Deformed T. blondi fangs, again....

[Tarangela]

So what is it w/ me and T. blondi spiders???

I mean, I have had 3. One, I had from a sling, for 5 years, and she died of heart problems, according to the autopsy. Right after a molt. Then, I had another I had bought at about 4-5" size, and it was doing well, until it had a bad molt, and lost most of it's fangs. I hand fed it for 7-8 months, and it died on me I have pics of that in an old thread on here, btw.

NOW, I have Raggs, she to is female, and had a molt yesterday. Well, everything looked good, until I seen her fangs. They looked like a deformed mess. I am very sad about it, b/c I know what lies down this road. I bet I will have to hand feed her eventually. I am going to try to attach pics of her deformed fangs, and I hope to get some opinions on what I should do

Thanks to you all.....

 

[Derrick]

I dont know if this is your problem but Ive learned along the way to make sure you dont feed your feeder insects calcium. Ive heard it may cause molt problems. I didnt have any bad experiences before I switched cricket food to the non-calcium recipe.:? :?

 

[Tarangela]

I think it may be a feeder problem w/ mice. I thought about that last night. I never had these molt problems, until I started feeding my blondis mice. Does that make any sense?

I think if it was the food that I fed to my crickets, I would see it in all my spiders. I have only had this problem w/ my blondis. And they are the only one I feed live mice.

 

[ShadowBlade]

And they are the only one I feed live mice.

That may indeed be the problem. There are reports of feeding only mice can cause molting problems.

Man that must suck...

-Sean

 

[Tarangela]

It is sad, now that I think about it I will not be feeding live mice to any of my spiders anymore. Let this be a warning to all of you that feed live mice.

I hope I don't lose her. I don't mind picking her up to hand feed, and will if I have to. I will give her a month to recoup.

 

[TheDarkFinder]

I'm going out on a limb here but they need you can not just keep them on dry substrate, water dish or not. You know that. If it is molting in that dry of dirt then I would not doubt you are having problems, in fact begging for them. I know the response this is going to bring, "I have T blondi for 37 years and keep them on nothing but driest conditions and no dish and never had a problem." I have heard it before.

Just thought I would give you my opinion.

 

[Talkenlate04]

I'll have to agree with dark. All my blondi's are in setups that are very moist borderline swamps that are allowed to dry out somewhat but never really dry then more water is added. And this is done with a water dish as well.
Their natural habitat is one where water can fall from the sky every day in some amount.

I have never had to do the hand feeding deal and I hope I dont ever have to but that looks like thats what you might be doing for a while.

 

[ballpython2]

It is sad, now that I think about it I will not be feeding live mice to any of my spiders anymore. Let this be a warning to all of you that feed live mice.

I hope I don't lose her. I don't mind picking her up to hand feed, and will if I have to. I will give her a month to recoup.

This is just a thought so I could be wrong...all of your T blondis including the one in this post and the other ones that have died..have you gotten them all from the same breeder/seller?.....Maybe its something with their stock...only a thought

 

[Tarangela]

I'm going out on a limb here but they need you can not just keep them on dry substrate, water dish or not. You know that. If it is molting in that dry of dirt then I would not doubt you are having problems, in fact begging for them. I know the response this is going to bring, "I have T blondi for 37 years and keep them on nothing but driest conditions and no dish and never had a problem." I have heard it before.

Just thought I would give you my opinion.

I don't mind opinions at all, and everyone has their own I have been keeping spiders for over 10 years now, and never had a problem w/ the substrate. I use the coco fiber, bed-a-beast stuff. My blondis were molting fine, until I added mice to their diet And she never had a bad molt until I fed her those. Same w/ my other blondis. I have learned a lesson though.

Thanks for you post

 

[Talkenlate04]

This is just a thought so I could be wrong...all of your T blondis including the one in this post and the other ones that have died..have you gotten them all from the same breeder/seller?.....Maybe its something with their stock...only a thought

I dont think stock from a breeder has anything to do with it. This is a combo of not enough moisture in the tank and not enough variety in the diet of the T. Feeding any one thing like mice to a T can be harmful over time. And given the fact that this has affected more then one T and started when the mice became the constant diet I think you can point the finger there.

 

[Tarangela]

This is just a thought so I could be wrong...all of your T blondis including the one in this post and the other ones that have died..have you gotten them all from the same breeder/seller?.....Maybe its something with their stock...only a thought

They all came from different breeders.

