Need some help from Blondi owners

I have a T. Blondi which I've raised from a spiderling. At this point in time he's about oh...4 and a half inches with the leg spread (maybe 5 at most) and has molted 3 or 4 times while in my care. He's always done really well aside from being prone to losing a limb or two every now and then (I have NO idea why this is aside from the fact he likes to try to climb around a lot, yet there isn't anything for him to climb on). Regardless of this, he's always done well until about a few months ago.

He started rubbing his rear with his back legs and the skin began to be irritated. He had a red butt for a good week or more before it calmed down. Do make note that he never ever kicks. I have yet to see him do it once. So he scratched himself bald there and started to decline in health and overall happiness I think (I can just tell). I checked every single inch of him and the enclosure and there were no signs of any outside things like mites etc. (I've dealt with them before once so I know what they're like). I read up in all of my T books and looked things up on the web but found no answers. So I couldn't figure it out and decided to just leave him be and try to make him as comfy as possible as there was little I could do.

He did recover little by little and is doing alright again aside from feeding. Its odd. I have to corral the cricket over towards him with a chopstick repeatedly and he'll try to pounce on it, but miss. When he *does* manage to grab it, he has a hard time holding onto it even though I see he's digging his fangs into it (crunching included) and is doing the whole 'hold onto it' behavior. He gets into the feeding posture and maybe eats a little or just lets it go! I have no idea why he's not eating like crazy as he's still fairly young. Then again he may have hit a slow down with the growth as Ts sometimes do. I'm not sure. He is drinking and moving around and his rear isn't irritated at all these days. Just pink I have also checked around and in his mandibles to be sure there was nothing irritating him there causing problems with feeding. Nothing.

So I'm not sure what to make of all of this. I've kept the humidity between 70-80 percent and keep him at about 80 degrees constantly since I've had him. Is there anything at all I can be doing to help him out or encourage feeding? He's got a large kritter keeper with lots of surface space to move around on so its not as though he's cramped in the least. I just want to make him the happiest he can possibly be and figure out how to give him whatever he's needing that I may not be providing.

Any advice or comments would be most helpful! He's such a sweet little T and he's actually more docile than my G. roseas. I feel like such a bad mom
He's my special little guy and I can't bear the thought of losing him so early on in his life. Also, pictures of your Blondi setups would be great! Thank you all for reading and I look forward to reading what everyone has to say. I really appreciate it.

~Lor

EDIT: Good news! His abdomen is no longer pink but has been getting progressively darker. I'm sure it'll take awhile but he's getting ready to molt!

>.> ..... <.< .... o__o...anyone? ...Bueller...bueller...*hears crickets* -__-;

I have no idea why he wouldn't be able to hang on to his prey if his fangs and palps were intact. Wait for the molt, and see what happens, sometimes their personalities can change afterwards. How long has it been since his last molt? Also, how high is your substrate from the top of the enclosure?

Yeah I don't get it either :/ Its been awhile since his last molt so I'm hoping maybe its just a phase he's going through. He's not a burrower either which is odd. He doesn't even like an artificial burrow. The only time he ever uses anything is when I put one of my little reptile caves in there *shrugs* He actually prefers to be out in the open and isn't bothered by much.

Well I just switched him into a different Kritter Keeper as the one he was in suddenly had an explosion of baby crickets *grumbles* so at the moment his substerate is about 4 inches from the top of the keeper (actually a little higher). That's from the top of the peat layer to the top of the keeper. Normally he has a much taller keeper as it retains the moisture a lot better so he'd have a lot more than 4-5 inches. Probobly a good 11 inches or so.

~Lor

Maybe you might consider decreasing the humidity a bit. Keep the water dish handy but go easy on moistening the substrate and see what happens.

It sounds like pre-molt to me. Maybe he's just killing the crickets cause the annoy him and just wants to molt.

T. blondi

Hi,

My suggestion is allowing the temperature to drop in the evening. In their native environment this time of year it is likely to be cooler than that down in their burrows, from 70F to 80F during the day and then the temps drop down into the 50's during the evening, which is when they likely come out a-huntin'. If you're going to keep the T. blondi at a constant temperature try keeping it at 65F to 70F rather than 80F. You might try dropping the humidity down to 70% to 75% as well. In its native environment the humidity goes up during the evening to 95% or more and then during the day goes down to 50%-60%. Some believe the temps and humidity levels our livestock are kept at make little difference, however, if you think about it, these unusual animals have been surviving in their respective environments for as long as we have been aware that they exist, and likely much, much longer before we discovered them there. They developed in their respective geographic areas and flourished for specific reasons, humidity and temperatures of those areas being one of them.

Does sound like a molt if the abdomen is darkening, plus it's "playing" with its' food, so sounds like it's full. I hope your T. blondi continues to flourish as it has for you so far!

Peace,

Paul

JPD: I've done that but he didn't respond well to that at all :/ Thanks for the suggestion though!

genious_gr: Hm. Well when he's not hungry he just avoids the crickets and goes away from it. He acts like he's hungry though (as this has been going on for a long time) when he does grab one. How long can the pre-molt stage go on for? Do you know?

phoenixxavierre: That's a good idea, I'll try that! The temp does drop in the room at night but only by maybe 5 or less degrees so that may not be enough of a drop. I've experimented with humidity/heat changes though in general and found that he doesn't respond well to lower humidity. I really can't let it drop below 60% for more than a day or two. The problem with the heat factor is that the whole room stays about this warm during the summer even though we do try to keep it cooler. He's actually attracted to added warmth which I've found interesting as well (yes even at 75-80 constant). Those are great points you've brought up though!

Yeah as for the food thing he just completely avoids it if he's not hungry which has been for a little over a week now. I suppose I'm used to seeing my Ts really fat and happy *smirks* He's not quite so fat which is kinda normal for the speci but ah well. Thanks very much for your comments ^__^ I hope he keeps flourishing as well He's my most handle-able T believe it or not.

Thanks everyone!

~Lor