T.blondi - Possible blockage?

[synyster]

Hi everyone,

Ok so for a little while now, my CB adult female T.blondi has been producing no silk and no fecies whatsoever. I have read the past threads by Draiman and noexcuse4u and have taken into consideration the methods that have been tried, but have not applied any yet.

Has there been any updates for new methods or reasons causing this? And so far, has anyone else experienced this problem? My specimen has not had a difficult molt and recovered surprisingly fast from it. Her diet consists of adult crickets and superworms (roaches being a bit hard to find around here). If anyone has had success with any methods in particular, can you please post what you have done? And any suggestions on what actions in particular I should take? Lately I have cut down on food (1 cricket per week) so it won't cause any additional problems, increased humidity to a maximum and temperature to 24 degrees celcius (76f [i usually keep her at 21c/70f]). Now i'm getting a bit worried so any help will be taken into consideration.

Thanks.

Edit - I have just applied some warm water with a Q-tip to her rear end. She is usually defensive when getting approached and as soon as she was touched, she displayed a threat pose. When I managed to apply the Q-tip to her anus, she let go of the threat pose and actually reared her abdomen and let me rub it as if this somewhat felt good!? Any opinions?


>>included pics of abdomen view and frontal view.

 

[Mez]

I can't help with the blockage issue, but Theraphosa prefer higher temps, in the 80s, could have something to do with its metabolism but thst just a guess.
Nice true T. blondii though!

 

[synyster]

I can't help with the blockage issue, but Theraphosa prefer higher temps, in the 80s, could have something to do with its metabolism but thst just a guess.
Nice true T. blondii though!

I have been told my tarcan that T.blondi have recorded temps down to 18c in their burrows (maybe fran can confirm this?). I personally keep this T apart from my other T's to reproduce the most accurate climate possible (18c = roughly 64f) I guess this issue could start a new thread though as i would prefer it not debated on this one

Thanks for the consideration btw!

---------- Post added at 01:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:03 PM ----------

Ok I just posted this thread but after reading others, I decided to go with a dab of olive oil. I will let it react until tomorrow hoping to see some positive developpement. Meanwhile, I have caught some pics after dabbing with the oil. If anyone see's anything abnormal here please let me know. Opinions and suggestions are highly recommended!
Thanks to anyone who will be helping me with this issue.

A picture of how she "reared up" to let me apply the Q-tip (abnormal behavior for my T)

Closer image of the spinerette area (after being dabbed with olive oil)

 

[xhexdx]

I have been told my tarcan that T.blondi have recorded temps down to 18c in their burrows

Is your entire enclosure a burrow?

 

[synyster]

Is your entire enclosure a burrow?

No but as I stated earlier I keep her at 21c. In their natural habitat, trees are so dense that the ground floor temps rarely get higher than 24c. Unless I was induced in error, I believe that they do not need as high temps as other species.

Also as I said, I would prefer this not to be debated right away as I am searching for help to a much larger problem. I have already taken Mez's information into consideration and I am searching answer's yet again to the temperatures for CB T.blondi's.

Joe, as I believe your name is, I truly don't want to argue on anything with you as I know you are very experienced in the matter and I respect this and will give more credit to your opinions than others. But please don't just take a small part of my whole post and quote it as if this is what I do. This being said, if you have any good idea's to help the problem with my spider, please feel free to post them.

Thanks

 

[xhexdx]

I was responding specifically to that one paragraph.

Did you say this spider has successfully molted in your care?

 

[synyster]

I was responding specifically to that one paragraph.

Did you say this spider has successfully molted in your care?

Ok. No problem and sorry if I misunderstood the meaning

Yes it has molted multiple times in my care. I have had this specimen for 7 years now and acquired it as a sling. Only molting problem it has ever had was 2 years ago where it lost leg IV during a molt. It has successfully grown back and I haven't noticed any problems since (apart from the tarsus on the opposite leg IV being "crooked" while walking since that time). Last molt went with no complications whatsoever.

 

[Mez]

I've just spent thirty minutes or so looking for any ground temperature readings for south American rainforest in the 60's, and I can't find one. Closest I found was this..

The average temperature of the South American Rain Forest range from 70-90 degree F. The heavy rainfall accounts for the humidity of the rain forest.

