How long before helping a T out of its molt

[N1ghtFire]

If a tarantula is stuck in its molt, how long should you wait to help it?

I found my new A. minatrix molting an hour ago, and it hasnt made any progress. It is in an awkward position between its fake flower and the container wall, and doesnt seen to have enough room to molt. Ive just been watching and waiting, but my other avics usually take about 15 minutes to finish molting and its been an hour so now im starting to worry a bit. He has one leg out and his body/fangs seem to be out, but thats it. The other 7 legs and pedipalps are still in the molt.

A. Minatrix molting sideways

• N1ghtFire
• May 2, 2017
• 3

My A. Minatrix I got last week is molting. It had hardly webbed at all and decided to molt on...

 

[Moakmeister]

@cold blood @EulersK help us, masters.

 

[Moakmeister]

I think i read somewhere that you're supposed to very gently pinch the T's foot with tweezers, which causes it to pull the leg out and continue molting. BUT DONT TRY IT UNTIL I GET SOME CONFIRMATION. And pls don't rate my post disagree, just correct me and I'll change the post to not be wrong

 

[EulersK]

It's only been molting for an hour? Did I read that right? Leave it alone, it's perfectly fine. I wouldn't even mess with it if it were to continue molting overnight. Or three days.

With adults, there's a chance that you can help. I've never seen it successfully done, but people claim to have done it. But that was only with large spiders. This is a sling - even if it were stuck, there's zero that you could do for it. It's simply too small.

But... really, don't worry. Go to bed and expect a larger spider in the morning.

 

[cold blood]

Yeah an hour isn't nearly long enough to worry....there does seem like plenty of room to molt...but being that there's no mat beneath it, it could be in for a tumble when it separates.

Being that its small though, you wouldn't want to wait that long...I would intervene if its still stuck by morning. The longer you wait, the harder removal is.

Sometimes its actually really easy with a careful hand, other times its a painstaking endeavor. I like small tweezers, a shot glass of water and q-tips....a paintbrush is also good. I find saving them to be about a 50/50 proposition....and sometimes the ones you think came though good die, sometimes the ones you think are dead for sure, survive....so never give up on them and never be too confident to get lax either.

Fangs are the worst part, and that's free...the abdomen can be hard, but I have had good luck with rolling it off with a wet q-tip. Legs are really hit or miss, but bottom line is that they are the least important. This avic survived its first molt ever even though I could only save 2 legs...its well over an inch and doing well today.

Two-legged Avic

• cold blood
• Oct 15, 2016
• 8
• avicularia avicularia avicularia missing legs pinktoe tarantula sling

A. avic 2 legs is better than none. Fully recovered now.

 

[N1ghtFire]

How

Yeah an hour isn't nearly long enough to worry....there does seem like plenty of room to molt...but being that there's no mat beneath it, it could be in for a tumble when it separates.

Being that its small though, you wouldn't want to wait that long...I would intervene if its still stuck by morning. The longer you wait, the harder removal is.

Sometimes its actually really easy with a careful hand, other times its a painstaking endeavor. I like small tweezers, a shot glass of water and q-tips....a paintbrush is also good. I find saving them to be about a 50/50 proposition....and sometimes the ones you think came though good die, sometimes the ones you think are dead for sure, survive....so never give up on them and never be too confident to get lax either.

Fangs are the worst part, and that's free...the abdomen can be hard, but I have had good luck with rolling it off with a wet q-tip. Legs are really hit or miss, but bottom line is that they are the least important. This avic survived its first molt ever even though I could only save 2 legs...its well over an inch and doing well today.

Two-legged Avic

• cold blood
• Oct 15, 2016
• 8
• avicularia avicularia avicularia missing legs pinktoe tarantula sling

A. avic 2 legs is better than none. Fully recovered now.

How long after it began molting did you help that 2 legged tarantula free from its molt?

 

[Moakmeister]

Yeah an hour isn't nearly long enough to worry....there does seem like plenty of room to molt...but being that there's no mat beneath it, it could be in for a tumble when it separates.

Being that its small though, you wouldn't want to wait that long...I would intervene if its still stuck by morning. The longer you wait, the harder removal is.

