Tarantula not eating after molt

[Potatz]

Don't worry, she's molted before and I know that you have to wait a while before feeding a tarantula after a molt. But it has been around 3 weeks since she last molted (and about 3 before she molted, so in total 6 weeks) and she still isnt eating. She is moving fine, and it doesn't look like the problem is her sucking stomach and her fangs have fully hardened. Also i forgot to mention this, but she is an Avicularia Avicularia. I did some searching and it didn't seem like Avic's are supposed to wait this long before eating... She should be fine without eating, but it has been almost 2 months which is starting to worry me... So unless I somehow overlooked some massive thing or just am being stupid I have no clue why she isnt eating. Any ideas?

I would love to post a photo but she is hiding right now and if i did you would just see a dark hole with basically nothing in it except for a leg or two.

 

[ladyratri]

Don't worry, she's molted before and I know that you have to wait a while before feeding a tarantula after a molt. But it has been around 3 weeks since she last molted (and about 3 before she molted, so in total 6 weeks) and she still isnt eating. She is moving fine, and it doesn't look like the problem is her sucking stomach and her fangs have fully hardened. Also i forgot to mention this, but she is an Avicularia Avicularia. I did some searching and it didn't seem like Avic's are supposed to wait this long before eating... She should be fine without eating, but it has been almost 2 months which is starting to worry me... So unless I somehow overlooked some massive thing or just am being stupid I have no clue why she isnt eating. Any ideas?

I would love to post a photo but she is hiding right now and if i did you would just see a dark hole with basically nothing in it except for a leg or two.

How big is she? For an adult or larger juvi, that's not long at all. Make sure she has access to water (e.g. a few drops on the webbing or leaves near her hide once a week) and otherwise, she'll come out and eat when she's ready.

 

[Potatz]

ok, i would say about 3in but probably larger so take the measurement with a grain of salt. her water bowl is always full and clean, and ill try and leave a drop or two outside on some leaves. Thanks!

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

ok, i would say about 3in but probably larger so take the measurement with a grain of salt. her water bowl is always full and clean, and ill try and leave a drop or two outside on some leaves. Thanks!

I wouldn’t really worry yet, And it doesn’t matter how long it went without eating before the molt. It should eat within a couple weeks.

 

[viper69]

3” do not worry- keep reading you have overlooked info on this

 

[gabrieldezzi]

Don't worry, she's molted before and I know that you have to wait a while before feeding a tarantula after a molt. But it has been around 3 weeks since she last molted (and about 3 before she molted, so in total 6 weeks) and she still isnt eating. She is moving fine, and it doesn't look like the problem is her sucking stomach and her fangs have fully hardened. Also i forgot to mention this, but she is an Avicularia Avicularia. I did some searching and it didn't seem like Avic's are supposed to wait this long before eating... She should be fine without eating, but it has been almost 2 months which is starting to worry me... So unless I somehow overlooked some massive thing or just am being stupid I have no clue why she isnt eating. Any ideas?

I would love to post a photo but she is hiding right now and if i did you would just see a dark hole with basically nothing in it except for a leg or two.

My avic is the same way. First time she molted it took her like 3 and a half weeks after molting to eat again. Was completely fine too. She's just a weird spider in general though.

Like the other posts said, it fully depends on the size of the spider, but as long as the fangs are hardened it'll most likely start accepting food very soon.

 

[Potatz]

Update: she still hasn't eaten .-. I'm thinking about trying and dropping the food closer to her over the weekend. Usually when I feed her I drop the food at the start of her tunnel she made, but maybe she isn't getting the vibrations or something... Dunno if this will help, but she hasn't came out from a hole she has made for a bit. She will sometimes walk out a little, and she did this a day or two ago, but she usually stays pretty close to this hole... Any ideas on what I should do (or whats wrong)?

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

My 2”ish Avicularia variegata last ate Feb 11 and molted a couple days ago. I think she ate 2-3 times between this molt and the prior. She just didn’t need any more food at that time. If you can try to get a pic of the spider and enclosure, peeps may be able to offer further suggestions.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Update: she still hasn't eaten .-. I'm thinking about trying and dropping the food closer to her over the weekend. Usually when I feed her I drop the food at the start of her tunnel she made, but maybe she isn't getting the vibrations or something... Dunno if this will help, but she hasn't came out from a hole she has made for a bit. She will sometimes walk out a little, and she did this a day or two ago, but she usually stays pretty close to this hole... Any ideas on what I should do (or whats wrong)?

What exactly are you feeding it?

 

[Potatz]

I'm feeding her mealworms, and I squish the head so they don't bury themselves in the enclosure. She hasn't had any problems with them tho, so I don't know why she would be acting up now.
Here's a photo of her too, though you cant really see her...

