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Who's molted today
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<blockquote data-quote="Jess S" data-source="post: 164201" data-attributes="member: 29302"><p>83 days since it's last moult, my 2 cm(ish) B auratum moulted today and something didn't look right. This is the first photo I took (so I could zoom in as I find these tiny slings hard to see with the naked eye lol)</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]43151[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>For a second, I thought the shiny stuff at the top of the abdomen was fluid, plus the photo appeared to make the abdomen itself misshapen. I took another photo (below) which showed the abdomen was ok but there was a bit of the moult stuck to the top.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]43155[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>It moved a little and dragged it with it, so definitely stuck. Now, I realised I could've waited to see if it would detach by itself but I felt I could get it off with a wet paintbrush without damaging the sling. Lucky for me, it wasn't a difficult procedure.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]43153[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>As you can see, there's still a tiny bit stuck, but I'm going to leave it be.</p><p></p><p>I'm pondering the reason why this happened and my theory is that usually when my slings that I keep mainly dry are in premoult, I make sure a good corner of the substrate is kept more moist than usual and I don't let it dry out like I normally do. However, I had to replace this little guy's water dish a while back and all I had to hand was a bottle top that is completely oversized for this enclosure. Due to having this huge water dish (which I will get round to replacing!) I wasn't as diligent at moistening an area of substrate as I felt it wasn't necessary.</p><p></p><p>I understand humidity isn't necessary for moulting as such, as internal fluids do the work, but after observing the behaviour of some of my T's in premoult, particularly my B smithi, I'm becoming convinced that external moisture can play a role in softening the exoskeleton and keeping it supple (maybe not the right word but you know what I'm getting at), and my B smithi definitely seems to know this. The last premoult it spent 3.5 weeks hovering over the moist side and as soon as it moulted it went straight back to the dry side and showed no interest in the moist area. It is in premoult again and doing the same. As always, if anyone has a better theory for this I'm genuinely all ears! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jess S, post: 164201, member: 29302"] 83 days since it's last moult, my 2 cm(ish) B auratum moulted today and something didn't look right. This is the first photo I took (so I could zoom in as I find these tiny slings hard to see with the naked eye lol) [ATTACH type="full" width="369px" alt="IMG_20200128_212630.jpg"]43151[/ATTACH] For a second, I thought the shiny stuff at the top of the abdomen was fluid, plus the photo appeared to make the abdomen itself misshapen. I took another photo (below) which showed the abdomen was ok but there was a bit of the moult stuck to the top. [ATTACH type="full"]43155[/ATTACH] It moved a little and dragged it with it, so definitely stuck. Now, I realised I could've waited to see if it would detach by itself but I felt I could get it off with a wet paintbrush without damaging the sling. Lucky for me, it wasn't a difficult procedure. [ATTACH type="full" alt="IMG_20200128_223922~2.jpg"]43153[/ATTACH] As you can see, there's still a tiny bit stuck, but I'm going to leave it be. I'm pondering the reason why this happened and my theory is that usually when my slings that I keep mainly dry are in premoult, I make sure a good corner of the substrate is kept more moist than usual and I don't let it dry out like I normally do. However, I had to replace this little guy's water dish a while back and all I had to hand was a bottle top that is completely oversized for this enclosure. Due to having this huge water dish (which I will get round to replacing!) I wasn't as diligent at moistening an area of substrate as I felt it wasn't necessary. I understand humidity isn't necessary for moulting as such, as internal fluids do the work, but after observing the behaviour of some of my T's in premoult, particularly my B smithi, I'm becoming convinced that external moisture can play a role in softening the exoskeleton and keeping it supple (maybe not the right word but you know what I'm getting at), and my B smithi definitely seems to know this. The last premoult it spent 3.5 weeks hovering over the moist side and as soon as it moulted it went straight back to the dry side and showed no interest in the moist area. It is in premoult again and doing the same. As always, if anyone has a better theory for this I'm genuinely all ears! :) [/QUOTE]
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