This is a bad sign: I recently lost a GBB after it attempted (but failed) to molt. Keep an eye on it, and make sure its water dish is full.
Do you Know if it will try again if it didn't do it very well the first time? Like sooner rather than later? May be a stupid question. For example. If it couldn't do it one day, so it tries again the next or will it wait a few days.
There have been a few cases where tarantulas tried again and were successful, but as far as I saw, my GBB only tried once. (He was in the molting position for 9 hours. After making no progress, he flipped back over. He spent the following week very lethargic before finally passing away.)
Any idea what could be the actual reason for death?
I was talking to a keeper friend in a different country recently and he said that it happened to one of his T’s. He speculated that the tarantula wasn’t strong enough/didn’t have the energy to begin the molting process. But @Ungoliant you might have a better theory
Do you have any source for this information? Because I think this is only a best guess and not something that has ever been researched scientifically. There are quite a few other scenarios possible for a failed molt.
No, it's just based on the 2 deaths I've had with moults. Not scientifically proven, just an opinion, but I think it's logical that failing to start a moult (for whatever reason) and getting stuck in the old skin is a bad thing...
I didn't dissect it, so I'm not sure. However, in this case, the timing of the second molt was much sooner than anticipated. (He was 3.75" and had molted only three months earlier.) One person speculated that he had some internal injury and tried to fix it with an "emergency molt," but he was too weak to complete the process.
Do you know if the old exoskeleton can even harden before it's exposed to air (before it even cracks its carapace)? I always thought exposure to air was what started the process. (That's why, once the molt begins, time is of the essence for the spider to completely extricate itself.)
All I can say is when my very old and slow rose hair completely failed to moult, the carapace popped up (which is the only thing that happened), the new one underneath didn't have a hint of white, it was jet black. Also when the old skin on her abdomen started cracking and falling off, 3 days after the carapace lifted up, the new abdomen also didn't show any signs of whiteness. It was at this point I tried to pull some of it off to at least get her new lungs "in the open", but she panicked and started trying to walk away (which was the only movement I'd seen her do in months). It wasn't pretty, she clearly couldn't bend her legs correctly or get them to do what she wanted. I considered trying to remove as much as I could, but I wasn't confident at all that I would help, so I slept on it. She was dead the next morning.
I like ur theory better. Haha works out for me. Update. One week since it's failed attempt. It has been acting weird as seen in the pic. It's like this or a variation of this all day then moves somewhere and does this.
Yes, the tarantula was just being weird I guess. It was not moving much or just being weird for a few more weeks then it finally molted!. It is a big fat boy/female
That's good to hear. Gives me hope, because my unsexed B. vagans (3-3,5") did basically the same. Last night it made a moulting mat and when I had a quick peek in the dead of night (about 3 hours ago) it was on its back. Everything seemed perfectly normal. But when I woke up just now, it was on its feet again. I have no idea why it broke up the moulting process, I didn't disturb it in any way. Water dish was always present and it ate only 25 days ago. Now, I'm a tad worried, because I'll be leaving for a short holiday tomorrow.