I don't know what happened

[Cherrypeep]

This evening I was gifted with the sight of my T. stirmi completely curled up. I really don't know what happened, I'm in a state of complete shock. She was up and running the day before like nothing was wrong. I had found this mold growing under her hide and I don't know if that contributed to her death, but I'm just confused and upset. I just wanted to show everyone the mold and see if it's the blame. Or maybe it was me and i didn't give her enough. I am also concerned that she had a bad fall and died.

 

[chanda]

I am very sorry for your loss. It's always tough losing a pet.

The mold doesn't look that bad. A little mold in the cage is no big deal - and certainly shouldn't be enough to kill a tarantula. I get that stuff (and a couple of other kinds of mold and even the occasional mushroom) popping up in my cages every now and then, but I can't say that it's really caused any harm. I do scoop it out when it gets bad and I try to pull the mushrooms before they drop spores, but that's just to keep them from taking over.

How old was she? If she was a wild-caught adult, it's possible that she was just at the end of her life. You never know how old those mature wc spiders are when you get them. A fall is also a possibility. How much vertical height did she have in her cage? Was she inclined to climb? Were there hard objects that she could potentially fall on and injure herself?

 

[Venom1080]

That molds harmless.

 

[miss moxie]

Is that feces around her spinnerets? Is it possible she was impacted?

 

[Cherrypeep]

I am very sorry for your loss. It's always tough losing a pet.

The mold doesn't look that bad. A little mold in the cage is no big deal - and certainly shouldn't be enough to kill a tarantula. I get that stuff (and a couple of other kinds of mold and even the occasional mushroom) popping up in my cages every now and then, but I can't say that it's really caused any harm. I do scoop it out when it gets bad and I try to pull the mushrooms before they drop spores, but that's just to keep them from taking over.

How old was she? If she was a wild-caught adult, it's possible that she was just at the end of her life. You never know how old those mature wc spiders are when you get them. A fall is also a possibility. How much vertical height did she have in her cage? Was she inclined to climb? Were there hard objects that she could potentially fall on and injure herself?

Oh i'm happy that the mold wasn't an issue. I bought her as an adult and i didn't get any info on how old she was or if she was wild caught (She probably was though). The vertical length of her cage is 8 in in the front and around 5-6 in, in the back. She had recently been a bit active, and she was curled on top of her plastic hide when i found her. Her hide is the only hard thing in there.

 

[Venom1080]

Oh i'm happy that the mold wasn't an issue. I bought her as an adult and i didn't get any info on how old she was or if she was wild caught (She probably was though). The vertical length of her cage is 8 in in the front and around 5-6 in, in the back. She had recently been a bit active, and she was curled on top of her plastic hide when i found her. Her hide is the only hard thing in there.

Can you post a pic of the whole cage,m

 

[Cherrypeep]

Is that feces around her spinnerets? Is it possible she was impacted?

Yes it is feces, I've never heard of tarantulas being impacted! That can be a possibility. Shes always had a voracious appetite, and about 3 days ago she had absolutely no inclination to eat any roaches.

 

[Cherrypeep]

Can you post a pic of the whole cage,m

 

[lateapexpredator]

Is that feces around her spinnerets? Is it possible she was impacted?

Another person who hasn't heard about impacted tarantulas. Can you go into detail on causes and potential solutions?

 

[cold blood]

Another person who hasn't heard about impacted tarantulas. Can you go into detail on causes and potential solutions?

Causes are unknown....its usually fatal and I've never heard of a successful solution as one cannot really verify impaction on a living t.

 

[cold blood]

That enclosure is crazy tall, it should have been filled 3/4 of the way to make it safe....a fall isn't out of the question IMO. I would check with reading glasses or something and see if you can find any points of leaking hemolymph.

 

[Cherrypeep]

I don't see any broken skin or hemolymph. What i do see is one side of her abdomen has been scratched at and the other side is normal.

 

[cold blood]

Is that feces around her spinnerets

If feces are present around the anus, shouldn't that rule out impaction?

 

[Venom1080]

Should have been a hide. Unless you already removed it.

Besides that, I suppose either a fall or old age.

 

[Cherrypeep]

That enclosure is crazy tall, it should have been filled 3/4 of the way to make it safe....a fall isn't out of the question IMO. I would check with reading glasses or something and see if you can find any points of leaking hemolymph.

You're totally right, I had recently changed her substrate and had been lazy not to fill it higher. I'm feel really stupid and feel incredibly terrible. I feel guilty as f***.

 

[Cherrypeep]

Should have been a hide. Unless you already removed it.

Besides that, I suppose either a fall or old age.

The hide is the plastic container I pulled it up to show the mold. Honestly I hope it's just old age because I'd feel incredibly guilty for putting her in pain in any way

 

[cold blood]

I don't see any broken skin or hemolymph. What i do see is one side of her abdomen has been scratched at and the other side is normal.

That's from hair flicking, its nothing to worry about and certainly not an indication of the cause of death.

How damp was the substrate? Its hard to tell from the pic. These can be prone to dehydration if kept just a little too dry. The abdomen looks wrinkled a bit, but that doesn't mean much as the shot was post-mortem, so that would be expected in a fairly short time after death.

Keep in mind, sometimes there can be obvious causes, but much of the time, there will never really be a way to positively know the cause for sure....and we can only speculate.

 

[Venom1080]

The hide is the plastic container I pulled it up to show the mold. Honestly I hope it's just old age because I'd feel incredibly guilty for putting her in pain in any way

If light can go through it it's not a very good hide.

Sometimes we just don't really know. Worst part of the hobby imo.

 

[cold blood]

The hide is the plastic container

Please take no offense, but that plastic thing as a hide is way lazy....not a good hide.

There are a lot of things that can work great that you might be able to just come across....broken pots, pvc pipe half, a broken mug (I've purposely broken cups and pots as they were more valuable to me in pieces), a chunk of wood. You can even go find wood (I collect all my wood from the shores of L. Michigan)...just don't use fresh wood, it must be dried, I have found driftwood to work best, hence my collection area.

You can even use a flat piece of wood and just bury most of it and depress and area for the t to get under and let it excavate...its very effective...this is a mini version.

0519152106 (1)

• cold blood
• Jan 30, 2017

Making a hide out of a flat piece of wood.

Things like halves of pots are great as they just won't mold, which is a nice thing for an enclosure that needs to be kept consistently damp like a Theraposa requires.

 

[Cherrypeep]

If light can go through it it's not a very good hide.

Sometimes we just don't really know. Worst part of the hobby imo.

Thank you yeah I wish sometimes they could just talk, and tell me what went wrong.