Tailless Whip Spider- Damon Medius, weird behavior?

Wayne Guillot

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 30, 2019
Messages
12
Hello, this is my first post on this site by I have browsed a few forum posts here before so sorry I have posted this in the wrong area.

I recently bought a whip Spider from a reptile expo and I believe it to be Damon Medius I believe is the name. Everything seemed fine very active moved around a lot. Put it into new enclosure kept the enclosure very wet had well ventilation and even tossed in some crickets. However, as of the past two days it has really done nothing but sit and it seems scared of the crickets so I have taken them out. Does anybody know what's with the weird behavior, is it possible it's about to molt ?
 

mantisfan101

Arachnoprince
Joined
Dec 26, 2018
Messages
1,755
It’ll take a while for it to acclimate. It took mine a full year until it finally molted to settle down to captive life. Just give it some time and don’t bother it too much. Also, good on you for keeping it so wet and humid!
 

Wayne Guillot

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 30, 2019
Messages
12
It’ll take a while for it to acclimate. It took mine a full year until it finally molted to settle down to captive life. Just give it some time and don’t bother it too much. Also, good on you for keeping it so wet and humid!
Also was wondering how often I should I feed it? Should I toss a cricket in there tonight and see if it is there tomorrow?
 

mantisfan101

Arachnoprince
Joined
Dec 26, 2018
Messages
1,755
These guys are relatively hardy. Wait a week at the minimum before offering food. Toss the cricket in and wait and see.
 

aphono

Arachnobaron
Joined
Mar 11, 2017
Messages
481
If you mean by sitting on substrate it's not humid enough. Chances are good it's either a recent import or has been sitting on the sales shelf for a good while with less than optimal humidity(something I still see all too often). They are tough and are able to hang on for a while but even so they have limits. IMO dehydration is one of the main, if not THE main reason for their stressed condition.

If that's the case for your whip:

If the above substrate materials are drying off quick, would suggest reducing the ventilationand misting everything above substrate. Mist to the point there's condensation everywhere. Flood the substrate if necessary to the point it's sopping wet- no worries if too much water is added and there's standing water present. They don't need to be well ventilated like the usual pet so reducing the ventilation will help in holding the humidity better. If the enclosure is an exo terra tall or something similar, cover the top completely with plastic cling wrap or anything to hold in the humidity(the ventilation bar in front plus door gaps will be adequate ventilation). Do the same for screen top glass tanks except leave a finger or two finger sized gap along one side. Keep it super, majorly humid for a week minimum. Couple weeks would be nice. When it's recovered they won't need to be kept like this- the above is purely to help them recover.

As for feeding, it depends. If it's been sitting on the substrate, could be it's too dehydrated to think about feeding. In this case, if it seems to perk up after flooding/hard misting and climbs off substrate you can try feeding a single cricket a day or two later. Take away then try again 2 days if not taken overnight.

If it's just sitting in one spot off substrate, could be it's not yet completely recovered(I still would mist hard for the first week or two just to be sure) or it could be okay and simply not hungry yet. Try feeding a single cricket in few days or a week. Other than that it could be recovered and simply not hungry. They're not frequent eaters. One cricket a week or two sort of is the average. It's not rare for them to skip a week or two yet other times they seem ravenous, aggressively chasing the cricket around and seem to want more than one a week.

Premolt signs are not screamingly obvious for the most part. One sign is a plump abdomen with the skin on the sides showing a stretched out look. (btw if the abdomen is thin or especially 'paper thin' I especially recommend flooding/hard misting above)
 
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BenLeeKing

Arachnoknight
Joined
Nov 23, 2017
Messages
239
I would also suggest adding a water dish. I have one of those large ceramic feeding plates, and use it as a water pool. And I use cardboard pieces to cover the top to reduce humidity loss.
 
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