P. ornata premolt or dying? Please help!

[cold blood]

Feeding too often? Theres literally no way that could have been the issue.

I wouldnt trust reddit's info to butter my toast....no offense, but thats not a place to get real advice or help. I doubt it was old age, that makes little sense to me...its not like they reach adulthood and die soon after.

Sorry to hear about the loss..unfortunately there isnt always outside indicators of cause of death with ts.

 

[Matt Man]

are you sure it isn't just pre molt? Perhaps all the checking is stressing it, and when you rolled it over it may have just been following molting instinct to stay there.

 

[Spidermax]

Feeding too often? Theres literally no way that could have been the issue.

I wouldnt trust reddit's info to butter my toast....no offence, but thats not a place to get real advice or help. I doubt it was old age, that makes little sense to me...its not like they reach adulthood and die soon after.

Sorry to hear about the loss..unfortunately there isnt always outside indicators of cause of death with ts.

You're probably right, I wouldn't have thought that too. I mean what's true is that if you feed them more often, they grow faster. You get the same thing with snakes, and at least with snakes I know for sure, their lifespan can be shortened by this.
Not sure if it's the same way with ts though. And as I said, 4-5 years seems like a very young age to die.

are you sure it isn't just pre molt? Perhaps all the checking is stressing it, and when you rolled it over it may have just been following molting instinct to stay there.

There is still some twitching going on every now and then. Do you think I should flip it over then? At this point I would try anything, as I have lost all hope. I think she's still remotely alive... I never heard about flipping them, do you think it could possibly help if it's really just molting problems?
Thx

are you sure it isn't just pre molt? Perhaps all the checking is stressing it, and when you rolled it over it may have just been following molting instinct to stay there.

Btw the checking stopped long ago, I put her back in her terrarium yesterday evening. Placed her on a piece of bark and she stayed in the exact same place overnight.

 

[cold blood]

mean what's true is that if you feed them more often, they grow faster.

Thats actually not true either...they grow differently than a snake does.

Every molt cycle a t has a number of days required to physically be ready to molt....no amount of food will shorten this...temps have more of an effect....but because of how they grow, heavy feeding will only lead to longer pre molt fasting as the t is simply forced to wait out the time needed to produce a new exoskeleton.

 

[Matt Man]

You're probably right, I wouldn't have thought that too. I mean what's true is that if you feed them more often, they grow faster. You get the same thing with snakes, and at least with snakes I know for sure, their lifespan can be shortened by this.
Not sure if it's the same way with ts though. And as I said, 4-5 years seems like a very young age to die.


There is still some twitching going on every now and then. Do you think I should flip it over then? At this point I would try anything, as I have lost all hope. I think she's still remotely alive... I never heard about flipping them, do you think it could possibly help if it's really just molting problems?
Thx

Twitching sounds like a possible molt. My G pulchripes took close to a day and a half because of how arid it is where I live right now. She had flipped on her back Sat Eve and hadn't appeared to move well into Sunday AM. I just kept checking in, saw some twitching, kept the faith and viola a new, and sluggish T stretching out the new suit by Sunday Eve. My suggestion would be wait and observe

 

[Spidermax]

Good Morning!

Thats actually not true either...they grow differently than a snake does.

Every molt cycle a t has a number of days required to physically be ready to molt....no amount of food will shorten this...temps have more of an effect....but because of how they grow, heavy feeding will only lead to longer pre molt fasting as the t is simply forced to wait out the time needed to produce a new exoskeleton.

Yeah as I said, not sure if it's the same thing with t's. Thanks for the info, always cool to learn some more details about these awesome animals.

Twitching sounds like a possible molt. My G pulchripes took close to a day and a half because of how arid it is where I live right now. She had flipped on her back Sat Eve and hadn't appeared to move well into Sunday AM. I just kept checking in, saw some twitching, kept the faith and viola a new, and sluggish T stretching out the new suit by Sunday Eve. My suggestion would be wait and observe

She is still slightly moving every now and then. I just checked on her. She even moved her chelicerae a bit and I THINK there might be something going on with the skin on the bottom side of her abdomen. But it's very possible that's just my tortured but still remotely hopeful mind.
This is her current state and position. She seems to be holding onto the bark and as I said, sometimes moving a bit.
Will wait and observe, but has any of you guys an idea about the flipping part? I couldn't find anything about this anywhere online. I left her as she is for now, but I really want to help her as good as I can. I'm just worried... I recall reading somewhere they can actually molt successfully whilst sitting upright. Never observed it though.
So I think I will just leave her like this unless you guys suggest otherwise.
I'm also thinking about dehydration again now, since she is not moving at all. I was thinking that if she was on her back, I could apply a drop or two of water every day right where she needs it using an eyedropper.

Sorry for the long text, I'm a little nervous as you can probably tell

 

[Matt Man]

I would just leave her @ present. Moving her will just add to the stress. You could drizzle some water down the bark in hopes it meets where mouth.

