My Kukulcania hibernalis is not eating and unsure of how to feed.

[emyates96]

Going to try to make a long story short.
My WC female Kuk just had a bad molt. She ended up coming out of it with a lame leg. However, I do believe this injury affects her ability to pull the web from her spinnerets. She seems to have made some webbing, but nothing like she used to. On top of this I had to remove her hide that had most of her webbing due to mold. Super not great situation all around. I would have probably kept it in there had I know she would have a bad molt.

Now that she does not have her tube of extreme webbing and she is struggling to recreate a similar space for me to place her food, she is not eating. I have tried leaving live prey in the enclosure (slow moving live prey, not a threat), pre-killed prey, I have also tried tweezer feeding to which she just ends up getting spooked. Luckily these are such hearty spiders, so I have some buffer time to figure this out, but I HATE knowing that she could be hungry and struggling with catching prey.

 

[darkness975]

Going to try to make a long story short.
My WC female Kuk just had a bad molt. She ended up coming out of it with a lame leg. However, I do believe this injury affects her ability to pull the web from her spinnerets. She seems to have made some webbing, but nothing like she used to. On top of this I had to remove her hide that had most of her webbing due to mold. Super not great situation all around. I would have probably kept it in there had I know she would have a bad molt.

Now that she does not have her tube of extreme webbing and she is struggling to recreate a similar space for me to place her food, she is not eating. I have tried leaving live prey in the enclosure (slow moving live prey, not a threat), pre-killed prey, I have also tried tweezer feeding to which she just ends up getting spooked. Luckily these are such hearty spiders, so I have some buffer time to figure this out, but I HATE knowing that she could be hungry and struggling with catching prey.

Have you tried cricket soup? Mashing one into liquid and attempting to feed that way?

 

[emyates96]

Have you tried cricket soup? Mashing one into liquid and attempting to feed that way?

Oh. Honestly I have not heard of this. Do I just mash up the cricket and put it somewhat intact in the enclosure? Or like mash it up then put that in a bottle cap then leave it in there? Should I try to lead her to it? Any extra context would be awesome!

 

[darkness975]

Oh. Honestly I have not heard of this. Do I just mash up the cricket and put it somewhat intact in the enclosure? Or like mash it up then put that in a bottle cap then leave it in there? Should I try to lead her to it? Any extra context would be awesome!

If you try this you would likely need to attempt to hand feed her. It's often done with Tarantulas that lose their fangs in bad molts. I do not have statistics for the percentage of success but if you search up some of the threads on the topic here you can check out different people's experiences. The fact that your spider still has its fangs is good since the venom is what breaks down the food anyway.
Can't hurt to try.

 

[emyates96]

Yeah. Maybe I get her into a separate container to try this out so there are less distractions. Hahaha I hate handling her because she is slow until she doesn't want to be. I am sure you know what I mean. Anyways thank you for the advice. I will let you know how my efforts go.

 

[Richard McJimsey]

Kukulcania females keep molting even after reaching maturity, so she should regenerate it.

 

[emyates96]

Update for everyone! I have great news. In a last ditch effort I took everything from her enclosure as she was webbing up random spots but not good enough to place food where she would feel and find it. SO I left her in a clean enclosure along with her hide/tube that I prefer her web up for feeding. I put her under the sink so she could be in complete darkness as I know that's what make these spiders feel at home. AND the next morning BEHOLD, she had begun to web up the fresh tube/hide. Later that day I was able to put some medium size prey in the web. I came back 30 mins later to find her happily chomping.

Thank you for all the suggestions. I have to say I am proud of my problem solving here.

 

[CRX]

Happy for you!