1st time molt (noob owner)

[Moyzie]

Ok, I am still a noob. As much as I have cared for animals for 40 years, aside from looking after wild garden/house spiders - keeping T's is a new thing. But yesterday I had one of my 2 T's molt - the first time this has happened in my care. I feel more "pro" now

The one that molted is the salmon pink birdy, which despite owning since April - I have never seen him eat. He does though, he just waits until he can hear me snore, then he eats. Food has always been consumed by morning. Leg span from tip 2 tip is 4.5cm

I was thinking the lack of appetite was pre molt - but food was still be consumed. So, just shy i tell myself ? I kinda feel rejected as a pet owner, not getting to "enjoy" feeding live animals to another animal. Maybe, emotionally I am better off this way

Anyway, this week he got kinda wet during the enclosure misting process. Three days later he molted. My question, or query.... would the "drenching" he received, encouraged or made the molt process easier.

The internet is a dangerous place, people self diagnose life threatening diseases with misinformation. That said I saw multiple threads about spiders being too dry to molt. I dont think this was the case for me, I mist every 2ish days, 1 corner is damp. Water bowl full. T is happy either up at front, on the bark or 80% recently in the hide (pre molt?) - one thing i recall reading was spiders trapped in their molts and not being hydrated enough.

---

I wont be feeding him or her for a few more days, I look forward to seeing them out n about displaying the colours looking fresh (hopefully)

The other one looks very pre molt too. Fingers crossed :-D

Also, if he or she is now 4.5cm, when would it of been born ?!? The shop did not provide that info

 

[ByMennen]

Congratulations on the successful molt!
I'd stop misting however, unnecessary and more than likely causing more harm than good. Just make sure they have access to water, and don't let the bottom layer of soil dry out.
Best way to get a good estimate on their age would be to contact the seller.
Best of luck!

 

[viper69]

enclosure misting process

Why are you doing this? Where did you learn this from, specific link would be interesting

 

[Moyzie]

Why are you doing this? Where did you learn this from, specific link would be interesting

Loads of places, online - regular misting to maintain humidity... focusing on one side (i forget the terminilogy) to allow the T to choose its preferred side. Its mentioned a lot by Taruntala Collective. Even just now I was looking at spiderlings on sale - searched google for the species, looking at care guides and three times on different sites it was talking about adding water to the enclosure. Misting the moss for example to help maintain higher humidity

Congratulations on the successful molt!
I'd stop misting however, unnecessary and more than likely causing more harm than good. Just make sure they have access to water, and don't let the bottom layer of soil dry out.
Best way to get a good estimate on their age would be to contact the seller.
Best of luck!

I did and due to them receiving it from a prev owner they dont know. I didn't get this info when I previously asked them, they told me then the expert wasnt working that day and to check back.

Kinda lost trust in them now. Also, they charge generally double online UK shops, even with shipping fees

As for the misting, I hadn't misted the enclosure until two weeks ago. I just swapped out moistened moss for the dryer moss.

When i say misting by the way I mean like 2-3 spray squirts focused on a corner of the enclosure.

85% of the soil is dry.... only the bottom and very corner shows any sign of moisture - the rest looks dry and dusty

 

[viper69]

Loads of places, online - regular misting to maintain humidity... focusing on one side (i forget the terminilogy) to allow the T to choose its preferred side. Its mentioned a lot by Taruntala Collective. Even just now I was looking at spiderlings on sale - searched google for the species, looking at care guides and three times on different sites it was talking about adding water to the enclosure. Misting the moss for example to help maintain higher humidity

The Tarantula Collective- gave you bad advice.

Very few species require humidity monitoring, including species from rainforests in Brazil.

The really odd part in this humidity chasing - of all the people who do it, I have yet to read/see/hear concrete reason why it's necessary.

Like if you owned snakes as I do- people would say snakes require a higher humidity for shedding their skin, and in some species preventing their eye caps from getting wrinkled- this is easily observed.

Haven't seen a single reason for this at all.

 

[Moyzie]

The Tarantula Collective- gave you bad advice.

Very few species require humidity monitoring, including species from rainforests in Brazil.

The really odd part in this humidity chasing - of all the people who do it, I have yet to read/see/hear concrete reason why it's necessary.

Like if you owned snakes as I do- people would say snakes require a higher humidity for shedding their skin, and in some species preventing their eye caps from getting wrinkled- this is easily observed.

Haven't seen a single reason for this at all.

The humidify molting was something i saw on this forum actually. But it was from 2014 or 16. Or might of been reptile forum. Either way that's NOT what i was trying to achieve - I just found it interesting that after a long wait, mine did molt just after getting wet. I guess it was just a coincidence

In relation to the forum post i saw, Some disagreed and some said they kept their enclosures overly damp during pre molt.

*****

I got the T at the start of April and it was 1st misted two months later. I dont think that is over doing it. Its literally like a random bit of rain, I will continue keeping a damp corner around the waterbowl by over filling it. and spray the soil occasionally (very occasionally) if the bottom of the enclosure is too dry.

I was thinking of adding a couple of air plants to the enclosures - some version of Ionantha - coming out of the cork. This would need me to spray it lightly once every 2 weeks. Just a little direct water which i can do when topping up the bowl

 

[cold blood]

I would just stop misting and continue with keeping an area damp. A water dish is 1000 times more valuable than misting.

