13 year old Chaco Gold Knee Tarantula stuck in her molt:(

[ANW90]

My Chaco Gold Knee tarantula is stuck in her molt. She started to molt last night RIGHT SIDE UP around 10pm. She just turned 13 a week ago. She has never had a problem before. She made a silk mat but started to molt next to it instead. I have her in a closed room with extra water in her terrarium. Any suggestions or help would be appreciated, thank you.

 

[viper69]

You'd have to remove the exo, and most of the time that is not successful for many reasons, esp because the new skeleton is now hardening. That's a real shame esp at 13

Post pics for others

 

[jennywallace]

You could try a wet, soft paintbrush to try and get the old exo off, but if it's been 24 hours, the new exo will have started to harden, so might not work. Best of luck.

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

Tarantula Stuck in Its Molt? Look Here for Advice

Tarantulas sometimes get stuck during molting – it happens, nobody really knows why. Accordingly there are a lot of threads that go “Help, my tarantula is stuck, what should I do?” More often than not the advice is to do nothing because ‘the tarantula knows best how to be a tarantula’. I think...

arachnoboards.com

 

[Buglover420]

My Chaco Gold Knee tarantula is stuck in her molt. She started to molt last night RIGHT SIDE UP around 10pm. She just turned 13 a week ago. She has never had a problem before. She made a silk mat but started to molt next to it instead. I have her in a closed room with extra water in her terrarium. Any suggestions or help would be appreciated, thank you.

how is she doing?

 

[ArachniMAY]

Oh my goodness, this is one of my biggest fears! I have an almost 6 month old chaco, and I hope I never have to go through this. I hope she'll be okay!

 

[TheraMygale]

So any news? It should have happened by now.

any photos?

 

[ANW90]

Shes moved a little bit but her legs are still in the molt. I'm pretty sure she passed away

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

Were you successful at all in helping her remove parts? Are all of her legs stuck? Is it only her legs that are stuck?

 

[ANW90]

I think it's just her legs. You can see she was trying to get them out. I only helped remove the parts were she already molted. I did the paint brush last night on her legs. I have made sure she has extra water and humidity in her terrarium. My local reptile store told me they had a Tarantula boarded who was old and it took them weeks to complete their molt. Can this happen?

Update: 4/10 7:30pm
When I went to see if anything has changed I used a paint brush to gently apply warm water to her legs and all of her leg hairs stood up? My fingers immediately got a red and itchy? She looks like she's frozen not passed away? Her abdomen is full and soft and shiny. Her cephalothorax looks soft and shiny too. I'm not 100 about her fangs?

 

[Gevo]

I think it's just her legs. You can see she was trying to get them out. I only helped were she had dried parts. I did the paint brush last night on her legs. I have made sure she has extra water and humidity in her terrarium. My local reptile store told me they had a Tarantula boarded who was old and it took them 2 weeks to complete the molt. Can this happen?

Maybe they mean 2 weeks if they count the start as burrowing away or darkening up? Once they start the process of actually removing their exoskeleton, it should all happen within a few hours to maybe a couple of days. Older tarantulas often take longer, and it’s not uncommon for it to take a day or a bit more, but they molt by pumping fluid between their old and new exoskeletons, and then their new exoskeleton starts hardening up as it’s exposed to air, so once that process starts, things have to move pretty steadily for it to work.

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

Update: 4/10 7:30pm
When I went to see if anything has changed I used a paint brush to gently apply warm water to her legs and all of her leg hairs stood up? My fingers immediately got a red and itchy? She looks like she's frozen not passed away? Her abdomen is full and soft and shiny. Her cephalothorax looks soft and shiny too. I'm not 100 about her fangs?

That would be her urticating setae. They are her defense mechanism, kinda like barbed cactus needles that stick in your skin and itch like mad. If it’s just her legs, she may still make it. Fangs (at least one), lungs, anus those are the important parts. Are those all molted out?

 

[ANW90]

Her entire under side is still in her old molt unfortunately.I moved her terrarium so I could look under her. She didn't have very much dirt under where she chose to molt. She looks like she frozen still. She was pretty slow for the last few months. I'll post a picture in the morning.