T-Stirmi Troubles

[Derbarbarian]

Hey guys,

My T-Stirmi doesn't appear to be doing well, her rear left leg looks like it's been injured, it's pointing inwards at a rather strange angle, it looks like she may have fallen when she was roaming around her enclosure and injured it. I'll include a couple of pictures below. I tried to see if she can still move it which she wasn't overly happy about and started kicking hairs. She's also doesn't appear to be eating at all, I've put a couple of Dubia roaches in her enclosure over the past 2 weeks, and when I pulled the log out of her enclosure I found both of them, along with the 2 crickets I put in there 3-4 days ago, I also found 4 beetles that had hatched from the mealworms that I had put in there previously that I wasn't able to get out before they burrowed. So I pulled everything out and just put a single cricket in there to see if she eats it. I'm not sure if she's in pre-molt, or if there's something going on with her. She's still drinking water, I've been cleaning her bowl out about 3x daily, I pretty much have to clean it out anytime she drinks out of it because she tracks substrate into it as you can see in the pics. I just don't know what's going on with her, so any input and or advice would be GREATLY appreciated.

 

[Memo7]

Can you post the whole enclosure. As it appears there are several high points. Any terrestrial try to stay away from height as it can lead to falls.

 

[tarantulas118]

All right first of all pics of the enclosure would help another thing is the wood chips take ‘‘em out it could damage the spider if it decides to drag its abdomen across them and if it’s really high add more substrate and everything will be ok

 

[m0lsx]

Another thing is the wood chips take ‘‘em out it could damage the spider if it decides to drag its abdomen across them and if it’s really high add more substrate and everything will be ok

Wood chips also often include pine, Ceder etc. Which should ALWAYS be avoided with T's as well as rabbits etc. As pine etc contains an insecticide which is known to be harmful not just insects, but larger animals too. due to the hydrocarbons, it gives off.

 

[m0lsx]

My T-Stirmi doesn't appear to be doing well, her rear left leg looks like it's been injured, it's pointing inwards at a rather strange angle, it looks like she may have fallen when she was roaming around her enclosure and injured it.

A damaged leg, although best avoided is not the end for a T. I have a B hamorii which molted a few weeks ago & now has 2 deformed legs. I have a huntsman which molted last night & now has all 8 legs again. It was 7 legs yesterday morning. I have also brought several gimp (B grade) mystery boxes from The Spider Shop. Gimp boxes are generally 7 leggers. Which after a molt, get all 8 legs back, with the lost leg being slightly thinner on the first molt.

The real issue is terrestrial T's climbing & potentially injuring themselves. Your T should be able to reach from the substrate to the top of it's enclosure. As like that it will not have any bad fall. Legs will heal following a fall, but a tarantula is like a water filled balloon &* if they have a fall & split themselves open, unless you are very lucky, that will be the end of your stirmi.

Water bowls do not need to be spotless. They would drink from puddles, mud pools etc in the wild.

 

[Derbarbarian]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the input, I'll take a picture of her whole enclosure today when I get home from work, regarding the woodchips, when I initially setup her enclosure I got a big bag of repitsoil, along with another bag of soil from the pet store and I mixed them together in a 5 gallon bucket really well to use as substrate, the stuff with woodchips was actually suggested to me by friend who has numerous T's, so I took his advice on that. I'll get it cleaned out when I get home and only use the reptisoil and coconut fibers from here on out. As far as the high points of the enclosure, I know falls are a problem with them as they're incredibly fragile, the highest climbing point in her enclosure is about 4 1/2 inches off the ground which is on the top of her log/cave. When I clean out her enclosure I'm going to bury the far end into the ground to give her more of a borough and increase the amount of soil at the opening end to decrease the overall height of it.

 

[Derbarbarian]

I forgot to include this in my last post, here's a better shot of her rear leg.

 

[Derbarbarian]

Well, I think she's either dying or about to molt.. She's been in the corner of her cage for 12 hours under the heat lamp, her legs are slightly tucked but when I tried to move her a few minutes ago she tried to kick hairs at me.. She does have a clear fluid on a couple of her joints which I've been told can indicate that they're about to molt, but I'm just not sure.. I forgot to take pics the other day, I re-did her cage with reptisoil and coconut husk material and packed it in there so the biggest distance she can fall is about an inch and a half.

 

[Derbarbarian]

Hey guys, you can disregard my last post, she's gone.. I really have no idea what happened, she always had water, I misted her cage 2-3x a day to maintain humidity, tried feeding her 1-2 times per week, though the past 3-4 weeks she didn't appear to be eating, but she was still drinking.. I'm really bummed out, but I'd also like to try to figure out what happened..

 

[tarantulas118]

Hey guys, you can disregard my last post, she's gone.. I really have no idea what happened, she always had water, I misted her cage 2-3x a day to maintain humidity, tried feeding her 1-2 times per week, though the past 3-4 weeks she didn't appear to be eating, but she was still drinking.. I'm really bummed out, but I'd also like to try to figure out what happened..