 

[Spidermax]

Ok guys, guess what.
She is gone, but I am 90% positive I have solved the mystery of what was wrong with her. As I see it, none of us were right.
So me and my girlfriend thought about whether wed want to put her on a wall somewhere so people could still admire her coolness after her death. Since her abdomen was really fat as you can tell, I decided to cut her open in order to remove her intestines and replace them with some cotton. Made a small cut with a razor on the bottom side of her abdomen and boom - she popped open. Out came a LOT of (unfertilised) eggs. Yes, I am sure. I know what spider eggs look like and I triple checked it's not just some organ I could mistake for eggs. It was definitely eggs.
I've never had this before, but apparently tarantulas can produce phantom eggsacs.
That is also the reason why her abdomen was hanging towards the ground in such a weird way - she couldn't hold it up anymore because it was too heavy from the eggs!
So my theory is: She was going to produce a phantom eggsac (unless somebody broke into my appartment, put a male into her enclosure, let them mate and then left with the male again she was definitely unmated), couldn't get the eggs out of her body for whatever reason which caused her to die.
I am pretty sure that is what killed her. What made her body produce eggs and why she couldn't get them out I do not know, but I now know she wasn't in premolt.
I knew from the beginning something was very weird about her and I think I have my answer now.

Just wanted to give you guys this update, as I think it could be kind of interesting to other people. I do not know if people tend to cut their tarantulas open after they mysteriously die, but I guess that could be a possible reason whenever they go seemingly without a cause.

Thank you all very much again for your help.
It was nice posting here for the first time and I will definitely stick around

 

[spideyspinneret78]

Ok guys, guess what.
She is gone, but I am 90% positive I have solved the mystery of what was wrong with her. As I see it, none of us were right.
So me and my girlfriend thought about whether wed want to put her on a wall somewhere so people could still admire her coolness after her death. Since her abdomen was really fat as you can tell, I decided to cut her open in order to remove her intestines and replace them with some cotton. Made a small cut with a razor on the bottom side of her abdomen and boom - she popped open. Out came a LOT of (unfertilised) eggs. Yes, I am sure. I know what spider eggs look like and I triple checked it's not just some organ I could mistake for eggs. It was definitely eggs.
I've never had this before, but apparently tarantulas can produce phantom eggsacs.
That is also the reason why her abdomen was hanging towards the ground in such a weird way - she couldn't hold it up anymore because it was too heavy from the eggs!
So my theory is: She was going to produce a phantom eggsac (unless somebody broke into my appartment, put a male into her enclosure, let them mate and then left with the male again she was definitely unmated), couldn't get the eggs out of her body for whatever reason which caused her to die.
I am pretty sure that is what killed her. What made her body produce eggs and why she couldn't get them out I do not know, but I now know she wasn't in premolt.
I knew from the beginning something was very weird about her and I think I have my answer now.

Just wanted to give you guys this update, as I think it could be kind of interesting to other people. I do not know if people tend to cut their tarantulas open after they mysteriously die, but I guess that could be a possible reason whenever they go seemingly without a cause.

Thank you all very much again for your help.
It was nice posting here for the first time and I will definitely stick around

I've never heard of female tarantulas becoming egg bound before...but who knows, maybe it does rarely happen. It's a very interesting case, but I'm sorry you lost her.

 

[Spidermax]

I've never heard of female tarantulas becoming egg bound before...but who knows, maybe it does rarely happen. It's a very interesting case, but I'm sorry you lost her.

Thank you! Yeah, I was also thinking: How many people cut them open when they die? So maybe a lot of these cases just go unnoticed and unexplained.
I never heard about it before either. Probably one of the weirdest things that I ever witnessed regarding tarantulas.

 

[cold blood]

Thank you! Yeah, I was also thinking: How many people cut them open when they die? So maybe a lot of these cases just go unnoticed and unexplained.
I never heard about it before either.

I lost a few gravid females a year or two ago....when dissected i found a similar thing....but the eggs were breaking down, so i couldnt determine if it was being "bound" up or if it was the breakdown of the eggs introducing toxins.

 

[Transrights]

Ok guys, guess what.
She is gone, but I am 90% positive I have solved the mystery of what was wrong with her. As I see it, none of us were right.
So me and my girlfriend thought about whether wed want to put her on a wall somewhere so people could still admire her coolness after her death. Since her abdomen was really fat as you can tell, I decided to cut her open in order to remove her intestines and replace them with some cotton. Made a small cut with a razor on the bottom side of her abdomen and boom - she popped open. Out came a LOT of (unfertilised) eggs. Yes, I am sure. I know what spider eggs look like and I triple checked it's not just some organ I could mistake for eggs. It was definitely eggs.
I've never had this before, but apparently tarantulas can produce phantom eggsacs.
That is also the reason why her abdomen was hanging towards the ground in such a weird way - she couldn't hold it up anymore because it was too heavy from the eggs!
So my theory is: She was going to produce a phantom eggsac (unless somebody broke into my appartment, put a male into her enclosure, let them mate and then left with the male again she was definitely unmated), couldn't get the eggs out of her body for whatever reason which caused her to die.
I am pretty sure that is what killed her. What made her body produce eggs and why she couldn't get them out I do not know, but I now know she wasn't in premolt.
I knew from the beginning something was very weird about her and I think I have my answer now.

Just wanted to give you guys this update, as I think it could be kind of interesting to other people. I do not know if people tend to cut their tarantulas open after they mysteriously die, but I guess that could be a possible reason whenever they go seemingly without a cause.

Thank you all very much again for your help.
It was nice posting here for the first time and I will definitely stick around

I lost a AF P. Formosa in an eerely similar way. Couldn't hold her abdomen up, acted strange at first, then very weak. Never found a reason. Your finding is very interesting, thank you for sharing.