Blondi in trouble

Wish_mastera · Jan 9, 2006

Hi all. I've big problem with my blondi. Before 10 days she molted. But I see that the fangs are in half. They are like cuted. I looked carefully the old skin and saw in the holes of the fangs fluid. I think the helicels couldnt form rightly. Now she is about 6'. You can see the picture below. Have anubody any ideas why is this happened?? Will she live or die? How can I feed her? What can I do to help her? How she is like handi. I think she couldn't inject venom or enzyms in her food if she continue to live. Can she regenerate her helicels in the next molt( maybe in 4-5 or more monts)? I cnow about regenerated limbs but never about fangs. Please give mi advice what can I do now.
After how many days shuld I give her crickets? I really hope that she will be ok. I want to know why is this happened? temperature is around 27C, hummidity is high(almost all the time the torf is wet). The tank has two nets for ventilation on the backside and on the lid. What is wrong to correct it and that never happened again?

Today I offered my blondi small cricket. It passed underneath her and she run out of it. None attention. It's 12 days since the bad molt. Should I wait more, or she will probably die starving. What kind of food should I offer her?

Cirith Ungol · Jan 9, 2006

Wow! Shure looks bad. I'd not give her any food for now. Give her plenty of water though!

Take another picture of her now so we can see the size of the abdomen. If the T doesn't get stressed by feeders running arround it she might still be fat enough for you to wait for another moult, which could come early do to the damage. So hold off the food for now to begin with.

Yes fangs can regenerate too.

Other than that wait and see if she acts normal in all other regards.

What kind of food have you given your blondi? Have you ever given her a considerable number of vertabrates? If yes, that might just be the problem. There is the theory(!) that much vertabrate prey might damage the fangs. This is not confirmed however.

Wish_mastera · Jan 9, 2006

YES. I've feed her with 2 little mice and 3-4 small lizards. Before the molt she was with enormous!! abdomen,( can attach pics if needed) now she looks skinny. The differens between now and the old skin is big. When I touch her with a stick she run out and make a so called 'hissing'. I wounder how, because I think she does that with her fangs.

Aubrey Sidwell · Jan 9, 2006

She hisses by rubbing her chelicerae together not by the fangs themselves. As for her fangs, you will have to see what she does when she is ready to eat. We had to give cricket mash to a B. smithi that broke both fangs until it's nest molt and blondi's won't tolerate it like smithi's will. You will just have to wait and see if she can still take food on her own when she is ready. I would give her a week to 2 weeks before attempting to feed. You may be stuck with crickets until next molt becasue they are easier for her to masticate. Good luck.

BLS Blondi · Jan 9, 2006

T. blondi

Chances are you did not do anything wrong. I have reaerd over 100 T. blondi in the past (and currently have 20) and I can say with confidence (and many experienced breeders will agree) that T. blondi as a species has more issues with molting than most other species. Most of the time, the T will molt very early to correct the flaw. I have seen this many times with T. blondi, as well as all T's. Usually wait two weeks after a molt to offer food. I would try a few crickets or a pinkie mouse since they are helpless and their skin is so soft. T. blondi are voracious eaters, and will stuff themselves and get VERY fat, so instinctively, they are always looking to eat. If 4-6 weeks go by (after the molt), and she does not want to eat, then perhaps it is looking to molt again soon. Best of luck with her, and if she still does not eat....PM me. I know of some ways of feeding them nutrients they need if all else fails. Or PM me once you get this and I will tell you how to feed her assuming her fangs do not function. The only reason why I am not writing what to do is because it is extremely difficult to do, involves holding her for a few minutes, and if done wrong, it can have bad consequences. Let's just say I have done this "method" with a few T. blondi and an adult C. crawshayi and have had 100% success.

Cirith Ungol · Jan 9, 2006

Wish_mastera said:
YES. I've feed her with 2 little mice and 3-4 small lizards. Before the molt she was with enormous!! abdomen,( can attach pics if needed) now she looks skinny. The differens between now and the old skin is big. When I touch her with a stick she run out and make a so called 'hissing'. I wounder how, because I think she does that with her fangs.

Yeah, the abdomens always look smaller after moulting. That's normal.

Ok regarding the diet. It can't be said for sure if it is that that caused it but as I said, there are some who think so.

Could you make a picture of how the T looks now (from above) and attach please? That makes it easier to determin for how many months the T might pull through without feeding.

If feeding becomes nessessary it sure would be best to only offer the T the soft parts of insects, like abdomens or equally easy to "hunt" and eat stuff.

The hissing sound is produced by the celicera I think (I've never looked that closely

).

Don't prod your T now please, it's pretty tough for it as it is now anyhow.

solaceofwinter · Jan 9, 2006

i would give lots of water and only offer a cricket once a week if it doesnt take remove it. you may offer pre-killed one. hopefully another molt will occur soon. id crank the temps and try to get it to go. i wonder if the other half of the fangs are in the shed skin? good luck

Tito · Jan 9, 2006

You could try leaving a small piece of raw chicken near the T, no need for fangs then. And as the others have said, it probably will molt a lot sooner because of the damage.
Best of luck!

Wish_mastera · Jan 10, 2006

Thank you all for the ideas. Here is the pics from above. You can see the size of the abdomen. Today is day 17th from the bad molt. I'll wait one more week and offer her food. Could she molts without to take any food? She drinks a lot of water.

