Acanthoscurria geniculata has a huge bald patch, should I be concerned?

[Jihnn]

I’d get a pic, but she’s right at the back of the burrow and my camera can’t reach and I don’t want to stress her and dig her out.

Basically, where she’d kick the urticating hairs is a large bald patch. I’m not sure what’s caused it as I pretty much leave my T‘s be asides from feeding and watering, and even then I’m cautious to not disturb them too much in the process. I’ve only seen her flick hairs once and that was when she was being re-homed into a larger enclosure a while back. She has settled and is eating and doing her normal tarantula thing.

I’ve noticed that the patch is a slight dull/dark colour, so she could be going into premoult (she’s just taken a cricket so it’ll probably be a while). But just wondering if the balding is anything I should be concerned about?

Temp/humidity/general enclosure are all up to the correct parameters and husbandry requirements.

 

[Minty]

No, nothing to worry about.

 

[Stemmy101]

Nothing sounds out of the ordinary, just keep doing what you're doing and let the T be

 

[Jihnn]

Nothing sounds out of the ordinary, just keep doing what you're doing and let the T be

No, nothing to worry about.

Thank you both!

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

My now juvie genic looked like that, too, and molted about a week later. She took crickets up until a couple days before.

 

[slocoj91]

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong (and hope they would) but I think they also will spread the hairs around their enclosures in web etc? So even if they don't actively chuck them at you, they may still be being 'used'. I've definitely seen mention of watching for this during enclosure maintenance, but I may have misunderstood the context of the hairs ending up around the enclosure.

 

[Minty]

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong (and hope they would) but I think they also will spread the hairs around their enclosures in web etc? So even if they don't actively chuck them at you, they may still be being 'used'. I've definitely seen mention of watching for this during enclosure maintenance, but I may have misunderstood the context of the hairs ending up around the enclosure.

Yeah, that's common.

 

[viper69]

It’s either normal, cancer or Covid

 

[arthurliuyz]

humidity up to the correct parameters.

No need to follow specific humidity levels, substrate moisture is what matters.

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

For moisture, do you employ the old overfilling the water dish method, or occasional "rain".

 

[Jihnn]

For moisture, do you employ the old overfilling the water dish method, or occasional "rain".

An occasional "rain" and very rarely overfill the water dish.