Stuck limbs for 3 molts

[magouilles]

Hello I am back after a big hiatus hehe
I was given two tarantulas around a year ago both seemingly with DKS
Now I have no idea if that was it or not but they both had spasms and moved very weirdly anyways this post is not about DKS
One of them molted kind of succesfully (better than I had hoped regarding its past condition) but one pedipalp and one front leg got stuck in its molt
I did not think too much of it at the time because I was sure it would eventually drop them at some point but now it has been 2 additional molts later and it still has not dropped them so the molts are kind of just piling up on top of eachother. Its behavior has improved significantly with each molt and it is super reactive and moves as a normal t should besides the fact that it is a little hindered but the stuck limbs. I am getting a little worried and was wondering if anyone ever had ts that dropped stuck limbs after a couple of molts and survived fine. I have been keeping tarantulas for 5 years now and have an extended collection and it is a T. albo which is rather simple to keep and i'm convinced the temps, moisture levels and terrestrial/fossorial set up are all adequate so I'm unsure what else to do at this point.
Thanks alot for your help!!!

 

[fcat]

Do you have any good quality pictures of the affected area?

 

[magouilles]

Do you have any good quality pictures of the affected area?

I just took it
After closer inspection, the second leg behind the one that was already stuck got stuck during this molt
The terrarium is not this moist everywhere, I just keep it moist by overwatering its dish
Its mouthparts all molted succesfully at least

 

[TheraMygale]

Do you mean to say that dry parts are stuck to new parts?

as in extra limbs?

 

[magouilles]

Do you mean to say that dry parts are stuck to new parts?

as in extra limbs?

It molted once with two limbs entirely stuck inside it's old exoskeleton, never dropped those unusable limbs, molted twice after that so I am thinking the other molts kind of just piled up on those two limbs without adding anything extra, it has 10 limbs and the rest of the body molted fine, prior to its last molt (last week) everything else was fine apart from the still stuck pedipalp and front leg
With each new molt it seems like the two stuck limbs get drier and chunkier rather than like extra limbs
I also noticed tonight that now a third limb got stuck during its last molt last week so now 3 limbs are impaired

 

[TheraMygale]

This tarantula is either weak geneticaly, has a mutation, or requires serious humidity.

i dont know if its winter where you are, and if you are using a heat source that causes humidity to drop.

extra limbs can be removed.

it will, at one point, become a handicap. Your tarantula will “weigh” more then it is supposed to. This seems to be its loop already. It is spending more energy, to move, then it is getting in fluids and feed.

you need to change something. You will know what when you consider all these elements.

there is no such thing as a “dry species”. They all require fluids, moisture and humidity. Since its been a while you have had these, its time you adapt your care.

of course this is said with care and kindness. And when i say there is no such thing as “dry species”, i mean to say: there are dry substrates, dry envirnoments. But all species require moisture. They adapted to find their needs in dry “conditions”.

the tarantula itself, is not dry. Consider the water in your equation.

 

[magouilles]

This tarantula is either weak geneticaly, has a mutation, or requires serious humidity.

i dont know if its winter where you are, and if you are using a heat source that causes humidity to drop.

extra limbs can be removed.

it will, at one point, become a handicap. Your tarantula will “weigh” more then it is supposed to. This seems to be its loop already. It is spending more energy, to move, then it is getting in fluids and feed.

you need to change something. You will know what when you consider all these elements.

there is no such thing as a “dry species”. They all require fluids, moisture and humidity. Since its been a while you have had these, its time you adapt your care.

of course this is said with care and kindness. And when i say there is no such thing as “dry species”, i mean to say: there are dry substrates, dry envirnoments. But all species require moisture. They adapted to find their needs in dry “conditions”.

the tarantula itself, is not dry. Consider the water in your equation.