When was the last time you noticed feces?

 

[synyster]

I've just spent thirty minutes or so looking for any ground temperature readings for south American rainforest in the 60's, and I can't find one. Closest I found was this..


When was the last time you noticed feces?

Thanks for the info. I'm currently investigating that on my side too

Last time I noticed fecies (which is hard to determine due to the fact that it is not what I look for most of the time) was probably 3-4 months ago (maybe more?) that being since she left her burrow to retreat next to it. I can see fecal matter inside of the hide, but can't determine exactly when it's from. since the last 3 month's that she decided to house in the open, I haven't found one trace of fecies near her at anytime. I am positive she has not returned to the hide since, and that is the only place where fecal matter can be observed.

 

[Fran]

Personally if you truly think shes has a "blockage", I wouldnt feed her for a while.
Im not sure if the whole Q tip thing helps at all ? ) -I dont believe so-, but really bothers her more than helps.

As far as temps...Im not so sure about the 18C. Temps can go there at a very specific moment at night, but in general temps in the jungle (At least Venezuela-east Brazil Amazonian jungle) tend to stay on the upper 20's C (78F-82F).

I personally wouldnt keep her under 22-23C at all .

Keep her with plenty of water, and dont feed her for a month or more if you are really corncern about the blockage and you dont see any feces. Keep an eye to see if she "poops" or not.

ps: My brother and his in laws are in the Venezuelan jungle as we speak, and as they always say, temps are so warm and humid you get thirsty every 5 steps . Sweating all the time.

 

[synyster]

Personally if you truly think shes has a "blockage", I wouldnt feed her for a while.
Im not sure if the whole Q tip thing helps at all ? ) -I dont believe so-, but really bothers her more than helps.

As far as temps...Im not so sure about the 18C. Temps can go there at a very specific moment at night, but in general temps in the jungle (At least Venezuela-east Brazil Amazonian jungle) tend to stay on the upper 20's C (78F-82F).

I personally wouldnt keep her under 22-23C at all .

Keep her with plenty of water, and dont feed her for a month or more if you are really corncern about the blockage and you dont see any feces. Keep an eye to see if she "poops" or not.

ps: My brother and his in laws are in the Venezuelan jungle as we speak, and as they always say, temps are so warm and humid you get thirsty every 5 steps . Sweating all the time.

Generally, she stays at 21-22c and I was just quoting that to what has been told to me, the temperatures in their burrows go down to 18c. Now I know this is not the temperatures that are recorded in the amazonian, but being underground the burrow could easily drop to that temp IMO. And this is also where the spider will spend most of the day. Considering that fact, it could be true that this species prefers lower temps??

But of course I will not go against your words on Theraphosa's Fran And btw, thanks for responding!

Now, if you think the Q-tip and olive oil won't do any good, I will stop the "treatment". It is good though to consider the fact that she does raise her abdomen when I dab her and stays in that unusual position for as long as I need her to. On normal circumstances, she will display a threat pose as soon as bothered. This must mean that this is the good location of the problem, as I think she would become defensive if this bothered her. What do you think about this?

As for feeding, she went on a 4 month no-eating-streak just until about a month ago, as I had stopped the feeding after she started refusing prey 6 months ago (suspected a pre-molt period). This has not seemed to do any good as she appears to have gotten fatter even after I stopped giving food. A month ago I decided to try her with a cricket, which she took without hesitation. So I started feeding again but cut down when I noticed she would not poop (slowed on food around the start of April). At this point I noticed she wasn't producing any silk either which is also unusual behavior. Just FYI, I have not let any escaped superworm stay in the tank so it is impossible for her to have been feeding on the beetles during that time.

I have raised the temperature to roughly 24c. Should I start raising it a bit higher you think? Also i'm keeping humidity at the maximum. Maybe is there a way I can try to trigger a molt? Any ideas? She is due now as she is going on a year since her last molt. I heard that re-housing sometimes speeds up a molt but this is pure hypothesis I know, but maybe it's worth a try? That is assuming that a molt does correct the problem....

 

[Fran]

If you think is time for a molt then I will let her do her thing, and hopefully molt soon.

