- Joined
- Apr 20, 2012
- Messages
- 109
I've had my A. chalcodes for nearly 10 years now, she was the second spider I ever got. She last molted about 3 months ago now, and ever since she's been a bit on the weird side. She's been more "grumpy" than usual, flicking hairs a lot for no apparent reason, hovering over her water dish a lot, and refusing to eat. It's not the first time my spiders have had a personality change after a molt, so I wasn't too worried at first, but about a month ago, I noticed her abdomen was getting very small. I've tried leaving crickets in her enclosure for a whole week and she still won't eat them.
The past few days have been the worst, she's starting curling her legs under her body, and randomly twitching/shaking. Despite this, she has still been moving around her enclosure a lot, usually sitting above or near her water dish or in her hide. She still likes to flick hairs at me too whenever I open the enclosure to change her water or otherwise check on her.
Today she's been looking real bad, curling nearly all of her legs and twitching far more, so I've put her in an ICU. Is there anything else I can do? I am unsure why she's behaving like this. I know she's old, but other spiders that I've had die of old age usually tend to just pass away slowly, they don't suddenly become more active, moving around their enclosure constantly while curling their legs, and I certainly don't remember them ever shaking/twitching. I've had two mature males just pass away in normal resting positions as well, no legs curled.
It's really upsetting to see her suffering, especially when I've known this spider nearly half my life. The first spider I ever got is still doing just fine. I am unsure of their ages though, but they were both adults/sub-adults when I got them.
Edit: I've also just noticed that sometimes she will stand up, and start slowly "falling" to one side, before suddenly correcting herself again. It almost looks like someone falling asleep and then quickly waking themselves up once they realise they're about to fall over.
It seems like this could be DKS, which I've experienced before with my spiders. It's usually a 50/50 chance of survival after being in an ICU for a few days in my experience. When I've had spiders with DKS symptoms before though, their behaviour tends to be more erratic, whereas I'd say my A. chalcodes has more "drunken" behaviour.
I don't know what could have caused the symptoms, my other spiders are all fine, I never use pesticides in or around the house and always just feed my spiders store bought crickets.
The past few days have been the worst, she's starting curling her legs under her body, and randomly twitching/shaking. Despite this, she has still been moving around her enclosure a lot, usually sitting above or near her water dish or in her hide. She still likes to flick hairs at me too whenever I open the enclosure to change her water or otherwise check on her.
Today she's been looking real bad, curling nearly all of her legs and twitching far more, so I've put her in an ICU. Is there anything else I can do? I am unsure why she's behaving like this. I know she's old, but other spiders that I've had die of old age usually tend to just pass away slowly, they don't suddenly become more active, moving around their enclosure constantly while curling their legs, and I certainly don't remember them ever shaking/twitching. I've had two mature males just pass away in normal resting positions as well, no legs curled.
It's really upsetting to see her suffering, especially when I've known this spider nearly half my life. The first spider I ever got is still doing just fine. I am unsure of their ages though, but they were both adults/sub-adults when I got them.
Edit: I've also just noticed that sometimes she will stand up, and start slowly "falling" to one side, before suddenly correcting herself again. It almost looks like someone falling asleep and then quickly waking themselves up once they realise they're about to fall over.
It seems like this could be DKS, which I've experienced before with my spiders. It's usually a 50/50 chance of survival after being in an ICU for a few days in my experience. When I've had spiders with DKS symptoms before though, their behaviour tends to be more erratic, whereas I'd say my A. chalcodes has more "drunken" behaviour.
I don't know what could have caused the symptoms, my other spiders are all fine, I never use pesticides in or around the house and always just feed my spiders store bought crickets.
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