Cirith Ungol · Jan 10, 2006

Ah.. that abdomen size is way ok to get her to the next moult even without food. It's good she is drinking, that's always a good sign. If nothing else happens I'm pretty confident your T will make it to the next moult.

Don't feed her any vertabrates though, just in case that is what has caused the breaking of the fangs.

If you don't feed her until the next moult, or only feed her very little you might not see much growth in your T until after the moult after that, but hopefully the fangs will be ok.

Windchaser · Jan 10, 2006

Tito said:
You could try leaving a small piece of raw chicken near the T, no need for fangs then. And as the others have said, it probably will molt a lot sooner because of the damage.
Best of luck!

I would advice against doing this. Many people have suffered large losses after feeding raw meet to their tarantulas. This is especially true of beef heart. Keep in mind that chicken spoils quickly and you will almost certainly be introducing bacteria into your tarantulas diet.

Wish_mastera · Jan 11, 2006

Ok. More news from yestarday. I've drop 1 cricket in front of her and she instantly grabs it. I was so happy, but after few minutes she left him on the ground. The same story repeated several times. The crickets was left outside in cold and was almost motionles. Because of that she was able to catch and hold back the crickets. I see that she is hungry, but can not eat them because of the damaged fangs. Should I try with newborn mouse, or just wait few more days and offered her crickets again?

Cirith Ungol · Jan 11, 2006

Wish_mastera said:
Ok. More news from yestarday. I've drop 1 cricket in front of her and she instantly grabs it. I was so happy, but after few minutes she left him on the ground. The same story repeated several times. The crickets was left outside in cold and was almost motionles. Because of that she was able to catch and hold back the crickets. I see that she is hungry, but can not eat them because of the damaged fangs. Should I try with newborn mouse, or just wait few more days and offered her crickets again?

Just stop feeding her alltogether, unless you offer only some mashed up insect abdomens. You could put those out in a dish and hope the T finds them and recognizes them for what they are. A pinky will surely not be taken if a cricket won't be taken and might in the end do more damage than good.

Also remember that it is possible that feeding vertabrates to your T might have caused this in the first place, so I wouldn't actually even consider doing it if it was me.

Wish_mastera · Feb 13, 2006

Hello again. Some news... Its almost 2 and half monts since the bad molt. For that time she killed one newborn rat but doesnt eat it, one newborn mouse-almost eat it and 4-5 big crickets. Its very hard to kill them(sometimes more than hole day) but she tries to specialize to eat and kill without fangs. Before she cannot do anything. I think she isn't fat enough but the abdomen is a little bit bigger than before. I hope in 2-3 monts she will molt and this time all will be okay. I think she will made it.

DanHalen · Feb 20, 2006

Good to hear that she's still going. One thing though, have you tried feeding her large crickets, or maybe a roach? It's possible that feeding her mice and such caused the problem in the first place. Not saying definitely, but its a possibility.

brova golin · Feb 20, 2006

i had a t blondi that had this exact problem and made it to the next molt with mainly water she did regeneraye her fangs so good luck gol

Wish_mastera · Feb 21, 2006

DanHalen said:
...have you tried feeding her large crickets, or maybe a roach? It's possible that feeding her mice and such caused the problem in the first place.

I've tried big banana crickets, but she doesnt want to eat them. Just kill them and left on the ground. Roaches I'm sure she cannot eat, exept for tearing the legs and the hard plates. Now I'm almost sure, that vertebrals are the problem. There a lots of people having the same problem because of feeding T's with mice and lizards. T's need calcium to formate the hard fangs and claws, who provide from the crickets and other insects.... And when you feed T's only or mainly with mice.... there is the problem.

brova golin can you tell me what was the size of your blondi when the problem appeared? And after how many monts she molted? Can You remember also what was the live condition (temp, humidity and so on). Its very important to me to know that. Thank you!

brova golin · Feb 21, 2006

she was 6" when the problem occured and the humidity was 75% to 80%. wi a temp of 72 to 82, 1.5sqft tank. hope this helps you

gol

Tarangela · Feb 24, 2006

I agree. I think you and I had/have the exact same problem. Check out this post I made, maybe it will help you out. You have to be very careful if you try this, very calm. It WILL more than likely work. You just have to be very patient. I have not had any problems and do this every 3 days now. If she is picking the food up and dropping it, she is doing all she can. You may need to try this step:

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=60907

If you have any questions, you are welcome to email me, and I can try to help you more. Everyone that has replied to your post has given great ideas!

Good luck!

Wish_mastera · Mar 7, 2006

Stupid thing. From 1 month she just kills the crickets and nothing more. Just champs the food and then left on the ground. The crickets are deformed with rotted legs like form acid. Yestarday I gave her a newborn mouse. The same story. Just kill and left. I have to touch the dead mouse with pincers to move it and my blondi to catch her again. She hunts them, not just kill not to desturb her. She jumps from one corner of the tank to another to catch everything what moves. From about a month she is more active, even aggressive. As she felt any movement near her, she jumps and bites. That scare me. The abdomen is not small as before, but I dont think she will molt soon. It's ~80 days past from the bad molt.

Blondi in trouble

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