Preface: this is my first post, so please be kind... And to anyone reading this for future reference on rehabbing a tarantula paralyzed by a Tarantula Hawk wasp, note that I'm no expert in this area so you shouldn't take my experience as a guide. I'm probably doing a number of things wrong, but I'm writing here to learn.
In the beginning of October while heading home from a mountain bike ride, I found a tarantula sitting in the middle of the road. The road gets a moderate number of cars, so anytime I see an animal I shoo it off to the side of the road. But in this case, the tarantula refused to move even when I spritzed water on it. Its legs would barely twitch when water bounced off it. I directed traffic around the tarantula for a while, then I went to the side of the road to find something to relocate the tarantula with. While doing that, I saw a tarantula hawk run up and try to drag the tarantula away:
The wasp was very skittish and would run away every time a car came. Eventually traffic was too much and the wasp ran completely away. I didn't want to leave the tarantula behind to be squished by a car (which admittedly would have been a better way to go than by wasp larva), so I scooped it up in my empty water bottle and brought it home. I figured that if it didn't survive, at least it wouldn't have a slow eaten-from-the-inside-out death and my kids would get to see something cool.
I have a fair bit of arachnophobia, and I would never consider having a tarantula as a pet. However, I know that this phobia isn't completely logical and I don't want my kids to be as scared of spiders and bugs as I was/am.
I put the tarantula, who I've named Puppy (a cute name helps fight the phobia), into a small terrarium with sand. I figured that sand would be ok since it's similar to the natural land it came from (southern California coastal mountains), but after a bit of research it looks like sand isn't good for them. Here it is, sitting paralyzed on the sand:
Research, research, research: I believe it's a Steindachner's Ebony Tarantula (Aphonopelma steindachneri) and I assume it's a male since I found it just before sunset in early autumn (when the boys like to go out looking for some fun). I'm open to corrections if anyone knows better.
He wasn't 100% paralyzed, more like he could only move in extreme slow motion and very weakly. He could lift his pedipalps a few mm up in around 10 seconds. When I articulated his legs using a couple tongue depressor sticks, he provided no resistance. It felt like his legs had as much muscle tone as a string of yarn.
I flipped him onto his back, and syringe-fed him water. On his first day, he slowly drank only 2 cc of water. In the photo below, you can see the water droplet on his fangs, plus a lot of sand stuck on his underside.
My feeding schedule is however much water he's willing to drink, given every other day. The first day was 2cc, then the next feeding was 5 cc, then the next feeding was 7 cc (which was after about 1 week). After surviving the first week, he has settled down at 8 cc of water every other day, and he drinks much faster than during the first week.
After around 2 weeks, he pooped a little. With every feeding he gained a little more movement in his legs. At first it was just some small wiggles only visible through a microscope, then after a couple weeks he could move his legs enough to be seen with the naked eye. It has been a very steady progression, and the difference between every 2 days (when he's fed) were very noticeable. His leg movements got faster and he could move them further. This was all observable only while he's on his back however, since he was too weak to move anything touching the ground.
Halloween came around and he got coconut fiber instead of sand. I'm not sure if the fibers should be moistened at all. Since his natural home is very dry, I opted to keep the fibers completely dehydrated.
The decorations were just for the photo. He normally sits under part of an egg crate where it's dark.
By Halloween (around 3 weeks since he was stung), he started wiggling his "toes". What I mean is that the tips of his legs have an area that is shaped a little like camel toes (look at the light coloured tips of his pedipalps below) that he could spread apart to expose a couple sharp hooks in the middle. At first he would wiggle these toes spastically, perhaps uncontrolled. But at least they were moving, and he would wiggle them whenever he got a new drop of water to drink.
