upright.
I would leave it alone for a week but keep an eye on it. Provide water and keep humidity optimal.
Or you could take it to a vet.
i hope your Smithi is alright. You try not to stress out yourself. easier said then done I know
It molts very inconsistent. It’s molted 4 times now and the last time was probably 9 months ago. It usually seems very healthy and crawls around his cage and definitely reacts to any movement or touch. I will definitely keep an eye on it for a thr next week or so. Thank you!!
AndyBunn
Member
- Messages
- 49
- Location
- Telford, Shropshire, United Kingdom
no problem. My tarantulas seem to each have there own molting time table and always molt around the same times each year.
I hope all goes well.
I hope all goes well.
- Messages
- 1,179
- Location
- Maine
Still hard to tell, so as others have said watch and wait. I would just let it alone. All the attention and moving likely unsettled it. I think you would know if it was dead as I am told it leaves a bad smell. Some tarantulas have been known to go into hiding for many months and even a year+.
Zagawiguay
New Member
- Messages
- 3
- Location
- Switzerland
It does not look dead to me. You can usually tell by the legs: Tarantulas only have muscles to pull their legs inwards. To stretch them outward, they need the blood pressure kind of like a hydraulic pressure. That's why the legs of dead tarantulas are usually pulled inwards, because the blood pressure is gone.
By that logic, I would say that the tarantula is still alive. Even though it's weird if it didn't move, even when brushed. Maybe try a bit harder with the brush. Lift up its legs or something. It'll move if it's bothered. If it remains limb, it seems sick, but probably not dead. Wish you good luck. Let us know.
By that logic, I would say that the tarantula is still alive. Even though it's weird if it didn't move, even when brushed. Maybe try a bit harder with the brush. Lift up its legs or something. It'll move if it's bothered. If it remains limb, it seems sick, but probably not dead. Wish you good luck. Let us know.
Thank you for your advice! So far it still hasn’t moved. Ended up moving its legs slightly so see if it reacted and still nothing. The legs moved easily when I moved them with a brush. I eventually picked it up and put it in a container with wet paper towels to see if it was dehydrated. After 48 hours of that there was still no movement. I put it back in its tank yesterday and has still not reacted or moved to anything for a little over a week.
Another thing I forgot to mention was when I brushed it a decent sized chunk of hair stuck to the brush. I’m not sure what that would imply. Here is a picture
Attachments
Thank you for everyone’s advice and encouragement. Unfortunately my B smithi passed away. I figured after days in icu with no improvement that it had passed/was going to pass. Today I used a brush to see if there was a reaction and immediately his abdomen started leaking intense amount of fluid. I carefully picked it up and placed it in a warm/wet paper towel. And it’s abdomen leaked all over to the point where it was all shriveled up. I hope to continue my T Journey and make sure this doenst happen again. Thank you all.
