Heartbroken

Hey everyone,
I was wondering if you could help me figure out what I am doing wrong. My spiders are fed roughly every month with appropriate sized crickets and always have full water dishes or a little wet ground for my still too small smithi.
I Have owned spiders since november of 2012 starting with a 1 inch b. Smihi. I got a b.albo and a. Avic shortly thereafter.
I found both my avic and albo dead within the past week. Albo was face first in the tiny bottle cap, and I found my cute as a button pink toe hanging by a leg this morning with exploded abdomen. Avic didnt eat the last time I tried to feed, or the albo. Albo didnt look good the last time I saw him, walking slower than normal and didnt do the behaviours I expect when its water time. The crickets were removed from enclosures. The temps are fine, I have a reptile thermometer on the shelf the enclosures are on and never reads under 75.

Can someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong, i don't want to loose my smithi too. Rip me apart, after 2 years with them and never having an actual issue i'm completely lost.

Sounds like you had a rare spider that ate itself to death, most know when to stop or its possible it ruptured due to brushing against something rough. How big where your slings at this point in time? I know for smaller spiders I am generous with feedings as to get them out of the high mortality stage, at least once a week, adults and sub adults get less. You may have not have had enough water provided for them either but if their abdomen weren't shriveled then you might have had a case of bad luck or some sort of poisoning went on

The albo was approaching 3 inchs dls and the avic was maybe 2.5 inches. Am I over feeding them? The smithi is roughly 2 inchs, maybe a bit less.abdomens arent shriveled, always water in the caps... :'( I know smithi is going to molt soonish, wont feed again until he does. Thanks for the poison mention I will investigate that, it is the middle of winter here but guess you never know what people do

Sorry to hear about your losses. I'd feed them more often, at least every 2 weeks but I'm no expert. Sounds like fairly different circumstances, so a coincidence?

An exploded abdomen when fed once a month seems weird to me. Are you sure there's nothing else in there could could have eaten your T? A missed cricket, or superworm that hatched out as a beetle, or something?

No, theres nothing in the tanks, I always take out crickets if not attacked within a couple hours. never fed superworms, maybe I'll try that when I get slings in may

Deathmetal said:

No, theres nothing in the tanks, I always take out crickets if not attacked within a couple hours. never fed superworms, maybe I'll try that when I get slings in may

Click to expand...

It was suggested as a cause of death, superworms can ravage a molting t. I personally feed my juvies every week but as for your remaining t I would make sure there is water and maybe bump up the humidity a little to assist with molting. Do you think there has been any chemicals near your home? Many things can poison an invert that we don't think about. Anything different that has happened in the past few weeks?

Sounds weird and I don't really have much to say but once a month for slings doesn't seem enough.
I feed mine once a week.
Slings get most of their hydration from prey. Sometimes if they are under one inch, I feed twice a week.

LadyofSpiders said:

Sounds weird and I don't really have much to say but once a month for slings doesn't seem enough.
I feed mine once a week.
Slings get most of their hydration from prey. Sometimes if they are under one inch, I feed twice a week.

Click to expand...

As long as the prey is big enough, feeding them once a month won't be a cause of death, they'll just grow slower. I've kept some of my slings that way for 2-3 years without problems because I had them on the same feeding schedule as my adults since it was harder for me to get feeders and I didn't breed them back then.

As long as they have a water bowl, like the op said they had, they'll be able to get hydrated.

The OP did say they're both over 2 inches so they aren't tiny things. Once a month for feeding will slow the growth, but I doubt you'd starve them and over-feeding as a cause would just be out of the question. The "exploded" abdomen is puzzling to me as poison could be the cause of both deaths, but I don't see how a poison would explode your sling.