My premature male Eresus walckenaeri is "stuck" molting and not moving (except for the tiniest bit of leg movement) since 18 hours. can I help him somehow?? Any information is greatly appreciated, I'm starting to worry.
Sorry man. Don’t tamper with it all you can do is wait and see if it survives I know this sucks but you must let nature take its course moisten the enclosure and pray for the best If you can get access to his mouth without moving him try dripping a tiny amount of water to keep it hydrated
YES! Intervene immediately....the longer you wait, the less chance you have to succeed. A wet paintbrush or q tip are good tools to use, it's a painstaking and difficult process, but doing nothing is certain death....you may lose legs, but its better than it being dead.
Powerful reading glasses and a fine tipped tweezers are also helpful.
How much of it is stuck? To me it looks like there's just a bit of the abdomen stuck on top but that everything else is out. If that's the case, there's nothing to worry about and it should fall off on its own. If the molt is still stuck around the entire abdomen (including the spinnerets and anus), that would be a problem. In that case, I would say put a drop of water or two where the molt is stuck and leave it to get between the molt and the new exoskeleton. After some time to let the water soften the molt and help separate it, try VERY CAREFULLY to work the molt off with a q-tip or similar very soft object.
Yes, if a spider is stuck you need to intervene as soon as possible. As long as the spider and the molt are still soft it is entirely possible to carefully peel the spider out of the molt. Use plenty of water to soften the molt and some soft tool (I use paint brushes, others prefer Q-tips) to gently brush the old molt off.
@PidderPeets I did that. It was stuck on the spinnerets, the anus and lungs. I very carefully put water on the smallest and softest brush I had (I'm an artist so I have quite the collection of brushes thankfully) and used the brush to gently free him of the molt around the abdomen (after softening it with water), I'm not sure if his whole carapace and legs are stuck still or if he molted those successfully before, I'm gonna look through his enclosure thoroughly, now that he is in an ICU. Here are some pictures, he can't bend down his 2 front pairs of legs, all legs moved though, now he is just laying there, I'll let him rest, he has plenty of moisture.
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