The first was from Swifts, the second was Reptile Supply, the one I have now came from a personal sale online. Good thought though.

 

[Taceas]

That's sucks. =(

I've not been all that impressed with Blondi's anyway, they're just a big brown itchy spider, but they also seem more prone to problems than any other tarantula that I've heard of (maybe short of Avic's).

But I'd always heard feeding high calcium food, which mice would be compared to an insect, causes molting problems. None of mine have problems, then again all mine eat are roaches. I leave the rodent feeding to my snakes, as I see no real purpose to wasting them with a tarantula.

 

[Tarangela]

I dont think stock from a breeder has anything to do with it. This is a combo of not enough moisture in the tank and not enough variety in the diet of the T. Feeding any one thing like mice to a T can be harmful over time. And given the fact that this has affected more then one T and started when the mice became the constant diet I think you can point the finger there.

Mice were never the constant diet. They were treats, maybe every other month. Crickets were the staple.

 

[TheDarkFinder]

Some one please link the article that states that it is mice/calcium alone that causes molting problems. Please post that link, because I have only heard, I know a friend that says....I read somewhere....I think it is...Mice are bad...

Not once have a seen, Dr (place name here) has test 40 T blondi's from the same sack for molting problems due to mice/calcium. In this experiment, Dr. (place name here) had an test group and a control group which where kept in the same conditions...In testing...He/she found that the margin of error is less then the standard deviation provided by this study...there for feed extra calcium to the tarantula can cause massive problems.

 

[Talkenlate04]

Mice were never the constant diet. They were treats, maybe every other month. Crickets were the staple.

Think about how many crickets need to be eaten to equal the mass of a mouse though. Over all I would wager she was eating more mouse guts then cricket.

Anywho I hope she makes it through, she may try to have a corrective molt, and you might have to hand feed her. But ither way its going to be hard for a while. (fingers crossed for you)

 

[ballpython2]

and not enough variety in the diet of the T.

All I feed to my T is crickets...This doesn't count when my T's staple diet is crickets because they are not verterbrae prey correct?

 

[Talkenlate04]

Some one please link the article that states that it is mice/calcium alone that causes molting problems. Please post that link, because I have only heard, I know a friend that says....I read somewhere....I think it is...Mice are bad...

Not once have a seen, Dr (place name here) has test 40 T blondi's from the same sack for molting problems due to mice/calcium. In this experiment, Dr. (place name here) had an test group and a control group which where kept in the same conditions...In testing...He/she found that the margin of error is less then the standard deviation provided by this study...there for feed extra calcium to the tarantula can cause massive problems.

I dont think anyone has done a "study" per say. But between hobbiest this has over time become something to point the finger at. And someday we might see that its just that, finger pointing. Maybe there is no link at all. But I personally think its something to think about and avoid doing. I dont feed mice and never had a molt problem with a Blondi, (knocking on wood)
I dont know that I am going to buy 100 blondi and test all them, but hey I might.


Mice/ mealworms/ superworm, are known to have high fat/ calcium in them and I would assume that like with everything else that if you eat just that over and over your going to get fat or sick and have health issues. I dont see why that would be any different with a T. Since they are much smaller maybe the rates of consumption to cause such problems is much less then other creatures.

( all guesses and my thoughts......)

 

[Lorgakor]

I really don't see how lack of a moist substrate would cause deformed fangs. It could cause the spider to get stuck in a moult, though that is doubtful to me as well as it is internal hydration that is more important when it comes to moulting.

I also don't see how a mouse every other month would be the cause, there are people that feed theirs nothing but mice and don't have problems. Although the fact that there were no problems before mice were introduced is certainly strange.

I think there needs to be some research done on this species before we can speculate as to the causes of bad moults like this. It would be nice to see experiments on feeding mice vs. roaches or crickets and dry vs. moist substrate from sling to adult.

I'd try it but I can't even get near this species without breaking out into hives for two weeks!

Good luck with her, I hope you are able to feed her enough to get her to her next moult.

 

[Tarangela]

If she dies, I am going to buy another T. blondi, as a sling only though. And
I will NOT feed it mice. If it takes 10 years, I am going to see if just feeding it crickets, if the same problems occur.

It's mostly been a fang issue. It's very sad. I have hand fed before, it's no fun, but if it keeps her alive, I will do it.

 

[P. Novak]

Maybe mice should be removed from it's diet completely? It seems as though that may need to be the case, since you have problems with T.blondis and their fangs.

Also, like others said, moisten the substrate a bit.