A month went by, and I gave him his first feeding of "soup". I have a bottle of dehydrated mealworms I got for an opossum rescue, and I soaked a bunch of those worms in a bit of water. After a couple days in the fridge, the water is a light shade of brown, and the water is what I feed him. It must have been delicious because I never saw him drink so fast! He had 10 cc of the soup. Here is one of his feedings:
I fed him 2 servings of the soup in 3 days. He pooped the day after the last serving, so I take that as a sign that the soup is effective and nutritious. I don't want to feed him too much soup because I don't want him to grow and need to molt. I assume that molting is dependent more on growth than it is on time, so the longer I can delay it the better. It would be disaster if he molts before he regains his full strength.
After around 6 weeks, he started wiggling his fangs for the first time. It was only visible under the microscope. He wasn't able to extend his fangs at all, not even 1 mm, but at least he could wiggle them left and right a little.
After around 7 weeks, he took his first steps on his own! He did it overnight when alone, but he clearly walked a couple cm out from under his egg crate den. When flipping him upside down to feed him, I could feel that a couple of rear legs on his right side weren't "soft" anymore. He was clenching them hard enough that any attempt to move the leg would move his entire body in unison. It was like this for around 4 days, and I was worried that perhaps these legs were damaged. Looking back, I now think that it was because he was finally getting stronger control of these legs.
After around 8 weeks, I could see that he had fully coordinated movements of his legs. They were no longer shaky and coarse movements. He could moderately quickly move his legs exactly where he wanted to, without flailing around or trying to reposition them repeatedly.
Around week 9, he got a full week's worth of soup instead of water. He reliably drinks 8 cc of water or 10 cc of soup at each feeding. A few days after drinking soup, he poops a little.
After 10 weeks, he walked completely out of his den for the first time. He's able to wiggle his fangs more, but it doesn't seem as mobile as his legs. He hasn't extended his fangs yet, but I don't know if that's because he can't or because he doesn't want to. I'm not sure when I should transition him from hand-feeding to giving him a water bowl, and eventually to eating on his own. I want his legs to get stronger first, and hopefully I'll see some signs that he has full use of his fangs before I give him prey.
I'm not sure what the endgame is here. At first I thought he wasn't going to survive the night. Then I figured that I would rehab him then return him home. But now I don't know if he'd survive a day back in the wild. I suppose I'll wait for him to molt, then see where we go from there (if he survives).
In the beginning of October while heading home from a mountain bike ride, I found a tarantula sitting in the middle of the road. The road gets a moderate number of cars, so anytime I see an animal I shoo it off to the side of the road. But in this case, the tarantula refused to move even when I spritzed water on it. Its legs would barely twitch when water bounced off it. I directed traffic around the tarantula for a while, then I went to the side of the road to find something to relocate the tarantula with. While doing that, I saw a tarantula hawk run up and try to drag the tarantula away:
The wasp was very skittish and would run away every time a car came. Eventually traffic was too much and the wasp ran completely away. I didn't want to leave the tarantula behind to be squished by a car (which admittedly would have been a better way to go than by wasp larva), so I scooped it up in my empty water bottle and brought it home. I figured that if it didn't survive, at least it wouldn't have a slow eaten-from-the-inside-out death and my kids would get to see something cool.
I have a fair bit of arachnophobia, and I would never consider having a tarantula as a pet. However, I know that this phobia isn't completely logical and I don't want my kids to be as scared of spiders and bugs as I was/am.
I put the tarantula, who I've named Puppy (a cute name helps fight the phobia), into a small terrarium with sand. I figured that sand would be ok since it's similar to the natural land it came from (southern California coastal mountains), but after a bit of research it looks like sand isn't good for them. Here it is, sitting paralyzed on the sand:
Research, research, research: I believe it's a Steindachner's Ebony Tarantula (Aphonopelma steindachneri) and I assume it's a male since I found it just before sunset in early autumn (when the boys like to go out looking for some fun). I'm open to corrections if anyone knows better.
He wasn't 100% paralyzed, more like he could only move in extreme slow motion and very weakly. He could lift his pedipalps a few mm up in around 10 seconds. When I articulated his legs using a couple tongue depressor sticks, he provided no resistance. It felt like his legs had as much muscle tone as a string of yarn.
