My clever chilean rose Charlotte

[christine henderson]

After a very difficult moult last year and with the help of tweezers Charlotte came out with all legs intact and perfect (or so I thought). For a year she had been living on cricket stomach contents and wax worms, due to crossed fangs. She had been unable to inject and her abdomen had gradually reduced. This last two months she has been immersing her fangs in the water bowl and to my amazement her fangs are now straight and she has eaten 3 fully dissolved crickets. I am astounded at the resilience of these creatures and how they know to correct these faults. Has anyone else experienced this with their spider?

 

[Samuraisid]

Thats very interesting. Ive never heard of crossed fangs before. Could you elaborate?

 

[christine henderson]

I'm assuming the damage was done whilst moulting when the fangs were still soft. She was still in moult 15 hours after turning on her back. struggling and growing weaker. I managed to help with some tweezers and at first she seemed ok. Introduced a cricket about 10 days later when her fangs had turned black but it just hung from her mouth still alive. She has been living on cricket stomach contents and wax worms for the last year due to her inability to inject. Her abdomen has shrank significantly and I really thought I was going to lose her eventually. Amazingly due to her immersing her fangs in the water bowl over a period of weeks for hours at a time, they are now straight. She is now in a feeding frenzy and eating whole dissolved crickets. Hopefully soon I will see an improvement in the size of her abdomen.

 

[Josh]

Wow. did you happen to get a photo of the crossed fangs? Or maybe the molt process while you were helping her with tweezers? What a crazy story. I'm very glad to hear she's ok now though!

 

[christine henderson]

Wow. did you happen to get a photo of the crossed fangs? Or maybe the molt process while you were helping her with tweezers? What a crazy story. I'm very glad to hear she's ok now though!

No, I didn't think to take pics, I was too upset cos I thought she was going to die. I'd been up and down all night and was very tired. I phoned an exotics vet in the morning and he said that I had to get it off her as soon as possible, so I used the tweezers and also sprayed her with warm distilled water. My profile pic is of her a few hours after the moult when her colours are vivid. She looked beautiful. Obviously the colours fade over time. I did try to get a pic of the crossed fangs when she crawled up the side of the tank but by the time I got the camera she'd dropped down.