Surprise Molt?

[GiuseppeCharcodes]

This ever happen to anyone? I felt fine leaving a cricket in the enclosure overnight, and was surprised to find a discarded carapace the next day. Seems the cricket wasn't able to get inside the web and harass my spider, but I'm annoyed that I might have put her in that vulnerable position.

No bloated abdomen, nothing that tipped me off that this was about to happen.

 

[Neonblizzard]

It can really depend on the spider for me. Which one did you leave a cricket in with? Because some spiders have such a strong feeding response i know if they don't take it straight away then i know they are in premolt.

 

[GiuseppeCharcodes]

It was a P. irminia

 

[Neonblizzard]

Oh OK, so from what i gather they tend to live off the floor or build big webs around their burrow, so they are at a lot less risk than a terrestrial

 

[GiuseppeCharcodes]

Oh OK, so from what i gather they tend to live off the floor or build big webs around their burrow, so they are at a lot less risk than a terrestrial

Yeah, as soon as she was housed she built a complete wall around herself. I actually saw the cricket poke at the web and give up. I just got her with my last batch of slings, so I didn't have firsthand experience with the species.

 

[viper69]

not i

 

[Yigzatoth]

This ever happen to anyone? I felt fine leaving a cricket in the enclosure overnight, and was surprised to find a discarded carapace the next day. Seems the cricket wasn't able to get inside the web and harass my spider, but I'm annoyed that I might have put her in that vulnerable position.

If you are going to leave overnight the prey item why not crush the head before? It will be twitching for quite some time before it finally dies.
That's what i do, don't want them to burrow or cause some sort of accident in a surprise molt.
At least nothing bad happened!

 

[cold blood]

Oh OK, so from what i gather they tend to live off the floor or build big webs around their burrow, so they are at a lot less risk than a terrestrial

Psallmos do tend to live on the ground or under. but you are correct that the area is typically protected by heavy webbing.

 

[GiuseppeCharcodes]

If you are going to leave overnight the prey item why not crush the head before? It will be twitching for quite some time before it finally dies.
That's what i do, don't want them to burrow or cause some sort of accident in a surprise molt.
At least nothing bad happened!

The ridiculous thing is, I usually do that! And then last night I was like, "Ah, it'll be fine, she's probably not gonna molt soon or anything!"