I flipped him onto his back, and syringe-fed him water. On his first day, he slowly drank only 2 cc of water. In the photo below, you can see the water droplet on his fangs, plus a lot of sand stuck on his underside.
My feeding schedule is however much water he's willing to drink, given every other day. The first day was 2cc, then the next feeding was 5 cc, then the next feeding was 7 cc (which was after about 1 week). After surviving the first week, he has settled down at 8 cc of water every other day, and he drinks much faster than during the first week.
After around 2 weeks, he pooped a little. With every feeding he gained a little more movement in his legs. At first it was just some small wiggles only visible through a microscope, then after a couple weeks he could move his legs enough to be seen with the naked eye. It has been a very steady progression, and the difference between every 2 days (when he's fed) were very noticeable. His leg movements got faster and he could move them further. This was all observable only while he's on his back however, since he was too weak to move anything touching the ground.
Halloween came around and he got coconut fiber instead of sand. I'm not sure if the fibers should be moistened at all. Since his natural home is very dry, I opted to keep the fibers completely dehydrated.
The decorations were just for the photo. He normally sits under part of an egg crate where it's dark.
By Halloween (around 3 weeks since he was stung), he started wiggling his "toes". What I mean is that the tips of his legs have an area that is shaped a little like camel toes (look at the light coloured tips of his pedipalps below) that he could spread apart to expose a couple sharp hooks in the middle. At first he would wiggle these toes spastically, perhaps uncontrolled. But at least they were moving, and he would wiggle them whenever he got a new drop of water to drink.
A month went by, and I gave him his first feeding of "soup". I have a bottle of dehydrated mealworms I got for an opossum rescue, and I soaked a bunch of those worms in a bit of water. After a couple days in the fridge, the water is a light shade of brown, and the water is what I feed him. It must have been delicious because I never saw him drink so fast! He had 10 cc of the soup. Here is one of his feedings:
I fed him 2 servings of the soup in 3 days. He pooped the day after the last serving, so I take that as a sign that the soup is effective and nutritious. I don't want to feed him too much soup because I don't want him to grow and need to molt. I assume that molting is dependent more on growth than it is on time, so the longer I can delay it the better. It would be disaster if he molts before he regains his full strength.
After around 6 weeks, he started wiggling his fangs for the first time. It was only visible under the microscope. He wasn't able to extend his fangs at all, not even 1 mm, but at least he could wiggle them left and right a little.
After around 7 weeks, he took his first steps on his own! He did it overnight when alone, but he clearly walked a couple cm out from under his egg crate den. When flipping him upside down to feed him, I could feel that a couple of rear legs on his right side weren't "soft" anymore. He was clenching them hard enough that any attempt to move the leg would move his entire body in unison. It was like this for around 4 days, and I was worried that perhaps these legs were damaged. Looking back, I now think that it was because he was finally getting stronger control of these legs.
After around 8 weeks, I could see that he had fully coordinated movements of his legs. They were no longer shaky and coarse movements. He could moderately quickly move his legs exactly where he wanted to, without flailing around or trying to reposition them repeatedly.
Around week 9, he got a full week's worth of soup instead of water. He reliably drinks 8 cc of water or 10 cc of soup at each feeding. A few days after drinking soup, he poops a little.
After 10 weeks, he walked completely out of his den for the first time. He's able to wiggle his fangs more, but it doesn't seem as mobile as his legs. He hasn't extended his fangs yet, but I don't know if that's because he can't or because he doesn't want to. I'm not sure when I should transition him from hand-feeding to giving him a water bowl, and eventually to eating on his own. I want his legs to get stronger first, and hopefully I'll see some signs that he has full use of his fangs before I give him prey.
I'm not sure what the endgame is here. At first I thought he wasn't going to survive the night. Then I figured that I would rehab him then return him home. But now I don't know if he'd survive a day back in the wild. I suppose I'll wait for him to molt, then see where we go from there (if he survives).