since it is still a sling, i do keep it quite moist in there
half of its substrate stays moist/wet by overfilling its water dish and the other half is dry (by dry it is still a bit like humid because the other half is quite moist but i don't put direct water there so that section isn't thoroughly moist)
I don't mist but make sure half of the enclosure's soil stays moist and I don't think keeping the entirety of the soil wet would be adequate? It also has cross and top vents, enclosure isn't too small or big I would say it is a rather normal size (squared size around 4x its full DLS for the lenght of a square corner)
I never had any of those issues in the past in my entire collection with any other t no matter the season so I don't think it is a moisture issue here as I have other T. albo that are molting, growing and eating just fine and show no signs of being dehydrated
It was insanely weak and on the brink of death when I got it but the enclosure the lady give it to me in had a fair amount of moisture aswell...I unfortunately don't know how it was as a very small sling as I only got it a year ago and it was already in very dire shape...One thing I do know is that person gave me three tarantulas as they were moving out of Canada and all three of them were doing very poorly and two eventually died
They were all moving strangely, had spasms, lack of coordination
I don't know what can cause this to happen as it never happened to me before but I'm thinking that maybe that person used perfume or scented things in the same room they kept their ts or something because for all of their ts to behave like this is a little bit odd....
I will try feeding it more often than usual so it can keep more fluids until the next molt and closely monitor its moisture levels and possibly keep it 3/4 of its soil moist/wet?
Is there a way I can myself remove the full impaired limbs?
Thank you for your reply and your time!!

 

[TheraMygale]

I didnt read your entire reply because you said this is still a sling.

i think: either i dont understand your situation well, or we don’t think a sling is the same thing.

for which this is a communication barrier.

for the record, my eye prescription is late so what i see in the photo is different then you



you have experience and are doing everything right.

maybe remove what is not supposed to be there first.

 

[magouilles]

I didnt read your entire reply because you said this is still a sling.

i think: either i dont understand your situation well, or we don’t think a sling is the same thing.

for which is a communication barrier.

for the record, my eye prescription is late so what i see in the photo is different then you

View attachment 487908

you have experience and are doing everything right.

maybe remove what is not supposed to be there first.

I wouldn't qualify it as a juvenile yet as it is around 1" DLS
For me < or = 1" is sling, probably go in the juvenile category next molt
Also yes I will remove its old molt shortly, it was still attached to it as of tonight hence why it is still in there
What I mostly wanted to know is if people ever had a t who got stuck limbs but did not drop them right away, rather kept them for quite a long time
I only ever had 2 molting "issues" in the past, both with rather small sling (around 1/4"-1/2") but both drop their impared limb right away and grew them back without issues
Just unsure as to why this one is holding unto its impaired limbs for so long, I do keep its abdomen full and feed it regularly (on the photo it seems smaller than the usual because it molted last week) and it is very reactive and doesn't act lethargic so I just don't understand why it can't drop them

 

[fcat]

A t can safely remove an appendage...normally the advice is to let them.

As long as it's not interfering with the mouth parts/ability to eat and drink, personally I would leave it.

You lose a greater risk of doing it wrong and they bleed out.

The best time to intervene is when they are still soft. Once the molt occurs their new exoskeleton starts to harden and continues expanding until it is larger than the old one...this is supposed to occur outside of the old exuvia...the old extremities now have the new ones in a vice grip.

 

[magouilles]

A t can safely remove an appendage...normally the advice is to let them.

As long as it's not interfering with the mouth parts/ability to eat and drink, personally I would leave it.

You lose a greater risk of doing it wrong and they bleed out.

The best time to intervene is when they are still soft. Once the molt occurs their new exoskeleton starts to harden and continues expanding until it is larger than the old one...this is supposed to occur outside of the old exuvia...the old extremities now have the new ones in a vice grip.

That is what I thought I would do aswell....keep it moist in there and tong feed it
Not about to perform a botched tarantula surgery here
Next time it molts if it hasn't dropped its limbs yet i will try to intervene as carefully and fast as possible and hope for the best as I don't want it to bleed out...aaaa I feel like a doctor who needs to take a high risk decision here
If it was only 1 limb I wouldn't feel as conflicted but 3 is asking for alot
I let it do its thing for the past year but it's acting a little stubborn over its impaired limbs now

 

[fcat]

That is what I thought I would do aswell....keep it moist in there and tong feed it
Not about to perform a botched tarantula surgery here
Next time it molts if it hasn't dropped its limbs yet i will try to intervene as carefully and fast as possible and hope for the best as I don't want it to bleed out
I let it do its thing for the past year but it's acting a little stubborn over its impaired limbs now

If the old limbs are going to slide off next molt, they will do so with ease. You still want to be extremely careful...

