bad tarantula molt. Need advice.

[invadermike]

Hey, i have a baby curly hair tarantula, and it molted on the 25th, the molt didnt finish all the way, all his legs are out and everything but the molt is stuck on him because the skin on top of his abdomen didnt come off, so he is draging the molt around behind him, i thought maybe it would just fall off, but its been 4 days, so im not sure, any advice? email me, or reply on here, email would be better. thanks.
invadermike@comcast.net

 

[Wade]

Upping the humidity by moistening the substrate and restricting the ventilation (teporarily) may help. You could also try to drip some warm water on the abdomen, just enough to moisten the area, to soften up the remaining skin so it can come off. I've also heard of people using glycerin to do this, but I haven't tried it myself.

Don't pull at it, as you don't want to tear the new skin! If worse comes to worse, you could just trim off the rest of the molt (so the spider can still move around freely) and leave the patch. I'm not sure if there's any imminent danger from having a patch of skin left on the top of the abdomen, aside from being a place where organic debris could collect leading to some type of infection. Anyone know?

Good luck,

Wade

 

[invadermike]

Thanks, i did make it a little more moist in there this morning when i realized that could help, hopefully it will. Anything having to do with me trying to remove the molt is pretty hard because, he won't leave his burrow, and he is pretty small, it would be almost impossible to try and cut off the molt, but if i can get him out of his burrow, it is worth a try, but im going to give him untill tomorrow before i try anything, i dont think pulling it off would work either, because if i got ahold of the molt with the tweezers and then pulled slightly, i think i would just pick the whole tarantula up, hes to small. but im going to try anything, anyone think there is a chance this molt hanging on his back will kill him? ill try to post a picture later tonight.

 

[Code Monkey]

Yes, just dampening it should do the trick. This isn't really a bad moult, just something that can happen while the T rests on its old skin after the moult. As the new and old skins begin to dry out, they can become stuck.

I've had it happen and I just misted the T good (not that it enjoyed the process, but I wasn't asking for its opinion ) and then gently tugged at the old skin with forceps - poof, no more stuck skin.

 

[Wade]

I can't think of any reason (beyond some type of fungal infection caused by organic debris build up) that the molt would kill the T, but I could be wrong, and I hope someone chimes in if I am. When a spiders legs, mouthparts, or large areas of the body fail to be freed from a molt, the results can be very grave for the spider. In your case, it sounds like it's just a patch on top of the abdomen, which hopefully shouldn't be a big deal. When I mention cutting the molt off, I assume you know that I'm just talking about the rest of the non-attached molt that's well clear of the tarantula. Cutting it off will just make it easier for the t to move around. I wouldn't cut anything close to the T's body. You probably already knew that, but I'm just making sure.

I think waiting is probably the best bet at this point. Don't keep it too wet...if you can squeeze water from the substrate, you might be over doing it a bit.

Hopfully, the T will get it off on it's own and this conversation will be moot

Let us know what happens.

Wade

 

[invadermike]

Thanks, i will let you know what happens, yea it doesn't seem to bad, but i never had this happen before, so im just being careful, i love this T it's may favorite! I haven't made it to moist in there, just enough to do the trick, and if he cant get it off, i think im going with you idea Wade, i'll just cut off the bad molt, and just leave the little piece on his abdomen, that will probably make him happy scince he wont be dragging around a whole molt behind him. Hopefully he can get it off himself. Well i have to go work on my art project, lots of painting to do! fun stuff. haha thanks everyone. Look back here later tonight, i will post a few pictures, i know i can get him out of his burrow. thanks again.
Mike

 

[invadermike]

here is a picture before the molt, i couldn't get him out of his burrow and didn't want to bother him to much, so this is what i have.

 

[kellygirl]

Yeah, I've had molts like that before.... and I've had to do that same kind of surgery Wade mentioned on smaller specimens! I found one of my E. campestratus spiderlings (have you seen how tiny they are at 1st instar!?) dragging her molt behind her one morning. I took some little scissors and snipped as much as I could safely remove and then misted the container real well. Within a few days, the rest of the molt fell off. Just be EXTREMELY careful if you decide to do surgery! Such delicate creatures we're working with here...

kellygirl

 

[invadermike]

This morning when i woke up i checked on my curly hair, and it saved me the trouble of having to cut off the rest of the molt. so he can move around fine now, but there is still the little skin patch left on the abdomen, i guess i'll just have to see what happens. but everything seems to be fine, also he out grew his vial so he has a new home now! thanks to everyone who posted and helped me out.
Mike
I'll put some pictures up of the little guy up now. You can notice the flab of skin still on his abdomen.

 

[invadermike]

theres 3 pictures heres 1

 

[invadermike]

heres the 2nd, you can kind of notice the crap on his abdomen, haha.. I WANT IT TO COME OFF!

 

[invadermike]

last one.

 

[Nixy]

Aaaaw what a cutey.

Maybe the rest will fall off soon.