humane thing to do

[Zorack]

had to put my t blondi in the freezer just now, she had no fangs and was not eating at all for months, tried lots of things... found her curled up today and she was barley moving

[Runaway987]

Thats harsh mate, but if it had no fangs and you did your best... Has absolutely no rump has it... You did the best thing for it man.

[nightbreed]

Man that sucks :(

Like Runaway said, you did your best and she really did look emaciated.

Sorry for your loss man.

[aaronrefalo]

u did the right thing after all that u tired..im sry for the loss

Aaron

[gustavowright]

Man that´s sad....I know how u feel, well at least, partially though...Mine has only one fang...lost during bad molt, so Im nervous about the next one.

[jbrd]

Sorry to hear about your T.blondi
I am curious though and have a couple of questions for you pertaining to your T.
1) Have you ever heard of making what some people call "crickett soup" or whatever insect you were feeding your T. Mash up the crickett into a shallow bowl so your T can slurp it up. This may help to have sustain him until his net molt or two so he could regenerate his fangs.
I have read about this before but have never seen anyone post the end results on if it worked or not? :?
2) What was the main prey item you were feeding your T.blondi?

[Zorack]

Sorry to hear about your T.blondi
I am curious though and have a couple of questions for you pertaining to your T.
1) Have you ever heard of making what some people call "crickett soup" or whatever insect you were feeding your T. Mash up the crickett into a shallow bowl so your T can slurp it up. This may help to have sustain him until his net molt or two so he could regenerate his fangs.
I have read about this before but have never seen anyone post the end results on if it worked or not? :?
2) What was the main prey item you were feeding your T.blondi?

yer i tried all those things, she just wasent interesed. i even rubbed cricket guts on her mouth

[Hedorah99]

I am so sorry for your loss. Its the downside of having pets and loving animals that sometimes you need to make very hard choices. My condolences.

[jbrd]

What was the main prey item you were feeding your T.blondi?

[Pennywise]

I really like T. Blondis but it seems they are one of the more difficult
Ts to keep. Maybe you could help the rest of us by giving a little more history of
what happened.

[Runaway987]

Remeber when I lost mine in a bad moult Zorack? My Blondi is my second one, and i watch it with an eagle eye as often as I can. They are notorious for having bad moults... Mine died during its moult and Zoracks bad moult = no fangs...

I wonder if they are like that in the wild or its misunderstodd care requirments...

[Windchaser]

What was the main prey item you were feeding your T.blondi?

Yes, I am very curious too. If your diet was high in calcium (lots of vertebrate prey) that would add some credence to the speculation large amounts of calcium weaken the exoskeleton.

Sorry to hear about your loss.

[dangerprone69]

Sorry to hear about your loss but you did the right thing . . . .

[Zorack]

i fed it crickets and the ocasional locust

[Crimsonpanther]

so sorry to have herd about your loss , you did the right thing . . . ive also herd that blondi's are bad for having bad molts !!Your's molted with out the fangs.. :eek: ...my GBB molted with only one fang and i had to feed it dead crickets for about 5 weeks then it molted and fangs were fine after that ! Again sorry to hear of your loss !!

[Zorack]

To help you guys out this is how my blondi lived

Fed it crickets and locust everyday...
Dident moist the soil at all, kept water dish full tho
molted without any fangs....
tried cricket soup... Wasent interest
cut the heads off the crics and squeased the guts to the top, it was quite successful for a while, but then she got to weak and there was nothing i could do...
she died in the end....

[jbrd]

Yes, I am very curious too. If your diet was high in calcium (lots of vertebrate prey) that would add some credence to the speculation large amounts of calcium weaken the exoskeleton.

Sorry to hear about your loss.
Based on how he kept and fed his T.blondi, would there be another explanation to the fang loss?
I am very curious about this and wondering if there is another possible cause or combination of things that may cause this.

[DanCameron]

I am so sorry that happened to you. I believe you did the best you could with your T, and in the end made the best decision you could possibly make. It looks like you took pretty good care of it. Of course, I occaisionally mist and/or pour some water into the substrate to keep up humidity. But yeah, I've heard from e-spiderworld that T. blondis have more difficulties with molts than most other species. My condolences. :(

[Ishkabibble]

Whatever the underlying cause of your T's demise, I am sorry to hear about you losing your Blondi. I think we all try to do the best for our T's, but sometimes it's just not enough in our minds. Best therapy is to go out and get a new sling and raise it up. Good luck to you.

[Zorack]

when i used to keep my T's cages damp, i used to get fly infestations, so i just stop misting them

[joe8421]

sorry for your lost man , after mate ,that's the only result of his life ,sorry.....

[Windchaser]

Based on how he kept and fed his T.blondi, would there be another explanation to the fang loss?
I am very curious about this and wondering if there is another possible cause or combination of things that may cause this.

There must be. I had expected that his diet would have been hi in vertebrate prey, but it isn't. It would be nice if we as a community could start gathering more information about tarantulas that loose fangs during a molt and see if we could determine a potential cause.

[AfterTheAsylum]

How come no one ever asks if it was wild caught? Over 50% of my wild caughts have had problems leading to death.

The Sickness

[brigebane]

In defense of Wild Caught; and this is purely fantasy on my part ;)

I think in limited numbers especially with new species that would never otherwise hit the market would be available to hobbiests like us. I like to think that I am giving a freshly Wild Caught male T. blondi a chance to breed and hopefully a good quality life. Unfortunately most of this isn't true of the real world, but wouldn't it be nice. As for most Wild caught animals dying I beg to differ. If the specimen comes in in relatively good health and well hydrated, of course discounting the possibility of parasites, I think the spider has a chance to thrive. Wild caught animals in my opinion are no more prone to bad molts and or the fang loss that we keep hearing about than your captive breed spiders. In any case I'm sorry for completely derailing the conversation. I am sorry for the loss, it's always a shame.

[AfterTheAsylum]

Realistically, wild caughts are not in good health and hydrated when they are shipped. Do you know the process that they go through? Teams flush out blondis from their homes with gasoline. They pack them with little care and a good portion die on the way. Most of them are dehydrated and many suffer internal, as well as external, injuries. 6 of my 10 wild caughts died previous to a molt. One died during a molt. As you know, I have over 20 blondis currently, and have had many in the past. So this isn't a question of my care. All of my captive bred blondis have done exceptionally well. Could it just be my luck? Who knows. No more wild caughts here though.

For a final note: Many of the dealers now specially pick ones from the wild caught masses to prevent dilemmas. Find a wholesaler and buy 10 wild caughts. I'll bet that a portion will die within 6 months.

T.S.

[casesensative]

Wouldnt it be better to just have killed it?

I mean if you put it in the freezer its going to freeze to death slowly, but if you just straight up kill it, it would die instantly.

Wouldnt that be more humane?

[Zorack]

Wouldnt it be better to just have killed it?

I mean if you put it in the freezer its going to freeze to death slowly, but if you just straight up kill it, it would die instantly.

Wouldnt that be more humane?

no i think thats just plain crewl, i couldent do that to a living thing. Thats nasty

[nightbreed]

Wouldnt it be better to just have killed it?

I mean if you put it in the freezer its going to freeze to death slowly, but if you just straight up kill it, it would die instantly.

Wouldnt that be more humane?It doesn't really matter how you kill it, it doesn't feel pain.
Plus, its an ectotherm so by putting it in the freezer it will just slow down and stop, never use the freezer method for putting an endotherm to "sleep" though :eek:

[Niloticus]

To help you guys out this is how my blondi lived

Fed it crickets and locust everyday...
Dident moist the soil at all, kept water dish full tho
molted without any fangs....
tried cricket soup... Wasent interest
cut the heads off the crics and squeased the guts to the top, it was quite successful for a while, but then she got to weak and there was nothing i could do...
she died in the end....

I have had the same problems with my T. Blondi's. As a matter of fact, I just had one die a few days ago that lost her fangs in a molt. I also have a male that is still alive that lost his fangs. His days are numbered as well. It makes feeding nearly impossible. The crickets squirm and the spider drops them immediately.

Niloticus

[casesensative]

why doesnt it feel pain?

[nightbreed]

why doesnt it feel pain?Its ganglion (almost a brain) isn't developed enough to feel real pain, it can react to negative stimuli but doesn't actually feel pain as such. IIRC :)

[jbrd]

I have had the same problems with my T. Blondi's. As a matter of fact, I just had one die a few days ago that lost her fangs in a molt. I also have a male that is still alive that lost his fangs. His days are numbered as well. It makes feeding nearly impossible. The crickets squirm and the spider drops them immediately.

Niloticus

What was the main food item you are feeding the T's? We're they wild caught? What are the living conditions of your T.blondi's ?

[Runaway987]

Main food items were bought crickets, the blondi was bought from the same person as me and they appeard identically similar in terms of shape and size, the dealer also had another 40 the same so it would indicate they were captive bred.

Zorack will have to answer the last though...