CieloAngel
New Member
- Messages
- 6
- Location
- New Orleans
So I thought I had done a great job protecting my spiders on my bookcase from being knocked down by my almost 1-year-old kitten, but I should have known that kittens will always find a way...
Last night he made it on to my shelf and knocked over most of my sling enclosures and knocked 4 or 5 of them to the ground (about 4 feet) onto my dog's pee pad. Three enclosure opened, with 2 spiders getting out. My H. formosus was sitting right there by his enclosure. My P. cambridgei was missing, and my P. sazimai was still in his. We looked everywhere for my P. cambridgei, including under my dog's pee pad tray, and we were just about to give up when I thought to look under the tray again and he was there, but hiding in the lip of the tray. Today, my H. formosus and P. cambridgei, as well as all of the others that got knocked around seem ok.
My P. sazimai however was a deep burrower. When we were looking for him, we carefully removed the dirt until we found him. He darted out of the cage and up my son's arm. We caught him and I put him into a deli cup until I could fix his cage. About an hour after the fall, when I went to get him to put him in his fixed cage, he was limp and in a death curl. I left him in the deli cup with a bit of substrate and a moistened Q-Tip under his mouth, but today he is dead.
I am just wondering what may have happened since he seemed fine immediately after the fall? Did he maybe bust something internally and it just took a while to kill him (his abdomen and carapace don't look injured)? Was the stress enough to kill him that quick? It would seem he would have been pretty cushioned in the fall, but maybe the dirt falling on him was too much weight? I feel horrible because this is only my second definite T death, and this one is my fault (my first was a random death of after a molt of a C. elegans).
I have since moved all of my slings into a large Exo-Terra and reinforced my entry points to the bookcase (by blocking them with decorations and/or books). I do think I may need to play it extra safe and do something with my juvenile cages. I am pretty sure he can't move the adult cages, and I put a lot of knickknacks on top of the juvenile cages as a hopeful visual cue to prevent him from trying to jump "on" them. I know some people said they used Velcro and all to secure the cages. I am thinking about that, but am wondering if even that would be strong enough against a teenage, headstrong cat?
Here are some pictures. The first is my bookcase post-fall with all of the decorations added to the cages on the top shelf. The middle shelf, where the cloche is, is where the sling enclosures were.
The second is the culprit in this caper. Don't let that face fool you. He is devious.
Last night he made it on to my shelf and knocked over most of my sling enclosures and knocked 4 or 5 of them to the ground (about 4 feet) onto my dog's pee pad. Three enclosure opened, with 2 spiders getting out. My H. formosus was sitting right there by his enclosure. My P. cambridgei was missing, and my P. sazimai was still in his. We looked everywhere for my P. cambridgei, including under my dog's pee pad tray, and we were just about to give up when I thought to look under the tray again and he was there, but hiding in the lip of the tray. Today, my H. formosus and P. cambridgei, as well as all of the others that got knocked around seem ok.
My P. sazimai however was a deep burrower. When we were looking for him, we carefully removed the dirt until we found him. He darted out of the cage and up my son's arm. We caught him and I put him into a deli cup until I could fix his cage. About an hour after the fall, when I went to get him to put him in his fixed cage, he was limp and in a death curl. I left him in the deli cup with a bit of substrate and a moistened Q-Tip under his mouth, but today he is dead.
I am just wondering what may have happened since he seemed fine immediately after the fall? Did he maybe bust something internally and it just took a while to kill him (his abdomen and carapace don't look injured)? Was the stress enough to kill him that quick? It would seem he would have been pretty cushioned in the fall, but maybe the dirt falling on him was too much weight? I feel horrible because this is only my second definite T death, and this one is my fault (my first was a random death of after a molt of a C. elegans).
I have since moved all of my slings into a large Exo-Terra and reinforced my entry points to the bookcase (by blocking them with decorations and/or books). I do think I may need to play it extra safe and do something with my juvenile cages. I am pretty sure he can't move the adult cages, and I put a lot of knickknacks on top of the juvenile cages as a hopeful visual cue to prevent him from trying to jump "on" them. I know some people said they used Velcro and all to secure the cages. I am thinking about that, but am wondering if even that would be strong enough against a teenage, headstrong cat?
Here are some pictures. The first is my bookcase post-fall with all of the decorations added to the cages on the top shelf. The middle shelf, where the cloche is, is where the sling enclosures were.
The second is the culprit in this caper. Don't let that face fool you. He is devious.
