Hey everyone,
Update on the H. lividum everyone was so kind helping me with a few months ago: He put up a good fight, but it seems age got him eventually and he passed in the night. I miss him dearly...
About a month ago I got a female goliath birdeater. She seemed healthy at the time. I left her in her old cage to aclimatize for a few weeks before moving her into a bigger one with fresh clean dirt and a new hide. She kept crawling up the walls of the small cage, and it looked like her fourth leg on either side was going to give out under her weight when she stood up against the sides.
About 2 weeks ago, she started to look sickly. The fourth legs on both sides looked too skinny and her abdomen looked a bit smaller and maybe starting to shrink. I upped the moisture in the cage and added another water dish. Then the weekend of october 27 she fipped upside down in her hide and began molting. Altogether she took about 18-22hrs to molt (overnight, a bit hard to tell). It looked like her abdomen might get stuck, and her fourth legs as well, for a bit. When I checked the next day she was out of the exoskeleton but her left 4th leg looked curved and limp, and her right 4th leg also looked weak. Her abdomen has a large patch on it that is lacking bristles and is kind of rough-looking, as well as being small and irregularly shaped. Her pedipalps have some kind of growth on them, kind of like sperm boluses but not quite - they are red, shiny, and elongated. Also I don't see any hooks on 1st legs to support male sex characteristics, and she was sold to me as a guaranteed/mated female. (Former owner is long-time hobbyist, very kind and honest)
Since then I have kept the moisture very high to limit water loss (she looks somewhat dehydrated, probably?). Her left 4th leg is slighty stronger but still cannot bear her weight I don't think - still bends to the side, limp-like. I tried feeding her a 4week cricket yesterday, which she did eat. She ate another tonight.
I just would like some help with what went wrong in the molt to make her come out with a limp/curved leg, small patched/bald abdomen, and growths on her pedipalps like that? Will she be okay? What can I do to help her? Is there some sort of infection at play here that I should be concerned about?
I of course added photos for whomever wants to help me.
Before the molt she looked like this:
After the molt:
See the bent leg:
This is as close as I could get to the pedipalps without freaking her out,sorry:
In this photo you can see more how irregular the texture of her abdomen is:
And this is some weird position she put herself in this morning for some reason:
In the photos the soil around her looks dry because she is under a bridge, but the soil about an inch around her in all directions is really damp/moist, extending through the rest of the cage.
Any help would be so very much appreciated.
Thanks all,
Az13
Update on the H. lividum everyone was so kind helping me with a few months ago: He put up a good fight, but it seems age got him eventually and he passed in the night. I miss him dearly...
About a month ago I got a female goliath birdeater. She seemed healthy at the time. I left her in her old cage to aclimatize for a few weeks before moving her into a bigger one with fresh clean dirt and a new hide. She kept crawling up the walls of the small cage, and it looked like her fourth leg on either side was going to give out under her weight when she stood up against the sides.
About 2 weeks ago, she started to look sickly. The fourth legs on both sides looked too skinny and her abdomen looked a bit smaller and maybe starting to shrink. I upped the moisture in the cage and added another water dish. Then the weekend of october 27 she fipped upside down in her hide and began molting. Altogether she took about 18-22hrs to molt (overnight, a bit hard to tell). It looked like her abdomen might get stuck, and her fourth legs as well, for a bit. When I checked the next day she was out of the exoskeleton but her left 4th leg looked curved and limp, and her right 4th leg also looked weak. Her abdomen has a large patch on it that is lacking bristles and is kind of rough-looking, as well as being small and irregularly shaped. Her pedipalps have some kind of growth on them, kind of like sperm boluses but not quite - they are red, shiny, and elongated. Also I don't see any hooks on 1st legs to support male sex characteristics, and she was sold to me as a guaranteed/mated female. (Former owner is long-time hobbyist, very kind and honest)
Since then I have kept the moisture very high to limit water loss (she looks somewhat dehydrated, probably?). Her left 4th leg is slighty stronger but still cannot bear her weight I don't think - still bends to the side, limp-like. I tried feeding her a 4week cricket yesterday, which she did eat. She ate another tonight.
I just would like some help with what went wrong in the molt to make her come out with a limp/curved leg, small patched/bald abdomen, and growths on her pedipalps like that? Will she be okay? What can I do to help her? Is there some sort of infection at play here that I should be concerned about?
I of course added photos for whomever wants to help me.
Before the molt she looked like this:
After the molt:
See the bent leg:
This is as close as I could get to the pedipalps without freaking her out,sorry:
In this photo you can see more how irregular the texture of her abdomen is:
And this is some weird position she put herself in this morning for some reason:
In the photos the soil around her looks dry because she is under a bridge, but the soil about an inch around her in all directions is really damp/moist, extending through the rest of the cage.
Any help would be so very much appreciated.
Thanks all,
Az13
Last edited by a moderator:
good luck though