Sometimes is not easy to catch the webbing on Theraphosa blondi/stirmi.
When their tanks are smaller, they dont even use it as much as when the tanks are larger. Then normally you can see the "navigation" lines of webbing around, or in the depest chamber of the burrow.

I dont know if the Q tip thing helps or not, I just think that,if you dont see anything in the anus cavity and she is not pooping,the problem could be inside. So the Q tip thing...Not much of a help.

Also, I know what you mean about her being calm when rubbing gently the Q tip. I have done it just to collect the urticating hairs, on several females, and oddly enough seems like they dont get bother by it.

Hopefully she IS defecating and you just dont see it. The abdomen looks great (shape) nd he overal looks fine, so I would personally let her get in heavy pre molt and molt on the same cage.

If you want to raise the temps a bit do it very slowly, but keep the humidity. That might trigger the molt.

Keep me posted please!

 

[synyster]

If you think is time for a molt then I will let her do her thing, and hopefully molt soon.

Sometimes is not easy to catch the webbing on Theraphosa blondi/stirmi.
When their tanks are smaller, they dont even use it as much as when the tanks are larger. Then normally you can see the "navigation" lines of webbing around, or in the depest chamber of the burrow.

I dont know if the Q tip thing helps or not, I just think that,if you dont see anything in the anus cavity and she is not pooping,the problem could be inside. So the Q tip thing...Not much of a help.

Also, I know what you mean about her being calm when rubbing gently the Q tip. I have done it just to collect the urticating hairs, on several females, and oddly enough seems like they dont get bother by it.

Hopefully she IS defecating and you just dont see it. The abdomen looks great (shape) nd he overal looks fine, so I would personally let her get in heavy pre molt and molt on the same cage.

If you want to raise the temps a bit do it very slowly, but keep the humidity. That might trigger the molt.

Keep me posted please!

I'm 99.9% sure there is no fecies or silk coming out of that spider but I truly wish I could not see it. But as far as wishing goes, i've turned her tank almost inside out looking for silk or fecal matter with no success.

As for temperatures, I have gradually increased from 21.6c to 24.1c in a week spand. I might try to continue the ascension until 26-27c hoping this will trigger the molt. Humidity always stays at max level.

And I didn't know Theraphosa's displayed such a docile attitude when "working" around that area. This is good to know

Well I'll see how this goes and hopefully I'll be able to post a positive outcome soon! Thanks for the help as it is greatly appreciated

 

[Formerphobe]

Have you kept her consistently at 21C - 22C the entire time you've had her?

She last molted ~1 year ago.
Went on a fast ~6 months ago.
No known feces or silk in ~4 months.

Do you have her previous molts? To compare if spinnerets and all appear to have completely molted out?

Does she go through the motions of trying to web at all?

Is it possible that she has not webbed or produced feces since her last molt?

 

[synyster]

Have you kept her consistently at 21C - 22C the entire time you've had her?

She last molted ~1 year ago.
Went on a fast ~6 months ago.
No known feces or silk in ~4 months.

Do you have her previous molts? To compare if spinnerets and all appear to have completely molted out?

Does she go through the motions of trying to web at all?

Is it possible that she has not webbed or produced feces since her last molt?

She molted 10 months ago and the other timelines are appx. correct.

I have compared the spinnerettes with her last molt (yes I do keep them all as reference) and everything seem's to be complete on the exhuvie, thus meaning that it all came off.

She dosen't appear to make movements for webbing as she mostly "drags around" her abdomen which is almost always in contact with the substrate.

Yes there is the possibility of her not producing any fecal matter whatsoever since her last molt. Post-molt she stayed in her burrow which already had pre-molt spots inside, and I had not taken into consideration at that time if there was more by the week. Since she has decided to retreat in the open (sort of constructing her own new hide behing the cork bark hide) there has been nothing at all to be observed.

As for temps, I have kept her hotter in summer and never under 21 in winter (some extreme cold days have brought it down to 19 but i would correct the situation by heating up the room between 21-22. Now that summer has arrived, I was already in the process of heating her up to 24-25.

