Centipede is either dying or about to molt

[Dyn]

He (I use that loosely) has refused eating the past 2 weeks and again last night. His colors seem alittle off slightly duller and alittle marblish looking and hes acting rather sluggish as of late. I changed out his substrate last night as well because it has been a good while. Thats how I noticed his color change and change of speed. Otherwise hes always under the wood I have for him.

Right now he just kinda pushing his head around on the dirt, but doesnt really seem to be trying to burrow.

I really hope hes about to molt but im prepared for the worst.

 

[zimzee]

Pic

Can you get a pic up so we can see what its colour is like.

 

[Dyn]

He is definetly molting... I'm going to have alot of pictures of this. Never got to see it the last two times.

 

[Dyn]

Well.. I was thinking I saw him starting to come out of his old skin but appearently he wasnt. He was kind of twitching around like he was preparing to come out that was about 6 hours ago and now he is barely moving at all and is in the same position as when I left. He wasnt moving I gave him a tap with my tweezers and he moved so hes not dead yet. I'm rather upset though at the thought of losing my first pede.

 

[Dyn]

This morning again no movement...

I cant find anything on centipedes molting to tell me if its normal for almost all movement to stop before a molt or for how long if it is.


Any information would be helpful.

 

[BiologicalJewels]

PIcs would really be helpful, also what kind of 'pede is it?
I have a very large and sluggish Malaysian Giant that is going to molt and some of the "symptoms" are very similar to what you describe.

 

[zimzee]

poke

DO NOT keep poking your centipede because if it is shedding its skin you can kill it and make sure you have taken out the live food.

 

[Travis K]

Sometimes they just get old and die too.

What species is this we're talking about?
How big is it?

 

[Dyn]

It's an S. subspinipes dehaani about 5.5 inches body length about 7 inches total.

I didnt give him any live food this week since last week he didnt eat. I prekilled a roach and left it by him for about an hour or two and with no intrest I fed it to my Veitnamese (S. subpinipes). I dont keep poking it but after 6+ hours I tried to see if its alive. Then 12+ hours after that I tried again. I've tried searching information about molting about how long it takes and such but never found any information.

It's still in the same spot as its been but is now completely unresponsive after I gave it a small tap this morning.


I've had it for probably 1.5 - 2 years somewhere around there. So theres a good chance he was just old.