Oh man I’m so sorry I love my stirmi and couldn’t even imagine what I’d do if I lost her. Did you keep it moist in there maybe that’s what led it to its death. Hopefully once you find out what happened and recover from the death, you’d get another T maybe even another stirmi

 

[tarantulas118]

Oh man I’m so sorry I love my stirmi and couldn’t even imagine what I’d do if I lost her. Did you keep it moist in there maybe that’s what led it to its death. Hopefully once you find out what happened and recover from the death, you’d get another T maybe even another stirmi

Oh sorry didn’t read it right so I’ve figured it out that you did keep it moist. What wood are those wood chips made of?

 

[Frogdaddy]

Perhaps the heat lamp dessicated her to the point of no return.
Couple that with an inappropriate substrate that can't hold the moisture this T needs and you mentioned frequently drinking leads me to believe this T was dried out and cooked.

 

[tarantulas118]

Perhaps the heat lamp dessicated her to the point of no return.
Couple that with an inappropriate substrate that can't hold the moisture this T needs and you mentioned frequently drinking leads me to believe this T was dried out and cooked.

THERE WAS A HEAT LAMP THIS WHOLE TIME?!?! yeah heat lamps are a big thing they can’t be used properly like you can with a reptile .

 

[Frogdaddy]

THERE WAS A HEAT LAMP THIS WHOLE TIME?!?! yeah heat lamps are a big thing they can’t be used properly like you can with a reptile .

Look at post #8

 

[Derbarbarian]

THERE WAS A HEAT LAMP THIS WHOLE TIME?!?! yeah heat lamps are a big thing they can’t be used properly like you can with a reptile .

It wasn't on all the time, only at nights when the temp drops, cage never got over 80 degrees even with the lamp being on, and the lamp only covered about 1/3 of her cage. During the day I'd keep the heater on to keep the room around 75 degrees. As far as the substrate goes, I completely cleaned her cage out on Tuesday and used a mix of repitsoil for the base mixed with loose coconut substrate. I was maintaining a humidity level of around 65-75%.

 

[SullivanC]

Heat lamp is not really required if you are comfortable with the temp in your room so will your tarantulas be. I am sorry about your loss I know you did the best you could but its never good idea to use heat lambs or wood chips. Just keeping substrate and moss should be enough for substrate and just keep the substrate deep and make sure bottom layer is kept moist at all times with 1 or 2 water dishes

 

[Derbarbarian]

Heat lamp is not really required if you are comfortable with the temp in your room so will your tarantulas be. I am sorry about your loss I know you did the best you could but its never good idea to use heat lambs or wood chips. Just keeping substrate and moss should be enough for substrate and just keep the substrate deep and make sure bottom layer is kept moist at all times with 1 or 2 water dishes

I appreciate that man. I was only using the heat lamp at night because I'd usually turn the heat off in my room as I have a really difficult time sleeping in a hot room. As for the substrate I actually switched it out a few days before she passed, I used a mix of shredded coconut husk and repitsoil along with moss, I put it in a big 5 gallon bucket and mixed it together really well, then I put a pretty thick layer of just moss on top of it all. Below the substrate I used about 2 or so inches of aquarium gravel/stone, which I put a screen mesh above the stone to separate it from the substrate. Anyways it definitely sucks losing an animal, I just lost my cat of 17 years in March, I got the T because I've wanted to get another one for quite a while and it's slightly less maintenance than a 4 legged fur buddy.

 

[SullivanC]

I appreciate that man. I was only using the heat lamp at night because I'd usually turn the heat off in my room as I have a really difficult time sleeping in a hot room. As for the substrate I actually switched it out a few days before she passed, I used a mix of shredded coconut husk and repitsoil along with moss, I put it in a big 5 gallon bucket and mixed it together really well, then I put a pretty thick layer of just moss on top of it all. Below the substrate I used about 2 or so inches of aquarium gravel/stone, which I put a screen mesh above the stone to separate it from the substrate. Anyways it definitely sucks losing an animal, I just lost my cat of 17 years in March, I got the T because I've wanted to get another one for quite a while and it's slightly less maintenance than a 4 legged fur buddy.

Yeah its sad you lost your 2 pets the cat and t.stirmi stirmi are also expensive too so its not always possible to get another one right away. I am sure you already know but if you want really big spider you can consider lasiodora parahybana their females are much cheaper than theraphosa females and they dont get as big as theraphosa but they are the second largest tarantulas after theraphosa species so they are worth checking out if you dont already have them Lasiodora parahybana needs some humidity like theraphosa but their humidity requirement is much more lesser than theraphosa care is so that makes lasiodora much easier to care for. How are you doing today?

 

[tarantulas118]

You can also always get acanthuascurria geniculata, another really big tropical tarantula that also look really nice, are mostly docile, grow up to 9 inches, have a great feeding response, less irritating hairs, and also grow faster than most other new worlds.

 

[SullivanC]

You can also always get acanthuascurria geniculata, another really big tropical tarantula that also look really nice, are mostly docile, grow up to 9 inches, have a great feeding response, less irritating hairs, and also grow faster than most other new worlds.

What I love about geniculata is they are also pretty cheat Rufilata and ornata they also get pretty large but they are old world and also arboreal