GBB Sling Not Eating/Dehydrated

[LarsCody]

Here are two more close shots of the abdomen for reference

 

[Chebe6886]

Tbh he does look pretty rough. You seem knowledgeable/attentive enough that I doubt you did anything to cause this. I hope for the best. If you ever have any concerns there is pretty much always someone on here to help some are a little rough at times but it’s just bc they care for these animals

 

[LarsCody]

Chebe6886 Thank you man. I’m glad to have met you and had your input. I generally try to do my research before I show up here. Tbh I only show up these days if I have a solid yes/no question or an emergency. The only input I got from other groups/forums was “oh maybe he’s just fasting” or “oh maybe he’s dehydrated”. Thought somebody here may have a solid answer. I agree though, lots of folks on here are just plain not nice. I wouldn’t dare send a beginner here. They get eaten alive and it’s a damn shame the community behaves that way. I have to admit, most if not all admins here are really friendly and knowledgeable. The staff is great when they jump in.

anyway, thanks for stopping by. I appreciate the input. Looks like I’ll just have to keep trying and wait things out

 

[LarsCody]

Wait a minute...what’s that pile between the leaf and the T on that recent photo I posted? Looks like feces. If it is, then maybe there is some hope. Couldn’t be mold, there is only substrate and fake plants in there. And the moss, but I only added yesterday.

 

[Chebe6886]

I don’t think I see what your referencing but that definitely could be a possible issue. If he’s obstructed 100% or party it could explain what’s going on except usually abdomens(of people anyway) get very distended but if he hasn’t eaten much maybe not. It’s kind of a mute point though be there is know real solution I’m aware. There are plenty of people that have 100x the experience especially with adults of many species. I’ve just raised a ton of slings to juvenile/subadult and have often sold them only keeping my absolute favorites. I largely enjoy just watching them grow and change physically a behavior wise

 

[LarsCody]

Got it

 

[Chebe6886]

Got it

Yeh that may very well be poop or something more complicated but def not normal IMO.i don’t know what is 100%. I’d consider posting just that pic under another thread some one may see it that does know.

 

[Jess S]

I would increase the ventilation (they need a lot), I'd put a row of holes around the sides.

If the sucking stomach wasn't moulted it'd be constantly trying (and failing) to drink. So if it's spending too much time at the water bowl that's a big red flag.

My only other thought was possible fang damage. But that is something you could spot when it's on the sides of the enclosure.

May be worth trying to slash open pre-killed to make it easy for your sling to feed. I'm assuming that the prey items you've been using such as crickets haven't been bigger than the slings abdomen, as sometimes they get skittish and fearful of taking down larger prey.

Mind you, if it moulted 2 months ago, you know it could be back in premoult. They are pretty fast growing. Unusual to not feed up first but I'm sure it has happened.

I wish I could be more helpful and wish you luck with your little guy.

 

[LarsCody]

Thank you Jess!

I actually took a video of it motoring around last night..it was webbing and I showed off the side holes as well as the top ventilation. Too bad this site doesn't do well with iPhone .mov video format. I didn't know that, about the drinking. To be honest, it appears like the little one is just rather apathetic towards a water dish. There are actually 2 in there: the first one got webbed over and there's the one I just placed in, which is full. I did consider fang damage so I checked when I could get a decent underside shot. They look to be intact, but this is a ~1 inch DLS sling, max, so hard to tell for 100% clarity. When I prekill, I usually pop the head on the cricket. That way, it's not going to lumber away but sometimes due to spasms it has enough movement to draw attention. I've only gotten this sling to eat prekilled once, maybe twice, in the past but it worked. On one occasion I was going to clear out the prey after 24 hours and as soon as I went to pull it, the T decided at that exact moment it wanted to eat. Mostly these days, the T won't even respond to live or prekilled.

Maybe as you've said, the T is in premolt. I have had occasions where a sling will eat 3, maybe 4 times, before it's ready to go again and stops eating. Usually the abdomen isn't that small for molting, but I have an A. Chalcodes that went into an emergency molt due to a missing leg (bought her that way). That T didn't look in any way close to molting. She molted 2 days in my care.

 

[moricollins]

Thought somebody here may have a solid answer. I agree though, lots of folks on here are just plain not nice. I wouldn’t dare send a beginner here. They get eaten alive and it’s a damn shame the community behaves that way. I have to admit, most if not all admins here are really friendly and knowledgeable. The staff is great when they jump in.

No one was mean to you, no one was disrespectful towards you. People gave you helpful, well intentioned advice.

 

[LarsCody]

No one was mean to you, no one was disrespectful towards you. People gave you helpful, well intentioned advice.

No, not in this thread. You are correct. I was making a very general statement. I didn't refer to anything specific. Sorry that got misunderstood.

 

[EpicEpic]

Didn't read whole thread tbh but try putting some water droplets on its webbing. Also make sure it has decent vertical space.

And switch to bone dry sub...can make all the difference. Moss should not be in any GBB setup imho. I'd definitely toss that!

 

[mjzheng]

I tend to agree with those saying no to misting and moss . It's true small slings don't have the coating , your sling isn't incredibly small though and I think you might have just overdone it a bit. It's one thing to barely overflow the dish for a gbb sling to give a patch of slightly moist sub (which you still probably don't need ) , it's a different story to 1. Restrict ventilation , 2. Mist everything 3. Add moss.

