Question About Moult

I just got a new Brachypelma boehmi female yesterday, and I could tell that she was going to moult soon. What I didn't know was HOW soon. Well, when I got up this morning, there was a freshly-moulted exuvium and a really brightly-colored spider. Problem is, something doesn't seem right, and I wanted to get some other opinions on this. The spider seems to have moulted OK, but seems very weak. She just sits with her legs sort of drawn up over her. If I gently prod her, she will walk and kick hairs, then resume her position. Her abdomen is also very small, as though she didn't have much to eat for some time prior to her moult. Is she just tired from her moulting process, and waiting to regain strength, or is something likely wrong? Most of my T's are up and moving around shortly after moulting, sitting in their usual positions, not with the legs all drawn up over them like that. I just hope that nothing is wrong with this girl, since I've been looking for one of this species for a long time.

pitbulllady

pitbulllady said:

The spider seems to have moulted OK, but seems very weak. Her abdomen is also very small, as though she didn't have much to eat for some time prior to her moult.
pitbulllady

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It is a common behaviours for tarantula to not move as much after molts because they need to wait till they harden up. Usually after molts, their abdomen tend to be smaller. If it was big i would say there is something wrong with it. Make sure you wait till it hardens up before you feed it.

Make sure it has plenty of water to drink, but don't mist, particular at this time. Give it time to recover from molting and let us know how it does... I recently got a female B.boehmei, she had a molt and she too had an extremely small abdomen. I was pretty worried as well, as this likely was the smallest rumped T that I've seen save from mature males... My Ts are all rather plump. But she only took 2 weeks hardening up and that feed, she pounced 3 crickets as soon as they hit the substrate, eventually she had 5 in her grasp. She's eating well and starting to not look so anorexic

She went from this to that...

Sorry I didn't get a picture of her last night to show how well she's filled out. Maybe she's more cooperative tonight, and being she was eating, I didn't dare disturb her. You have to admit, that was a big change premolt to post molt

I'm not so much concerned with the lack of movement, or even the small abdomen(which DOES remind me of a mature male, though there is a definate slit in the exuvium between the book lungs, and no tibial hooks), but the position she's sitting in. She has her legs all drawn up over her body, so that you can't even see her body at all unless I get her to move. It almost looks like a "death curl", and that is what worries me. I lost my B. vagans female not long ago to a bad moult, and I'm kinda paranoid, I guess. I would REALLY hate to lose this spider, since it took a long time to find her, and she is a beauty, and very calm even though she does kick hairs if touched on her abdomen or rear legs.

pitbulllady

pitbulllady said:

She has her legs all drawn up over her body, so that you can't even see her body at all unless I get her to move. It almost looks like a "death curl", and that is what worries me.

pitbulllady

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>>that's a totally normal position after molting.Just leave her be.Not a good idea to disturb her now.Molting is extremely stressful and so is poking prodding her afterwards.She's also very susceptible to injury by poking and prodding when freshly molted..even if it's gentle.Poking and prodding also makes her flick hairs.You're going to have a freshly molted bald spider if you keep it up...lol..Deathcurls are usually with the legs drawn under the body..not up and over.The position you see now is merely a protective one.It's very vunerable right now and it knows it.....just give it time and some peace and quiet.

That's reassuring to know. I was hoping that this was the case, but having lost one T to a moult gone bad, it just worried me. I won't bother her anymore, but will just leave her alone for a few days. None of my other T's did this following a successful moult. My young B. albopilosum resumed eating just a couple of days after her last moult, but then, she's a total HOG, too! One thing's for certain, tarantulas are never boring!

pitbulllady