Moulting

[Louise Rowbotham]

Hi,
I bought a Mexican red knee tarantula on Sunday 11th October. On the first night of having the spider it moulted. It was abit of a shock but all fine. This morning I got up and my spider was on his back moulting (I think/hope) again. Is this normal with in a 2 week period? The spider is around 8 month old. I am a beginner so although I have done a lot of reading up this is still new to me. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Entity]

If that is the spider in ur pic then it is older than 2 months. Mine is almost 3 years old and is only about 2 inches dls. But i have never heard of a spider that big molting that frequently...slings yes. just make sure it has water and keep an eye on it....all u can do. good luck. let us know.

 

[Louise Rowbotham]

Thank you for responding.

My spider is 8 months old.
I have spoken to a spider expert at my local museum that keeps spiders who told me that he does not think my spider is moulting if no signs are showing of this in a 24 hours period. He did say that this dosen't sound good so we are expecting the worst We are going to monitor him for the next 24 hours and keep him hydrayted.

Will keep you posted.

 

[spidey noob]

i would tend to agree with what the u have been told from the spider expert !
how are things going ?

 

[Denny Dee]

I have raised a B. smithi and was surprised at the short span between molts while young. I do agree that it is unusual for an older T to do this. I am wondering what you are keeping the humidity at? Many keepers, especially pet shops, view smithi's as desert T's and never provide water or proper humidity in the enclosure. If you have a decent humidity level, it may have sparked a molt and the T is playing catch up especially if you have been power feeding?

 

[Louise Rowbotham]

His humidity is around 70/75% which I have read is around ok. He's is doing ok. We put him into spider intensive care which we read about on the net for around 24 hours. He's still pretty slow and not moving great but looks a lot better so we'll just have to see. I think it will take a week or so for him to fully come round. Thanks for asking.

 

[Louise Rowbotham]

I have raised a B. smithi and was surprised at the short span between molts while young. I do agree that it is unusual for an older T to do this. I am wondering what you are keeping the humidity at? Many keepers, especially pet shops, view smithi's as desert T's and never provide water or proper humidity in the enclosure. If you have a decent humidity level, it may have sparked a molt and the T is playing catch up especially if you have been power feeding?

He's only has one cricket in 2 weeks as he molted on the first evening we got him home. The expert I spoke to said if he thought the spider was due to molt (which he did) he shouldn't have let us take him and upset the process.

 

[Louise Rowbotham]

First image is ICU for spider and second image is how he/she is now.

 

[Denny Dee]

Looks pretty healthy all things considered. I would try to return back to normal enclosure sooner than later and see how things go. 75% is certainly the high range for humidity on this species.

 

[Louise Rowbotham]

How do you bring the humidity down?

 

[Denny Dee]

Assuming that is your enclosure in the second photo? If so, I would just put her back in there and observe behavior for a day or two. I would definitely recommend keeping a water dish in there but no misting until you get it down about 10%. Feed in a week or two and if she does not eat, remove the cricket (or your food of choice) and continue to try every other day or so.

 

[Louise Rowbotham]

Do you think I should move the heat may over to the other side to dry some of the peaty/soil stuff out?

Thanks for responding to me this is really helping.

 

[Denny Dee]

Is it a heat pad? If so, make sure you only cover half the tank as a general rule. I would place it on the side opposite the water dish.

 

[Louise Rowbotham]

Yes it's a heat pad. He's still not moving really so I have dried a lot of the bedding to reduce humidity and left his tank open slightly. I just want him to make an effort to work He seems to really struggle.

 

[Chubbs]

I advise not using heat pads at all since they can be dangerous.

 

[Louise Rowbotham]

Oh? How do I keep his tank warm? It says keep it at around 24 degrees C. I live in UK and its doesn't get 24 degree C in summer here. Why are they dangerous? Sorry for all the questions.

 

[Louise Rowbotham]

I have nearly dried out all the bedding now so there is more or less no misting. The guy at the pet shop wet all the bedding originally and said it was fine to put the spider in.

 

[RedCapTrio]

He's only has one cricket in 2 weeks as he molted on the first evening we got him home. The expert I spoke to said if he thought the spider was due to molt (which he did) he shouldn't have let us take him and upset the process.

Second photo looks just like my almost 4inch B. smithi that is with me for almost two months now that twice molted (my avatar) but molting is regular that is monthly just like The Period.

Hoping for the best with your T.

 

[Louise Rowbotham]

Thank you.

He (or she) is much better now and has started to walk again I dried out his bedding and brough the humidity down which I think helped.

Thank you all for responding and helping me sort my Ernest out

x

 

[Enn49]

Oh? How do I keep his tank warm? It says keep it at around 24 degrees C. I live in UK and its doesn't get 24 degree C in summer here. Why are they dangerous? Sorry for all the questions.

You need to put a thermostat on your heat mat. Heat mats have been known to fail and cause fires or cook the occupant but if you have a thermostat on it will automatically switch the mat off and remove any danger.