P. irminia sling still hasn't (update)

Jake94

Arachnopeon
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Jul 6, 2016
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I made a post a few weeks ago about my P. irminia sling who has stopped eating. I think it has been 2 months or more now since the little thing has eaten. It kills the crickets I give it, but then just leaves them alone to rot and stink up the place. When I first learned what had been happening I immediately did a rehouse and asked for advice here. A few people suggested it might just be post-molt behavior, which seems impossible at this point. Another few suggested I raise the humidity, so I did try that even though I was pretty sure it had okay humidity, because it always has a full water dish (bottle cap), and the soil is never allowed to dry out. But after a few days of using lukewarm water to try and increase the humidity, it hadn't eaten, so I tried to take out a quarter to a third of the damp substrate and replaced it with dry substrate. That hasn't worked either. I'm thinking I've run out of options and am just waiting for him to die, or to finally correct itself somehow and eat the crickets I've been offering. I figured I would check in once more to see if there's anything else worth trying.

Here's a pic: http://i.imgur.com/KHzoplB.jpg

You can sort of see his abdomen in the picture. It's hanging down behind the water dish to the very right.

I keep the room warm with a space heater, which is always on 70 or higher, usually 72-75, and during the day my two lizards' heat lamps are turned on which are directly adjacent to where I keep my spider enclosures, so I don't think temp is the problem, since everyone else seems to be doing just fine.

Just to clarify, he kills the crickets and starts making a web mat just like all of my other spiders, but 15-20 minutes after he has dropped the cricket and is mostly ignoring it. I have seen him drop a dead cricket, leave it for a while, then come back to it and pick it up into his jaws again, but everytime that I end up having to take the carcass from him, it is almost entirely entact, save for the head which is usually just a black soupy glob. I sometimes think maybe he is getting some nutrients out of the head, but I also think that maybe the damage I see is just from the venom and that he hasn't actually ingested any of it.

Any advice appreciated, I've mostly accepted there's nothing I can do for him except what I already have been.
 

MetalMan2004

Arachnodemon
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Oct 14, 2016
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676
Any advice appreciated, I've mostly accepted there's nothing I can do for him except what I already have been.
I think you're probably right there. I couldn't get the link to load, but as long as the abdomen isn't shriveled you are probably okay.

I have my first sling, a versicolor, and I fed it heavily to get it bigger faster. After it molted it ate one cricket and badically went straight back into premolt. It finally molted again and still refuses to eat. I guess when they don't want the food they just don't want it.
 

Venom1080

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Sep 24, 2015
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4,611
you are leaving it in there, right? it sounds like youre taking it from the spider. they take hours to eat.
 

Jake94

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Jul 6, 2016
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I leave it in there for ~ 24 hours or more after the kill. It has usually been dumped in the water dish. Should I wait longer than that if it hasn't been discarded?
 

Venom1080

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Sep 24, 2015
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u should leave it till the spider drops it as a bolus. its weird that its discarding it whole.
 

Jake94

Arachnopeon
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Jul 6, 2016
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u should leave it till the spider drops it as a bolus. its weird that its discarding it whole.
Yeah I just feel like it isn't good to leave them in there once they've become putrid. I give her ample time though.
 

14pokies

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Oct 25, 2014
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What's the approximate Dls of your T and are his chevrons green or does it just look that way because of the lighting? Also I don't see the bright orange swoosh at the tips of his legs.. Does he have them?

In all honesty that enclosure really isn't suitable for P.irminia but this species is very adaptive and would eat normally if housed in a coffee can so that's not the problem.
 

Jake94

Arachnopeon
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Jul 6, 2016
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What's the approximate Dls of your T and are his chevrons green or does it just look that way because of the lighting? Also I don't see the bright orange swoosh at the tips of his legs.. Does he have them?

In all honesty that enclosure really isn't suitable for P.irminia but this species is very adaptive and would eat normally if housed in a coffee can so that's not the problem.
Dls is probably close to 2 inches. His chevrons are orange, and all of his legs have an orange segment just before the tip toe segment, it looks like. What is lacking about the enclosure? I could do a rehouse into something bigger, I just thought he was still small enough to fit well in there.
 

14pokies

Arachnoprince
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Oct 25, 2014
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1,735
Dls is probably close to 2 inches. His chevrons are orange, and all of his legs have an orange segment just before the tip toe segment, it looks like. What is lacking about the enclosure? I could do a rehouse into something bigger, I just thought he was still small enough to fit well in there.
There isn't enough substrate for it to make an appropriate retreat... It looks like the enclosure is front openeing that's a big no no when housing Tarantulas that make burrows.. IME irminia do best when given sub thats atleast 2x deep as they are long (dls) with about 3x dls height to climb around when they feel like it..

IMO the plant's and that stick are kind of pointless.

I house mine from sling up to about 3 inches in 32oz deli containers. The substrate fills a little less than half of the container.. I use one slab of bark set verticaly but leaned at an angle for web anchors and as a structure to build there retreat in and around.. Sometimes I add a small cutting of a broad leafed plastic plant in there but it almost always becomes buried or goes completely ignored..

This enclosure houses a 3+incher that's going to be rehoused shortly.. It has been in this same container since it was 3rd instar 20170206_022712.jpg 20170206_022544.jpg
 

Jake94

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 6, 2016
Messages
20
There isn't enough substrate for it to make an appropriate retreat... It looks like the enclosure is front openeing that's a big no no when housing Tarantulas that make burrows.. IME irminia do best when given sub thats atleast 2x deep as they are long (dls) with about 3x dls height to climb around when they feel like it..

IMO the plant's and that stick are kind of pointless.

I house mine from sling up to about 3 inches in 32oz deli containers. The substrate fills a little less than half of the container.. I use one slab of bark set verticaly but leaned at an angle for web anchors and as a structure to build there retreat in and around.. Sometimes I add a small cutting of a broad leafed plastic plant in there but it almost always becomes buried or goes completely ignored..

This enclosure houses a 3+incher that's going to be rehoused shortly.. It has been in this same container since it was 3rd instar View attachment 230948 View attachment 230949
Okay that's fair. I got these enclosures like the one the Irminia is in custom made from another board user, just to save myself some time. They have been great in that regard, but I definitely could have done better. Before I rehoused this one, he actually had a really nice retreat with dirt curtain/web tunnels and all. Stuff he had mostly built before he stopped eating. I kind of assumed once I got him out of the smelly enclosure he'd start eating again and be able to make all new tunnels, but he's mostly just made himself a little den. I'll put him in a deli cup with cork bark hide and see if he benefits from the bigger space and better burrowing conditions.
 
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