Dark abdomen and eating

Exoskeleton Invertebrates · Nov 30, 2015

This is the first time that I have witness a species that is about to molt and eating a cricket. As you can see from the photos her abdomen is dark, she's in the stage of molting soon and eating a cricket. Has anyone experience this with one of your tarantulas? I'm sure it happens often with tarantulas i just never witness this before until now. This is a Brachypelma epicureanum.

lalberts9310 · Nov 30, 2015

Our sub-adult O sp. "Blue" once ate a cricket a day before it molted, as well as one of my M. Balfouri slings. And one of my male P. Irminia once ate a large crick two days before a molt. I did give them pre-killed however

Chris LXXIX · Nov 30, 2015

One of my "genics" long time ago refused a cricket only few hours prior to a molt (was an experiment of mine for check their Slimer behavior).

BobBarley · Nov 30, 2015

My B. Albo sling ate a day before a molt, though it was pre killed.

dementedlullaby · Nov 30, 2015

BobBarley said:
My B. Albo sling ate a day before a molt, though it was pre killed.

Came here to say same species/same timeframe. Had this happen about a week ago.

Also A. genic. If it hits the ground it's gone. I usually don't offer food before a molt but sometimes if I'm around a lot I'll go ahead and try. It's easy enough to grab it out if the tarantula doesn't want to eat.

fuzzyavics72 · Nov 30, 2015

I've had countless pokies and versicolor molt within hours or days of eating. That's interesting that a Brachypelma is doing that though.

soundsmith · Nov 30, 2015

One of my LP slings finished their pre-killed cricket 2 hours before flipping over to molt a couple of weeks ago.

TsunamiSpike · Nov 30, 2015

I've had some juvies eat and molt a day or 2 later.

8 leg wonder · Nov 30, 2015

Ive had many spiders eat right up until a molt and on the opposite spectrum ive had ts go months without eating before molting.

cold blood · Nov 30, 2015

Often, I've actually had many species eat the day before molting and even a few eat the same day....just had one the day before yesterday, a 3" T. okerti ate a mealworm and surprised me with a molt less than 18 hours later.

Other species I have experienced this (looking at my records) with are P. cancerides, N. chromatus, P. cambridgei, C. marshalli, OBT, P. fasciata, and of course P. nigricolor. I often joke that if I fed the nigricolor while it was molting it would probably crawl back into the old exo to eat.....some, like okerti, chromatus or P. cam were smaller, just out of the sling stage, but the others did this as juvies and sub-adults, which I find even more of a surprise.

Unlike your brachy Jose, these are all fast growing, ultra-hungry species.

Exoskeleton Invertebrates · Nov 30, 2015

It seems that it happens often with different owners. About my B. epicureanum I didn't realize that I had left a cricket in the enclosure. After feeding all my spider wether they eat or not the very next day I take the dead crickets, live crickets or the left overs out of their enclosure. By me forgetting to clean one spiders enclosure I get to witness this behavior for the first time. It's not like the male needed any more food it was already fat.

pyro fiend · Dec 1, 2015

hmm.. my grammies and brachies all do it o.0.. actualy about a month ago [maybe longer these holidays seem to fly by] i had a brachy eat then less then 3hrs later it was all white and begining to do stretches.. i was in shock that a 2-3" animal will do this

Dark abdomen and eating

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