Early this morning, somewhere between 3-4 AM, I woke up and couldn't get sleep, so I rose up to get some water. Along the way I decided to check what some of my spiders were doing, and was excited to see that my newest arrival, an as-of-yet-unnamed and -unsexed Avicularia sp. Guyana was moulting/had moulted!
The A. sp. "Guyana" has been perfectly healthy since its arrival - the only things wrong with it was that it was missing it's right front leg (this tarantula anatomy diagram which I got from a quick Googling tells me it's the right Leg I), and that it hadn't eaten (which didn't really worry me, many of my tarantulas have had long pauses between meals). I thought that this would kill two birds with one stone - the impending moult would explain why it hadn't eaten, and it'd also regenerate its lost leg!
I couldn't see it clearly through the lid, but it was moving around in its web hammock in the upper left corner, and seemed to have already shed its old skin. I guessed it was eating the moult, which annoyed me but thought it best to just leave it alone.
I went to the bathroom and came back to see that the spider had fallen along with the moult from its hammock
eek and was laying on the ground in a pitiful tangle of legs. After a while, I noticed that the spider was moving away from the moult, so I decided to remove it to get a better look at the spider.
In the poor lighting (couldn't find my trusty flashlight) I couldn't really make out anything, so I took a look at the moult - which, to my horror, was still slowly twitching! There was a twitching leg still halfway stuck in the moult which I pulled out with a pair of tongs.
I assumed that the leg was the front right one which the tarantula was trying to regenerate, until I realised that it wasn't - it was the completely healthy front LEFT one.
I'm assuming the leg was stuck in the old skin, and when the spider was moving around in its hammock, it was simply dragging the skin around, trying to free the leg. Then it accidentally fell and the leg must have come off
So it now has 6 healthy legs, plus the scrawny regenerated one.
I'm feeling pretty awful right now, this is the worst experience I've ever had with an animal : / And on top of that, I just realised that I forgot to check for sex and legspan last night (this morning?), and now the moult is all dried up! :wall:
The good news is that as of this writing (11:57 AM) the spider seems to be doing well considering the circumstances (in that it hasn't DIED) and is currently walking on the side of the tank.
The A. sp. "Guyana" has been perfectly healthy since its arrival - the only things wrong with it was that it was missing it's right front leg (this tarantula anatomy diagram which I got from a quick Googling tells me it's the right Leg I), and that it hadn't eaten (which didn't really worry me, many of my tarantulas have had long pauses between meals). I thought that this would kill two birds with one stone - the impending moult would explain why it hadn't eaten, and it'd also regenerate its lost leg!
I couldn't see it clearly through the lid, but it was moving around in its web hammock in the upper left corner, and seemed to have already shed its old skin. I guessed it was eating the moult, which annoyed me but thought it best to just leave it alone.
I went to the bathroom and came back to see that the spider had fallen along with the moult from its hammock
eek and was laying on the ground in a pitiful tangle of legs. After a while, I noticed that the spider was moving away from the moult, so I decided to remove it to get a better look at the spider. In the poor lighting (couldn't find my trusty flashlight) I couldn't really make out anything, so I took a look at the moult - which, to my horror, was still slowly twitching! There was a twitching leg still halfway stuck in the moult which I pulled out with a pair of tongs.
I assumed that the leg was the front right one which the tarantula was trying to regenerate, until I realised that it wasn't - it was the completely healthy front LEFT one.
I'm assuming the leg was stuck in the old skin, and when the spider was moving around in its hammock, it was simply dragging the skin around, trying to free the leg. Then it accidentally fell and the leg must have come off
So it now has 6 healthy legs, plus the scrawny regenerated one.
I'm feeling pretty awful right now, this is the worst experience I've ever had with an animal : / And on top of that, I just realised that I forgot to check for sex and legspan last night (this morning?), and now the moult is all dried up! :wall:
The good news is that as of this writing (11:57 AM) the spider seems to be doing well considering the circumstances (in that it hasn't DIED) and is currently walking on the side of the tank.
Last edited:
