Smithi premolt question

[chewietobbacca]

Hey guys,

So my Smithi has been really sluggish lately. It's an about 1" long sling. When I tried feeding it crickets or mealworms, it would either ignore the food, or in the case of the cricket, it would chase it away. I was beginning to believe it was in premolt. Looking at the abodmen, I noticed it was developing a black spot, hopefully meaning it was getting ready to molt.

Today, when I woke up, I saw the smithi just sitting there, as usual, since lately it rarely moves at all. The black spot still hasn't covered the entire abdomen, just a small part of it. I dropped a small drop of water down the wall of its cube towards it but even that didn't get it to move. To make sure it was still alive, I gently prodded its leg with a bamboo tweezer and it didn't even react to it.

Should I just leave it alone and hope for the best? It's abdomen seems decent sized - definitely not shriveling and there's a small water dish in the cube (more of a plastic bottle cap with water) and I occasionaly mist a wall with water for it to drink. I figure bothering it further isn't necessary but it not even reacting to light prodding is somewhat troubling. Anyone have any similar experiences to this?

 

[Talkenlate04]

You never know your T might try and molt upright it does happen from time to time. So unless you start to smell that she might be dead or you see her shriveling id vote to leave it be and wait it out.

 

[P. Novak]

I agree with Ryan, just leave it alone and if it starts to smell, get eaten, or decompose then toss it out. Otherwise just leave it be and I wish you the best of luck!

 

[chewietobbacca]

Ok just an update!

Looks like he's fine - went out to dinner and came back and found out he moved on his own into the little firepot and is hiding in there.

Will definitely just leave it alone and left some water outside for him to have. The black spot on his abdomen is still small but it does seem to be larger than what I saw yesterday. Looks good from here!

 

[Talkenlate04]

I say in about 13 days he should molt. Total stab in the dark. I like trying to guess. But under 3 weeks for sure.
But only if you are really seeing the abdomen turn black. Got to cover all the bases.

 

[chewietobbacca]

Well if I had a bit more lighting (and a slightly better camera too I'd say!) I could take a picture of him. It's a few black spots covering maybe about 30-40% of the abdomen looking from the top not totally dark but definitely black and much darker than the rest of the abdomen. His behavior definitely fits a pre-molt Smithi's behavior though: not eating, usually hiding, and very inactive.