Help - rescued suspected abused MF GBB

[AprilH]

Good luck on the GBB. Hopefully she'll come around now that she's being kept in a proper environment.

My bachelor's is in physics and I started my PhD work in astrophysics (but didn't finish my thesis), so I've always been a person who needs proof to believe something. I need to understand how things work. That "Dr." Emoto thing about the water molecules is one of the most utterly ridiculous things I've ever heard. I would love to see his 'proof' and his methods and how they were tested. It would be good for a laugh, anyway...

 

[madamoisele]

UPDATE: Seems to be doing much better, abdomen filled out a lot. I can't tell if she ate or just killed the crickets, but she's looking more normal now. Although all her green is off the carapace - not worried, it'll come back next molt.

 

[madamoisele]

R.I.P., Anne.

R.I.P., Anne.

Though she did minimally better for a little while, she never did behave "right" - her behavior was always quite listless, and she never webbed her enclosure. Today I checked on her (as I do daily) and she had passed away.

Oh well. I tried. Sometimes they just don't make it.

 

[Spidershane1]

Ok, first thing I would suggest is to take a step back and get a proper perspective on the situation. Try to talk yourself out of "heart ache", thinking of the store's enclosure situation as "torture", and worrying about the T "suffering". If you do some searches here on suffering/pain, you'll find two fairly diametrically opposed viewpoints. Pay special attention to the general self-education level, rational bases provided for opinion, and general openness to new information that characterizes each group, and those factors may influence your decisions as to which school of thought you want to align yourself with. The only effect that any of that emotionalizing will have is on YOU, in the form of increased stress, possibly providing incorrect care from freaking out, or giving you closed ears to helpful advice. Trust me, I was there once.

IN MY (evidence-based, non-emotional, non-anthropomorphizing, non-hysterical) OPINION, your T needs a dry, warmish (room temp or a bit higher) enclosure with fresh water readily available. Leave it alone for a week and see if it starts webbing. If not, try feeding a large cricket at a time. If that goes well, feed it a bit extra heavily (2-3 large crickets per week) for a couple of months and the abdomen size should come back to normal. If it's truly a female it should start webbing up a storm once it's healthier.

Let us know how it goes...

Really dude? He asks for advice, and you respond with a longwinded irrelevant rant critizing him for not wanting his pet to suffer? Obviously T's dont suffer like humans, because they aren't humans. But even if she wasn't suffering emotionally, you can tell by the pics that her physical body is definetly suffering. I applaud him for viewing his T in the most compassionate way possible. Even if T's are dumber than a box of rocks, I view them as equally important to any other form of life, but hey thats just me.

---------- Post added at 06:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:12 PM ----------

R.I.P. Anne.
Kudos on the effort

 

[Upjohn252]

dumb as a rock?

Im not really sure about the "dumb as rocks" idea. I got 3 baby Brazilian Black earlier this week, all three dugg a burrow and sealed themselves inside to molt Im sure. Watching one of them dig a burrow, she first loosened the soil, then to move the soil it webbed over the soil then turned around and picked up the mat of web which of course had huge clumps of soil stuck to it which she then carried away in her chelicerae. Very efficient way too move eco earth around. Now I understand she has instinct and eons of evolution that may seem like intelligence, but watching her build and excavate makes it hard to say she's "dumb as a rock". I gotta give credit when its due :}

 

[Spidershane1]

Im not really sure about the "dumb as rocks" idea. I got 3 baby Brazilian Black earlier this week, all three dugg a burrow and sealed themselves inside to molt Im sure. Watching one of them dig a burrow, she first loosened the soil, then to move the soil it webbed over the soil then turned around and picked up the mat of web which of course had huge clumps of soil stuck to it which she then carried away in her chelicerae. Very efficient way too move eco earth around. Now I understand she has instinct and eons of evolution that may seem like intelligence, but watching her build and excavate makes it hard to say she's "dumb as a rock". I gotta give credit when its due :}

Thats exactly what I was implying. These are wonderfully complex creatures, weither or not they feel human emotions. They have an agenda just as you or I, and who is to say that ours is any more important. I dont want to hijack this thread though, so I'll leave it at that.

 

[ZergFront]

Sorry about the GBB.

Maybe after being in that condition for over a year, she's somewhat adapted to it and the big change in caging and care was perhaps too stressful..? Really not sure but kudos for thinking about the little critter. I'm sure not many working at that LPS did.

 

[Simon83]

I do have emotional compassion and tenderness towards animals, in general - I go out of my way to avoid stepping on bugs and the like. At the same time, I have learned through my quest for T-knowledge that spiders don't feel pain (at least not in the way we understand pain). I do recognize it's not about the spider, whose course in life is to live, breed if possible, and die.

I'm performing an experiment on my spiders, of sorts. Dr. Emoto proved that water molecules will change their structure depending upon the type of thought/writing placed on the bottle. So then we know that thoughts affect water, and this is provable under the microscope.

I'm a very loving person in general, and so when I'm handling or feeding or just watching my T's, I'm sending them my good intentions, love thoughts - to see if these animals possessing pretty much a central nervous system, but also comprised largely of water - in an attempt to see if it affects behavior towards me.

I expect this will be long term and maybe it will come to nothing, but I love my T's very, very much anyway, so they're getting my energy anyway - I might as well observe the effects.

(Yes.... I'm crazy...)

Not crazy at all, I think it's a beautiful way to look at it and I can definitely relate and I'm sorry Anne didn't make it...I couldn't believe the size of her abdomen in those photos :-( but at least she spent the last bit of her life with someone who cared about her and loved her.

 

[kitsunemouai]

Ya know? I must say I absolutely admire your compassion about this girl. I am sorry that she passed =[ but as it was stated earlier at least she had someone who truly cared about her in the end

 

[Najakeeper]

Sorry for your loss. But at least she was comfortable...

 

[madamoisele]

Thank you, everyone, for your kind words. It's appreciated more than you know.

 

[jeryst]

What I find interesting, is that she lived for years in horrid conditions, yet died shortly after being put into proper conditions.

Is it possible that she actually adapted to the conditions in the pet store over time, and was not able to adapt quickly enough to the proper conditions once they were provided?