- Joined
- Apr 12, 2008
- Messages
- 94
Alright so I've been doing scorpions now for a couple of years. They seem to not be a problem for me and I seem to understand them quite well.
Long story short... I got a rose hair tarantula about 2 months ago and decided to try the tarantula world. I was using a small tiny 40watt heat lamp to provide a few extra degrees of temperature to keep it but around 72-75F. The lamp went dead, i got a new one a day later. Shortly after this, the tarantula started being a bit slow, acting a bit weird, a bit limp if you will.
I fed him and he refused to eat. I even offered water which he would not take.
At this point he started curling up into sort of a ball in a corner. It almost seems he purposely distanced himself from the heat lamp area and into the colder corner of the setup. Up to this point he was a tad sluggish and not super quick. Even when he ate he didn't seem to have a lot of momentum.
One thing that concerned me is that he had a mark on his abdomen, almost like a missing piece or a healed wound, or a huge patch of hair missing on him. The guy i got him from mentioned "Oh we've had this one forever, no one wants him." i assumed perhaps that he was a tarantula, and no one wants a tarantula over a scorpion or a lizard, etc... perhaps he insinuated then that there was a larger issue he was hiding.
I am confused, and feel bad. I try to the best of my abilities to take care of my pets. So when dies, I feel like there is something I missed or something along those lines. I want to give it another shot though.
Is it possible he may not be dead and could be molting? I know the balled up thing is not good and an indicator it may be dead. Ideas? Thoughts?
Long story short... I got a rose hair tarantula about 2 months ago and decided to try the tarantula world. I was using a small tiny 40watt heat lamp to provide a few extra degrees of temperature to keep it but around 72-75F. The lamp went dead, i got a new one a day later. Shortly after this, the tarantula started being a bit slow, acting a bit weird, a bit limp if you will.
I fed him and he refused to eat. I even offered water which he would not take.
At this point he started curling up into sort of a ball in a corner. It almost seems he purposely distanced himself from the heat lamp area and into the colder corner of the setup. Up to this point he was a tad sluggish and not super quick. Even when he ate he didn't seem to have a lot of momentum.
One thing that concerned me is that he had a mark on his abdomen, almost like a missing piece or a healed wound, or a huge patch of hair missing on him. The guy i got him from mentioned "Oh we've had this one forever, no one wants him." i assumed perhaps that he was a tarantula, and no one wants a tarantula over a scorpion or a lizard, etc... perhaps he insinuated then that there was a larger issue he was hiding.
I am confused, and feel bad. I try to the best of my abilities to take care of my pets. So when dies, I feel like there is something I missed or something along those lines. I want to give it another shot though.
Is it possible he may not be dead and could be molting? I know the balled up thing is not good and an indicator it may be dead. Ideas? Thoughts?