Pmet sling Bad molt but still moving. Help please

[boina]

I had my first G. pulchra for 9 years. After having him for 5 years I moved to a very dry apartment. One day he flipped to moult but stayed flipped for almost two and a half full days without any moulting progress. I popped him in an ICU and twelve hours later he moulted successfully. So ICUs do save tarantulas with moulting problems.

Coincidence. Humidity does nothing for molting.

 

[Ellenantula]

I'm sorry, but you must have misunderstood me. I only disagreed with the exact things I quoted, nothing else.

The both things I disagree with, and the both things I quoted, were:
1. Don't handle a molting tarantula and
2. Helping is not generally successful in a bad molt.

I didn't cite anything else. If you only meant them in a very strict context, as in: Don't move a molting tarantula to an ICU, then I agree. I never said a word about promoting ICUs, were did you read that?

The problem is, there have been thread after thread after thread where a tarantula was stuck in a molt and because of this "do not touch" advice people just left their tarantula until it was much to late. I don't only intervene when all hope is lost - that's too late. I intervene when the molt doesn't progress as it should, and with slings that means as little as an hour after the molt has stopped progressing.

A big problem is knowing what the moult issue is, when to intervene, and if intervening will change the result.
My "never handle a moulting T" is tied to both 1) a belief many have that moving a T to an ICU will fix all bad moults (which apparently we do agree on ICU uselessness) and 2) knowing when waiting is useless and an intervention is needed.

Friend, you and I both know that can be nearly impossible for many keepers to determine when and how to assist -- and especially newbies.

I believe more T lives would be saved by the 'don't touch a flipped T' advice... than those saved by owner intervention. Too many old threads show this to be true.
It's a sad fact.

Most keepers are not surgeons. The best most can do is try adding some moisture to enclosure in-situ (beats ICU attempts, anyway). Anecdotal stories of Ts who survived due to owner assistance, imo, are far rarer than Ts who died with owner intervention -- esp intervention provided too early. Or intervention provided without knowing the cause of the real moulting issue.

If more keepers had your education and experience -- then my opinion would be different. But Boina -- I don't consider you the average T keeper and if you're honest, you'll admit you are far more likely to have success with an intervention than many other keepers and especially more likely to have success than a newbie would.

 

[Nightstalker47]

Coincidence. Humidity does nothing for molting.

It seems there is much confusion in regards to where this belief stems from. I agree with your statement, but would like to elaborate further.

Tarantulas that require moist conditions will certainly be prone to molting issues if they are being kept too dry, its just been blown over the top and generalized over the years. Humidity numbers of course, have no bearing on this whatsoever...it comes down to assessing the right husbandry conditions for said species.

In other words, keeping an H.pulchripes moist for pre molt would be counter intuitive and is most likely to have a detrimental effect. Theraphosa on the other hand need that moisture and can have issues with molts if they are being kept too dry. So, in some cases, the moisture levels do indeed factor into the molting process.

 

[EtienneN]

Coincidence. Humidity does nothing for molting.

Yeah, I suppose when I think about the science of it logically, I agree it probably was a coincidence. Doesn’t really make sense that external moisture would have influence on a Ts biological system. I did think it weird when I read Stan Schultz’s book that he said moulting Ts needed a bump in “humidity”. I also remember when Jon3800 used humidifiers for his moulting Ts. I guess correlation really isn’t causation.

 

[boina]

A big problem is knowing what the moult issue is, when to intervene, and if intervening will change the result.

I definitely do agree with that. That's why I made a very long post once, that has been linked in this thread pretty early, adressing all those questions .

 

[Ellenantula]

I definitely do agree with that. That's why I made a very long post once, that has been linked in this thread pretty early, adressing all those questions .

And sadly, OP's T died.
I wish moult assistance could have a higher success rate.

 

[boina]

And sadly, OP's T died.
I wish moult assistance could have a higher success rate.

Because he started helping much too late - the sling had been in trouble for a whole day. If you start early enough the success rate is in the 80 to 90%, and you don't need to be experienced, you just need some fine motor skills. That's what I mean by saying yes, you can touch and move a molting tarantula if necessary.

 

[Ellenantula]

Because he started helping much too late - the sling had been in trouble for a whole day. If you start early enough the success rate is in the 80 to 90%, and you don't need to be experienced, you just need some fine motor skills. That's what I mean by saying yes, you can touch and move a molting tarantula if necessary.

I trust your sincerity, just disagree over the odds. It happens. Fwiw, I am glad we have you on this forum to provide more advanced assistance!