She's mostly covered by webbing, but you can kind of make out one or two of her legs on the right of the photo... Hope that helps. Also she has already molted, this is almost 4 (probably more) weeks after. She also didn't eat about a month before, but I know that's what they do and I'm not worried about that, just worried at the fact she hasn't eaten 4 weeks after.

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

Can you take a pic of the entire enclosure, as well? Could be she wants live food? If you are already sure the sucking stomach molted properly and didn’t mature out as a male early, that’s my only guess.

 

[Potatz]

Hi sorry for the really late response… I decided I would take out a lot of the stuff in her enclosure so that I can see her better and so that it may encourage her to eat or allow her to actually see the food… Here are some photos of her and she looks dead but she isn’t, she’s moved a lot and she isnt death curled. I put a mealworm near her and she hasn’t eaten it yet nor does she seem like she wants too.
Ive tried adding some water into the soil in a corner in case it isn’t humid enough but that didnt work and I doubt she’s sick cuz she would probably be dead already and she’s definitely not thirsty since she would be looking for the water dish or be she’d be in it. Could be stress based but I doubt it since I’ve been doing everything to make as little noise and keeping down the light (doubt the light actually does anything tho…). ATM I’m pretty sure she’s probably gunna die within the next week or so if she doesn’t eat since it’s coming up on 3 months after the molt (around 4-5 if I include the time before the molt).

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Hi sorry for the really late response… I decided I would take out a lot of the stuff in her enclosure so that I can see her better and so that it may encourage her to eat or allow her to actually see the food… Here are some photos of her and she looks dead but she isn’t, she’s moved a lot and she isnt death curled. I put a mealworm near her and she hasn’t eaten it yet nor does she seem like she wants too. View attachment 469903 View attachment 469904
Ive tried adding some water into the soil in a corner in case it isn’t humid enough but that didnt work and I doubt she’s sick cuz she would probably be dead already and she’s definitely not thirsty since she would be looking for the water dish or be she’d be in it. Could be stress based but I doubt it since I’ve been doing everything to make as little noise and keeping down the light (doubt the light actually does anything tho…). ATM I’m pretty sure she’s probably gunna die within the next week or so if she doesn’t eat since it’s coming up on 3 months after the molt (around 4-5 if I include the time before the molt).

It’s weird I’ve had multiple spiders. They were very healthy. And they molted. And can no longer eat or drink. Or even worse had a stuck molt. https://arachnoboards.com/threads/fresh-molt-deaths.363164/.

 

[Potatz]

Huh… yeah looked at the thread, very weird… hope that doesn’t happen to her. She’s my first T I’ve had and it would suck to lose her that way. Tho it seems like if it happens nobody usually knows why, which also sucks since you can’t really improve or learn from what you did wrong.

 

[sparticus]

she’s definitely not thirsty since she would be looking for the water dish or be she’d be in it.

I wouldn't count on this. Try dripping water directly on the webbing near the spider. Molting uses up fluid reserves and these species lose their appetite when dehydrated. Still can't tell from these pics if it's a mature male, either. If it's mature that would also explain not eating.

 

[spiderman336]

Don't worry, she's molted before and I know that you have to wait a while before feeding a tarantula after a molt. But it has been around 3 weeks since she last molted (and about 3 before she molted, so in total 6 weeks) and she still isnt eating. She is moving fine, and it doesn't look like the problem is her sucking stomach and her fangs have fully hardened. Also i forgot to mention this, but she is an Avicularia Avicularia. I did some searching and it didn't seem like Avic's are supposed to wait this long before eating... She should be fine without eating, but it has been almost 2 months which is starting to worry me... So unless I somehow overlooked some massive thing or just am being stupid I have no clue why she isnt eating. Any ideas?

I would love to post a photo but she is hiding right now and if i did you would just see a dark hole with basically nothing in it except for a leg or two.

I had a seladonia that didn’t eat until about 30 days after a molt. And it’s a tiny sling still. Give it more time.

 

[Potatz]

I had a seladonia that didn’t eat until about 30 days after a molt. And it’s a tiny sling still. Give it more time.

At this point it’s been waaaaay longer

I wouldn't count on this. Try dripping water directly on the webbing near the spider. Molting uses up fluid reserves and these species lose their appetite when dehydrated. Still can't tell from these pics if it's a mature male, either. If it's mature that would also explain not eating.

I’ll try dropping a little water right now and check on her later.

 

[sparticus]

Try to get a pic or look at the front legs/palps too. If the pedipalps lost their pink toes, it's a mature male.

 

[spiderman336]

I noticed I posted on the wrong thread. Btw is it still alive

 

[Potatz]

I noticed I posted on the wrong thread. Btw is it still alive

Yeah she’s alive but she doesn’t look very happy…