Is this just Pre-Molt Darkening?

[kaotzi]

Ok everyone tends to have a adult tarantula that is fully hairy and when it darkens it loses all its hair in a ring and stuff so its easy to see.. this seems different to me. I am a first time owner that bought a 1 inch Brazilian Black from fear not tarantulas. so i have no experience with these things and just wanna make sure i dont need to be doing something different.

So this little thing doesn't do any of what i expected so far. its VERY bold, and thinks its arboreal half the time. it is always climbing around the cage, I've even seen it hanging upside down from the roof once. I do my best to keep only one half of the ground wet, but it doesn't seem to care either direction and spends equal amounts of time on the dry and the wet.

All of this has been kinda fascinating so far, and the little dude is ALWAYS hungry and usually moves out where i can watch him eat even though he is still small enough that he doesn't have his adult coloring yet. Now the issue arises cause i cant find any pics similar to these markings.

Are the dark spots on his back pre-molt?( he still eats like a champ) ... or are they some kind of damage because he crawls all over the cage so much and fell and hurt himself sometime? or are they over-eating or dehydration or.. sigh... it sucks not being an expert about something that relies on you to stay safe... anyway please look at the colorations in the pic and let me know what ya think.

 

[Theneil]

the Black patches are the remaining urticating hairs. Freshly after a molt you will see they are in a nice round-ish patch but between it's last molt and now it has kicked some of them off which is why it looks a bit broken up.

Nothing to worry about. Perfectly normal tarantula stuff.

Do look up urticating hairs though. For health and safty reasons it is important to understand them.

Edit: So to answer your original question, no. that is not premolt darkening.

When your spider gets close to molting, you will likely notuce it's abdomen get very large and look kinda like a water balloon so stretched out it gets shiny. Thenthe color of the whole tarantula will darken slightly and an ,almost black, darkening will occur on the abdomen staeting near the urticating hares.

 

[kaotzi]

the Black patches are the remaining urticating hairs. Freshly after a molt you will see they are in a nice round-ish patch but between it's last molt and now it has kicked some of them off which is why it looks a bit broken up.

Nothing to worry about. Perfectly normal tarantula stuff.

Do look up urticating hairs though. For health and safty reasons it is important to understand them.

Thanks you for the input! puts my mind at ease a bit.

 

[Theneil]

B hamorii sling in late premolt. notice the how shiny the "skin" is and how the 'skin' of the abdomen is begining to turn almost black starting at the top?

L. parahybana sling in premolt. Hasn't gotten quite as dark as the hamorii bit the abdomen is still quite shiny under the hair.


Recently molted L. parahybana. See how the abdomen is very flat/matte.


Hopefully these help. i just happened to have some good examples to take pics of.

 

[kaotzi]

B hamorii sling in late premolt. notice the how shiny the "skin" is and how the 'skin' of the abdomen is begining to turn almost black starting at the top?
View attachment 285425
L. parahybana sling in premolt. Hasn't gotten quite as dark as the hamorii bit the abdomen is still quite shiny under the hair.
View attachment 285427

Recently molted L. parahybana. See how the abdomen is very flat/matte.
View attachment 285428

Hopefully these help. i just happened to have some good examples to take pics of.

Thanks! that actually does help quite a bit.

 

[Minty]

Another potential indicator of a tarantula being in premoult, is that it'll stop eating. Sometimes it just means your tarantula is just not hungry, but it can indicate premoult. As you say, yours is still eating, so it isn't likely in premoult yet.

Having said that, some species keep eating when they're in premoult.