---------- Post added at 10:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:48 PM ----------

Although the dabbing with olive oil made a pretty good mess on the end of her abdomen (yes I am making sure none gets near the book lungs), it might have paid off a little. 5 minutes ago, she placed herself, abdomen against the tank, and produced a small amount of fecies. I can only see this as encouragement now but I doubt (after considering fran's opinion) that i will dab her again. This is the first time I see fecal matter around that corner though.

So I hope she'll be able to unload the rest... We'll see if there is progress tomorrow morning

 

[Formerphobe]

she mostly "drags around" her abdomen which is almost always in contact with the substrate.

Is this a new thing? since her last molt? since she quit eating? more recently?

 

[synyster]

Is this a new thing? since her last molt? since she quit eating? more recently?

Well mostly since she has been over 6". This species gets bigger than the average T, so it also logically gets alot heavier. Of course she won't drag it around all the time (which is why i stated "mostly") but when walking a short distance, she will. It's just that in the past months, she seem's to have been "dragging" her abdomen around a bit more often, but this could also be cause of the size of it as she is getting closer to molting. So reading back on my previous post, it comes to my mind that this should maybe not get taken into consideration.

What do you think about this?

 

[Formerphobe]

What do you think about this?

Well, anything I think would be conjecture. Just trying to put all the pieces together and see if any red flags go up for anyone more experienced than I.

If she hasn't defecated or webbed since her last molt, perhaps there was a problem with the molt that is not readily apparent.
Or, did something occur after the molt that is not apparent.
I've had spiders fast for nearly a year, yet continue to poop and web.

Any dragging of the abdomen would make sense in a heavy bodied species, but do wild specimens do this? Seems it would tend to compromise the integrity of the ventral abdomen which may not be conducive to survival. Does she occasionally 'drag' because it's 'normal', or because there's a problem?

It also makes sense that burrow temps would be cooler than outside temps. When she came out of her burrow awhile back, what was she seeking? or trying to avoid?

No apparent hair flicking so she doesn't appear to be stressed. It's a shame they can't just tell us what's going on and what they need...

I think all of the puzzle pieces fit together, I'm just not sure how. Any change in her today after her butt soak?

 

[synyster]

Well, anything I think would be conjecture. Just trying to put all the pieces together and see if any red flags go up for anyone more experienced than I.

I hear you and thanks for the help

I'm sure that the last molt went fine. If something went wrong, i'm pretty sure now that it's internal. I guess my best chance is to give it the most adequate settings to try and trigger a molt. Hopefully that will correct the situation. I have been keeping T's for over 15 years now and have never experienced any similar problems with any other species. It's just a bummer that it happen's to my favorite T...

As for dragging the abdomen, in the wild this will only be observed with well fed Theraphosa's. Most of them in the wild won't feed as much as in captivity, and this decreases the chance of a bigger and heavier abdomen therefore, letting them lift it up with ease. I don't personally think that it is bad to have a thick and heavy T.blondi as this shows health. And the substrate in the tank is soft and edgeless so chances of abrasion or injury are minimal.

The reason that she came out of her hide was to drink from the water bowl which is on the opposite side of her tank. Seem's like when coming back, she just decided to hang out next to the hide instead of in it. I have discussed temperature's with someone and i'm now proceeding to raise the heat to 27c.
This should be done by friday. I'll specify though that the tank always gets heated up in summer and never have I let it drop to 18c. This was just a fact I pointed out to say that maybe this species is less sensitive to colder temperatures than we think...

No she is not missing any hairs on the abdomen and this is probably due to the fact that I never bug her, touch her, manipulate her or stress her. I keep my spiders to watch them when I can and I never open an enclosure to access the spider unless really necessary (like it is the case for this one)
I also hope that the final outcome will be positive. patience will say... As to the treatment I applied, she pooped a really small amount last night but that's it. I see this morning that it made more of a mess than anything else and now I have to proceed to cleaning her abdomen off.

Will post updates if there is any change.

 

[Formerphobe]

As to the treatment I applied, she pooped a really small amount last night but that's it.

Poop is good! Maybe the olive oil was beneficial.

Some long-haired domestic mammals will develop fecal impactions, usually after a bout with diarrhea, where the feces and hair forms a plug that prevents defecation. Left untreated, it can lead to the animals demise. Could a tarantula develop something similar that could also obstruct the spinnerets?