Don't read care sheets either, they are full of poor info...same with much of what you see on YouTube

 

[Marlana]

I honestly think that restrictive feeding of slings lead to more mismolts than improper ‘humidity’. People read about overfeeding and think that applies to every spider but small slings definitely need to eat enough to pull off a molt. I let them get really fat. To the point I’d be shamed, especially on Facebook. If they don’t have the resources they can have a mismolt. Of course this doesn’t always happen and mismolts can happen for other reasons. It’s just something I’ve observed.

Also not saying you should feed your sling everyday or anything either. Some of my slow growing slings, I only feed about once a month. However I never refuse to feed them a meal because they look ‘too fat’.

 

[coolnweird]

I honestly think that restrictive feeding of slings lead to more mismolts than improper ‘humidity’. People read about overfeeding and think that applies to every spider but small slings definitely need to eat enough to pull off a molt. I let them get really fat. To the point I’d be shamed, especially on Facebook. If they don’t have the resources they can have a mismolt. Of course this doesn’t always happen and mismolts can happen for other reasons. It’s just something I’ve observed.

Also not saying you should feed your sling everyday or anything either. Some of my slow growing slings, I only feed about once a month. However I never refuse to feed them a meal because they look ‘too fat’.

Completely agree! I had a strange situation with a P. sazimai sling where I suspect being fat saved its life. As a tiny 1/2" sling it molted and then seemed unable to eat. The molt was too tiny for me to inspect the sucking stomach, but it would do the classic move of attacking the prey and even biting it a few times before giving up, always hanging around the water dish trying to drink, etc. Fortunately, it was very very fat, even after the molt, and that extra store of energy allowed it to "emergency molt" just 2 weeks later. The second molt fixed whatever issues were occurring, and the sling is still growing slow and steady today. I often think about what might have happened if the spider had been too skinny/weak to undergo the second molt, and since then I try to keep my slings a bit chunky as insurance.

 

[Marlana]

Completely agree! I had a strange situation with a P. sazimai sling where I suspect being fat saved its life. As a tiny 1/2" sling it molted and then seemed unable to eat. The molt was too tiny for me to inspect the sucking stomach, but it would do the classic move of attacking the prey and even biting it a few times before giving up, always hanging around the water dish trying to drink, etc. Fortunately, it was very very fat, even after the molt, and that extra store of energy allowed it to "emergency molt" just 2 weeks later. The second molt fixed whatever issues were occurring, and the sling is still growing slow and steady today. I often think about what might have happened if the spider had been too skinny/weak to undergo the second molt, and since then I try to keep my slings a bit chunky as insurance.

Interesting! I bet it wouldn’t have made it without the extra reserves it had. It would have slowly starved to death.

I’ve also noticed slings can have molts where they don’t grow much and are still fat after. Or they have a molt where they gain a ton of size and can go from super fat to skinny. And who am I to guess which it’s going to be? I have no idea. So I let the spider decide when it’s had enough. And I’ve never lost a sling from being ‘too fat’ And in your case being fat literally saved it’s life and allowed another molt.

 

[Moyzie]

I would just stop misting and continue with keeping an area damp. A water dish is 1000 times more valuable than misting.

Don't read care sheets either, they are full of poor info...same with much of what you see on YouTube

Cool. I am happy doing this. Overfill the water-bowl to create a damper area, otherwise the enclosure is dry. Simplez

The other week I was looking at info on the salmon pink and had 3 tabs open. On every single subject, there was difference on each of the care guides. They even had differing opinions on adult sizes, but when it came to substrate, feeding etc the variances grew

And it was even worse for my bumba! But that is more to do with the fact they merged the horrida / cubocla into just horrida - and that itself was a replacement name which many breeders still use.

 

[Moyzie]

Interesting! I bet it wouldn’t have made it without the extra reserves it had. It would have slowly starved to death.

I’ve also noticed slings can have molts where they don’t grow much and are still fat after. Or they have a molt where they gain a ton of size and can go from super fat to skinny. And who am I to guess which it’s going to be? I have no idea. So I let the spider decide when it’s had enough. And I’ve never lost a sling from being ‘too fat’ And in your case being fat literally saved it’s life and allowed another molt.

So basically, when she says... "does my bum look big in this?"
I say "Here, have another locust"

 

[TarantulaCollective]

The Tarantula Collective- gave you bad advice.

Very few species require humidity monitoring, including species from rainforests in Brazil.

The really odd part in this humidity chasing - of all the people who do it, I have yet to read/see/hear concrete reason why it's necessary.

Like if you owned snakes as I do- people would say snakes require a higher humidity for shedding their skin, and in some species preventing their eye caps from getting wrinkled- this is easily observed.

Haven't seen a single reason for this at all.

wow Chris...for someone that doesn't like me you mention me more on this platform than anyone else. For the record, I do not encourage people to mist their tarantulas, in fact I tell me in many videos that they shouldn't be misting tarantulas. I do tell people that for some species I overflow the water dish occasionally to keep a corner of the substrate slightly damp...which is something I learned from Tom Moran...but I am sure you don't want to hear that...lol.

 

[coolnweird]

wow Chris...for someone that doesn't like me you mention me more on this platform than anyone else. For the record, I do not encourage people to mist their tarantulas, in fact I tell me in many videos that they shouldn't be misting tarantulas. I do tell people that for some species I overflow the water dish occasionally to keep a corner of the substrate slightly damp...which is something I learned from Tom Moran...but I am sure you don't want to hear that...lol.

So OP misquoted you and you're mad at the person who took them at face value?

 

[TarantulaCollective]

So OP misquoted you and you're mad at the person who took them at face value?

I'm not mad, just clearing up the mistake.