Brachypelma albiceps still eating while In premolt?

[jsteelo]

My b albiceps has been in premolt for about a month. I’d say he is a little over 2in his abdomen is shiny some hairs are gone and his legs are totally black def a lot darker then he normally is. He refused food for about 2 weeks then I threw a cricket in his enclosure just to see if he would eat and he grabbed it immediately. Is it safe for a tarantula to eat while n premolt? Besides them being possibly injured by there prey while molting?

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

Safe for him to eat, but if he doesn’t need to (abdomen is plump) and he’s showing obvious signs, just don’t.

 

[viper69]

They do that

Yes

 

[Wolfram1]

it happens sometimes, premolt is often eqated to fasting but they are 2 different things entirely

premolt is the process of creating a new exosceleton underneath the old one

while this is happening most spiders fast, and it is not advisable to even attempt feeding, rather offer a fresh water dish if you want to do domething for them

cases where smaller spiders don't show that there are in premolt, are fed and eat the day before molting are common enough in some fast growing genera like Pamphobetheus, etc.
premolt can seem shorter than it actually is in these cases

some spiders will kill the prey without eating while in premolt and others don't do either, putting them at risk of beeing injured or eaten, so No it is Not Safe to feed them with live prey, but it is theoretically still safe for them to eat

anyway, fasting can be triggered by feeding them to the point they are full & this is often interpreted as the onset of premolt, but who knows if the spider really spent 6 monts in premolt or if the first 4 were just fasting with the actual premolt starting later in that timeframe.

It is often impossible to say when premolt really starts, so people simply equate a fasting period prior to a molt with the premolt period, this is however not really the case

 

[YellowBrickRoad]

it happens sometimes, premolt is often eqated to fasting but they are 2 different things entirely

premolt is the process of creating a new exosceleton underneath the old one

while this is happening most spiders fast, and it is not advisable to even attempt feeding, rather offer a fresh water dish if you want to do domething for them

cases where smaller spiders don't show that there are in premolt, are fed and eat the day before molting are common enough in some fast growing genera like Pamphobetheus, etc.
premolt can seem shorter than it actually is in these cases

some spiders will kill the prey without eating while in premolt and others don't do either, putting them at risk of beeing injured or eaten, so No it is Not Safe to feed them with live prey, but it is theoretically still safe for them to eat

anyway, fasting can be triggered by feeding them to the point they are full & this is often interpreted as the onset of premolt, but who knows if the spider really spent 6 monts in premolt or if the first 4 were just fasting with the actual premolt starting later in that timeframe.

It is often impossible to say when premolt really starts, so people simply equate a fasting period prior to a molt with the premolt period, this is however not really the case

Bravo! Well spoken! 90% of my T keeping time is: Are they hungry or not? Are they in premolt or not?

That was a nice post.
Thanks,
YellowBrickRoad