I am very concerned... what am I doing wrong??

[seezilla]

D: Poor Sky. S/he's not moving. Hasn't eaten in days (maybe even a week... not sure). I thought s/he would molt, but so far, s/he's has just been sitting on the side of its vial and then Hubby said he checked Sky before he left and she fell from the side of the vial to the substrate and didn't move.

So we've been keeping the Ts at about 78-80 degrees with 70-80% (average) humidity. I usually try to leave a drop of water on their webs so if they want to drink, they can. I do that once or twice a week, depending on how dry the substrate looks. They get fed small crickets once a week, sometimes twice. And we never leave the crickets in there for more than a day of they don't eat them, they are removed. Skweezeme is doing fine, s/he's been eating well. I don't know what happened or what I didn't do for Sky that I did for Skweezeme to have such opposing results.

I moved Sky (and probably shouldn't have :\) from her vial to a flatter dish with a damp paper towel and a water bottle cap with some water in it. I tried to give it a tiny bit of water, but I don't know if that did any good. I'm wondering what am I doing wrong?? If it's my husbandry, I'd like to fix it before something happens to Skweezeme and/or Squirt.

Gonna give her a couple of days. I hope she pulls thru and molts. I hope that's all this is. I'm sure I shouldn't have moved her, but she's been acting funny for about a week, right about the time Skweezeme molted. I checked her out, her fangs are fine, her tummy isn't wrinkly. IDK! D:

 

[Redneck]

Who are yall getting your T's from? Dealer or hobbyist?

 

[seezilla]

The first sling was from KentheBugGuy and was my fault it died. The set I got was from a hobbyist who felt bad because of what happened and asked to remain anonymous. I expected them to send one, not two. Anyway... I'm wondering if I am doing something wrong. IDK if the first sling would have made it because it was doing exactly what Sky is doing now and I will never know how everything would have turned out because whatever my son did caused its death. D: If this is my fault, then I need to correct whatever it is I am doing wrong so that Squirt and Skweezeme don't suffer from my ignorance. :8o

 

[Poxicator]

What species do you have? what size? what's the setup? got any pix?

 

[advan]

if i remember your thread it was an versicolor right? don't worry about not eating for a week or even longer. IME avic slings take a little longer in premolt than psalms or poecs, average about two to three weeks after they stop eating to finally molt. versis are harder to tell in premolt visually. other avics with the yellow legs and black toes are pretty easy because in heavy premolt there legs will turn dark. just look for things like walking slower, rarely moving, slippery feet, and a quick heavy web right before the molt. just make sure they have water! this is what i've experienced so far. good luck!

 

[seezilla]

Oops! Sorry. Yeah I should have included that with the original info.

Sky and Skweezeme are A. Versicolor Slings. Skweezeme molted about a week or so ago and I've been waiting for Sky to do the same. Sky is .75 inches and Skweezeme I'm guesstimating at least an inch.

I keep them in the vials they were shipped in with 1/4" of substrate at the bottom. I have all my Ts in my room which is a constant 78-80 degrees and probably a good 60% humidity, so I keep the substrate damp but not soaking to keep the humidity up in each enclosure.

 

[advan]

everything seems fine from what you've posted. some sibling slings molt close together some molt weeks apart. just sit back and wait i have found that a few more t's keeps you occupied while your waiting;P

 

[seezilla]

Phew. Yeah, I was hoping this was just a molt. I hope she is ok. :8o Thanks.

 

[Poxicator]

What size are the vials? Avics don't do well in small enclosures and are very dependent on good ventilation

 

[2oCHEVYo0]

It's just a molt man, leave it alone...

 

[MichiganReptiles]

It's just a molt man, leave it alone...

You don't know that. Versi's (out of the versi's I've had) generally molt in their tube web. Not one of mine has fallen off the side of the vial onto the substrate and not moved due to a molt. It could be a molt, but you don't know for sure that it is.

 

[AbraCadaver]

Oh sweety, I'm so sorry for all your troubles with getting into the hobby.. But don't blame yourself too much!

Tiny avics are finicky to raise, and sometimes it takes abit of trying and failing to get it right.

I will try to help you as much as I can here, as Avicularia care is probably what I know best, having them greatly dominating my collection.

First off, some avic slings seems to just die off for no reason. I had one die on my a little while back.She was fed, watered, was webbing nicely, was nice and plump, and suddenly she was just dead. The only thing did differently, was taking the advice of a member of this board, that told me cross ventilation was useless.

Deaths happens sometimes with slings. I can't tell you the exact reason, but there are theories that because we separate them, and care for them, natural selection comes into play much later than it would in the wild. And it's not easy to tell the runts out of a batch of over a hundred babies.

You husbandry sounds fine to me, but I will suggest you move skweezeme(love the name) to a slightly bigger vial, and make sure the ventilation is good. I also found that misting them at that size caused a great deal of stress, because of the size of the enclosure, sowhat I do is place a few drops of water on top of the vent holes in the lid. I saw my sling drinking from this, and it also slowly poured into vial, making a much less stressfull scenario.

And again, stop beating yourself up about it. There are a great number of factors that can kill a sling, and as I said, your husbandry sounds very good.

As for Sky, although the odds are she's gone, leave her be for a couple more days, just to be sure.. Don't throw her out untill she's dried up or smelly. There is always hope, I've seen T's snap back from the strangest things..