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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tortoise Tom" data-source="post: 134795" data-attributes="member: 27883">[ATTACH=full]31506[/ATTACH] This is not the experience we were hoping for. Back in June I bought a little G. pulchripes for my daughter. It was her first tarantula and we were all very excited about it. We found it dead yesterday. It is right side up, not in the "death curl", and its been unresponsive to touch for 24 hours. It ate about 7 days ago. It molted about 3 weeks ago. Everything has been fine. It made a little hidey hole under the cork bark when we first got it and all seemed good. We really haven't seen much of him, but we check on him once a week or so. The roaches all disappear and I've removed a few waste boluses.It was a tiny little thing when we got it, but it was eating pinhead Blatta lateralis nymphs for us. I was out of town earlier this week and I asked a friend to bring over a pinhead roach for it to eat. He brought over a newborn dubia that was too large, but still smaller than the spider. The dubia found its way into the underground retreat and the little spider has been out in the enclosure where we could see him finally. I didn't realize all this until my daughter told me he wasn't moving. I suspected a bad molt or something, so I checked under the cork bark and that is when I saw the tiny dubia nymph and realized what happened with the roach mix up. The roach was half the size of the spider, but probably too large for it to eat. I think it spooked him out of his lair, but that shouldn't have killed him, right?Here is the enclosure:[ATTACH=full]31504[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]31505[/ATTACH] Room temp is a steady 73-74 with the A/C going during our hot summer here. We've been feeding him twice a week. We refill the water dish each time we feed and its never less than half full. We over flow the water bowl to keep the substrate lightly damp.I've added dozens of new slings to my collection over the last few weeks and months. All are doing great. Thriving, eating, growing. The only casualty other than this was an A. geniculata that molted in transit and died two days later. That one was understandable. This one isn't. Doesn't make any sense. What am I missing? My daughter is crushed and we just want to understand what went wrong. Everything seemed great and we are right in the middle of the growth cycle, so it doesn't seem molt related. Anyone have any ideas? If I made a mistake I want to know about it so I don't repeat it.</blockquote>

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