OBT sling molt successful, but without pedipalps??

[thesilence]

One of my OBT slings molted successfully while I was at school today (movement just fine) , however, I noticed it didn't have the pedipalps. Is this normal?.. or is it a bad molt. I'm just worried if it could feed normally if it is.

Also my other slings have stopped eating to prepare for molts too, they have all webbed themselves in, how will I know if they're done molting?

 

[jr47]

no it is not normal. could be a sign that humidity is a little low. but it should be fine and will be able to eat. as for knowing when they are done molting. they will come out when they are finished. dont disturb them at all through this period.
i had a g. rosea that lost 2 legs and both pedapalps. done just fine and grew everything back over the next few molts. didnt seem to slow him down a bit.

 

[thesilence]

Thanks, I will try take better notice of the humidity levels now. I hope the other molts go well =/, just gave a little mist to the sides of the enclosures to increase the humidity.

 

[MindUtopia]

Sounds like they were just lost in the molt. It could have become stuck in the molt (more due to dehydration than humidity probably since even as slings OBTs don't require much in the way of humidity), could have molted in a bad position and wasn't able to get the palps out of the exuvium (which is probably fairly unlikely), or could have had an injury to them and dropped them to regenerate. Fortunately, they'll grow back just fine and eating shouldn't be a problem.

 

[thesilence]

My slings are around 1.5" now, I use bottle caps to act as water dishes for them now. Is there something more shallow I can use to provide water? Thanks for the info!

 

[Scott C.]

bottle caps work great....