That does look like a big pile of poop btw. Hope it perks up. It looks drab almost , maybe it is in a really thin premolt . Shine a flashlight under it's legs and see if they're still translucent.

 

[EpicEpic]

Read the chromatopelma cyaneopubescens open thread by @Colorado Ts

It seems he made some similar errors, only to fix them and have success with a group of GBB slings.

I think you can learn from his mistakes by reading that thread.

-P

 

[Thawn139]

Don't mean to be a downer here but that looks like the start of a death curl to me. I may be wrong and I hope it pulls through but all you can do is put a water dish close to it, if it's not moving, and keep trying to feed it pre-killed or nearly killed prey like by crushing a little crickets head and putting it near it for a while. If it's thirsty it will drink and if it's hungry it will eat. Don't mist it, doing that can actually stress out a GBB sling.
Worst case scenario you have a case of SSDS (Sudden Sling Death Syndrome) It means you did everything right but for whatever reason the sling did not thrive. It's normally because of genetics or an unforeseeable problem that came up. This happens all the time in nature and in the hobby and it's why they lay so many eggs, not all of them are going to make it and not all of them are going to thrive.
Again, I hope this all works out for you and that I'm wrong but there is only so much you can do and the rest is up to the tarantula.

 

[LarsCody]

Didn't read whole thread

Lol I'm glad you mentioned that, because the setup you described is how it was previously set up until the night before this post. So the setup has literally been like that for only two days. Thought I mentioned all this before but maybe it slipped my mind. However I'm completely aware that I didn't mention how much height it has. Yeah it's in a small deli cup with 1/3 sub and 2/3 empty space to the top. With the occasional fake plant leaf for web anchors, of course.

I tend to agree with those saying no to misting and moss . It's true small slings don't have the coating , your sling isn't incredibly small though and I think you might have just overdone it a bit. It's one thing to barely overflow the dish for a gbb sling to give a patch of slightly moist sub (which you still probably don't need ) , it's a different story to 1. Restrict ventilation , 2. Mist everything 3. Add moss.

That does look like a big pile of poop btw. Hope it perks up. It looks drab almost , maybe it is in a really thin premolt . Shine a flashlight under it's legs and see if they're still translucent.

If any damage has been done, I don't think it's been too far gone. I put the ventilated lid on last night, and I'll chill on the moistening for a while. As I've mentioned, the T seems to flat out ignore the water dish, unless it's webbing over the dish (like happened with the first one). Doesn't seem to be too much difference in temperament and activity either way, so I guess it couldn't hurt to just do a 180 and go back to the way I had everything to start.

So I my husbandry was right to begin with. Interesting...

 

[LarsCody]

Don't mean to be a downer here but that looks like the start of a death curl to me. I may be wrong and I hope it pulls through but all you can do is put a water dish close to it, if it's not moving, and keep trying to feed it pre-killed or nearly killed prey like by crushing a little crickets head and putting it near it for a while. If it's thirsty it will drink and if it's hungry it will eat. Don't mist it, doing that can actually stress out a GBB sling.
Worst case scenario you have a case of SSDS (Sudden Sling Death Syndrome) It means you did everything right but for whatever reason the sling did not thrive. It's normally because of genetics or an unforeseeable problem that came up. This happens all the time in nature and in the hobby and it's why they lay so many eggs, not all of them are going to make it and not all of them are going to thrive.
Again, I hope this all works out for you and that I'm wrong but there is only so much you can do and the rest is up to the tarantula.

It still moves around, kind of. Haven't caught it in a curl yet. Thanks for the well wishes!

 

[LarsCody]

Read the chromatopelma cyaneopubescens open thread by @Colorado Ts

It seems he made some similar errors, only to fix them and have success with a group of GBB slings.

I think you can learn from his mistakes by reading that thread.

-P

Good looking out on that thread!

Unfortunately, really didn't take away anything I didn't already know. Just confirms the dry sub, which is where I was at to begin with before I made modifications. Then with every suggestion any other forum I've made a post, got turned around, until I'm at a full 360 here back where I started with no answers pertaining to what's happening.

By the way, on bone dry sub with only a mist of moisture (no water dish, even) the T hasn't acted any differently than it does now.

Feels like I did for the past couple weeks. "It's going to molt, or it's going to die". Nature has to work out the rest from here, it seems.

 

[EpicEpic]

Good looking out on that thread!

Unfortunately, really didn't take away anything I didn't already know. Just confirms the dry sub, which is where I was at to begin with before I made modifications. Then with every suggestion any other forum I've made a post, got turned around, until I'm at a full 360 here back where I started with no answers pertaining to what's happening.

By the way, on bone dry sub with only a mist of moisture (no water dish, even) the T hasn't acted any differently than it does now.

Feels like I did for the past couple weeks. "It's going to molt, or it's going to die". Nature has to work out the rest from here, it seems.

I'm going to agree with you, but my $ would be on molting.

I think you pulled the trigger too fast and more importantly the change was too dramatic.

Since you're not seeing any change in behavior and had success with original set up for quite a while. I'd go back. Before it moults.

Just my 2 cents! Great luck to you

 

[LarsCody]

Appreciate it bro!