Sometimes its actually really easy with a careful hand, other times its a painstaking endeavor. I like small tweezers, a shot glass of water and q-tips....a paintbrush is also good. I find saving them to be about a 50/50 proposition....and sometimes the ones you think came though good die, sometimes the ones you think are dead for sure, survive....so never give up on them and never be too confident to get lax either.

Fangs are the worst part, and that's free...the abdomen can be hard, but I have had good luck with rolling it off with a wet q-tip. Legs are really hit or miss, but bottom line is that they are the least important. This avic survived its first molt ever even though I could only save 2 legs...its well over an inch and doing well today.

Two-legged Avic

• cold blood
• Oct 15, 2016
• 8
• avicularia avicularia avicularia missing legs pinktoe tarantula sling

A. avic 2 legs is better than none. Fully recovered now.

By the way, how long did it take for that Avic to molt a second time?

 

[cold blood]

That particular one was in an incubator still when it got stuck, so I can't recall...I helped when I saw them....but the last one I had to help was an A. urticans sling that I thought I did a wonderful job with, even had all legs and full mobility although the legs weren't quite right...it died 12 days later...never ate......but it started molting at night, looked stuck in the morning and when it was still stuck when I returned from work, I finally intervened. You don't want to intervene until you know for sure that you have to.

 

[cold blood]

By the way, how long did it take for that Avic to molt a second time?

couple months...the next 3 molts were very long and drawn out...like I said, its just over an inch, maybe 1.25"...its siblings are 2.25-3".

 

[N1ghtFire]

Okay, thanks you guys!
It looks like it turned itself over a bit more and it started wiggling a bunch trying to get free last time I looked at it. So its still lively and working on it molt.

I was just a bit worried since none of my other avics, even my other minatrix, have taken this long to molt. And I've only had the sling a few days (got it last Thursday) so I was worried it may still be stressed out from shipping so recently and cause it to mess up its molt.

It'll hopefully/probably be fine.

 

[N1ghtFire]

Well.. i shouldve tried to help it last night best i could.

No progress this morning. It has one good leg, I was able to remove the molt off of 2 legs, but they are mangled. It dropped both pedipals and 3 legs, and 2 legs are still in the molt and I cant get the molt off of them.

Ik the little guy will probably die and probably wont make it through the day, but you never know.. if it lives a week or so I will try hand feeding it and Ill manually water it twice or so a day until it molts again.

Edit: it was just trying to walk and dropped another leg, one that wad still in the molt

 

[Moakmeister]

Well.. i shouldve tried to help it last night best i could.

No progress this morning. It has one good leg, I was able to remove the molt off of 2 legs, but they are mangled. It dropped both pedipals and 3 legs, and 2 legs are still in the molt and I cant get the molt off of them.

Ik the little guy will probably die and probably wont make it through the day, but you never know.. if it lives a week or so I will try hand feeding it and Ill manually water it twice or so a day until it molts again.

Edit: it was just trying to walk and dropped another leg, one that wad still in the molt

Yeah hand feeding will be the right way to go, prekilled of course. And do it often, and warm up the sling to induce another molt faster so he recovers. Poor wittle guy, he's a cutie too.

 

[Goodlukwitthat]

Awww.... This is so sad! I hope this little guy pulls through!!! If it doesn't accept solid food try the soup method.

 

[JoshDM020]

Awww.... This is so sad! I hope this little guy pulls through!!! If it doesn't accept solid food try the soup method.

Soup method? For my sake and that other newbs, please explain. The image in my head is amusing

 

[N1ghtFire]

Soup method? For my sake and that other newbs, please explain. The image in my head is amusing

You make a "soup" by crushing up crickets/other feeders to make it easier for the T to eat

 

[Goodlukwitthat]

Soup method? For my sake and that other newbs, please explain. The image in my head is amusing

I'm dying to know what the image in your head consisted of XD

 

[JoshDM020]

I'm dying to know what the image in your head consisted of XD

A spider laying in a hospital bed with a nurse spoon feeding it chicken noodle soup.

 

[Andrea82]

A spider laying in a hospital bed with a nurse spoon feeding it chicken noodle soup.

If only it was that easy
Medical care for spiders is next to non existent.
@N1ghtFire best of luck, i hope you get her to pull through!

 

[viper69]

The soup method doesn't always work. Trust me I know

RIP, my AF.

11-2013

• viper69
• Dec 1, 2013
• hapalopus sp. columbia "large"