 

[magouilles]

If the old limbs are going to slide off next molt, they will do so with ease. You still want to be extremely careful...

Thanks alot for the help...I feel a little bit less powerless now that I know I can possibly do something if it's still holding on to them at the next molt
Good thing I am a molecular bio lab scientist and that handling very small fragile things is now considered second nature...at last all this lab time will have paid off

 

[fcat]

Since you have time to wait, read this post several times until you have it memorized.

Tarantula Stuck in Its Molt? Look Here for Advice

Tarantulas sometimes get stuck during molting – it happens, nobody really knows why. Accordingly there are a lot of threads that go “Help, my tarantula is stuck, what should I do?” More often than not the advice is to do nothing because ‘the tarantula knows best how to be a tarantula’. I think...

arachnoboards.com

Your window of opportunity will not be lengthy...you'll need to act fast.

Might as well get some corn starch to have on hand just in case.

 

[magouilles]

Since you have time to wait, read this post several times until you have it memorized.

Tarantula Stuck in Its Molt? Look Here for Advice

Tarantulas sometimes get stuck during molting – it happens, nobody really knows why. Accordingly there are a lot of threads that go “Help, my tarantula is stuck, what should I do?” More often than not the advice is to do nothing because ‘the tarantula knows best how to be a tarantula’. I think...

arachnoboards.com

Your window of opportunity will not be lengthy...you'll need to act fast.

Might as well get some corn starch to have on hand just in case.

Should I attempt it the second it flips back on its right side? Or while it is still on its back but the only things remaining are the stuck limbs?
Also yes for the corn starch I will keep it near

 

[NMTs]

The T will drop the affected legs when they become too burdensome for it to carry around. I don't think you will need to intervene.

 

[magouilles]

The T will drop the affected legs when they become too burdensome for it to carry around. I don't think you will need to intervene.

I've been waiting for a year now for it to drop those limbs
I know that they are able to do so themselves and had spiders drop appendages before without issues but I am slightly worried that it may hinder future molts if it just keeps the impaired limbs indefinitely, I believe it may have affected it already by having a third impaired limb after its last molt because it was unable to move or place that leg properly because of the very dried chunky stuck pedipalp and leg

 

[NMTs]

I think if you're going to try to help those legs come off, the time to do it would be now and not right after a molt - the T is too compromised then and a misplaced paintbrush or tweezers could be fatal. At least now the rest of it's exoskeleton is hardened and it would be much more difficult to injure it accidentally.

They can pop those legs off very easily if given the right stimulus. I was trying to catch cup an Ornithoctoninae sling a few months ago and accidentally put the cup on both pedipalps, and it popped them both off and was running the other way before I even knew what happened. All it may take is pinching the tarsus with a pair of tongs and letting the T do the rest of the work...

 

[magouilles]

I think if you're going to try to help those legs come off, the time to do it would be now and not right after a molt - the T is too compromised then and a misplaced paintbrush or tweezers could be fatal. At least now the rest of it's exoskeleton is hardened and it would be much more difficult to injure it accidentally.

They can pop those legs off very easily if given the right stimulus. I was trying to catch cup an Ornithoctoninae sling a few months ago and accidentally put the cup on both pedipalps, and it popped them both off and was running the other way before I even knew what happened. All it may take is pinching the tarsus with a pair of tongs and letting the T do the rest of the work...

This exact same scenario happened to me with my C. darlingi a while ago! Catch cup on a pedipalp and it dropped it instantly without a care in the world
Thanks for the tip I will try that today, I fed it yesterday to give it some energy post molt, it's time for some leg dropping action