tarantula stuck in molt

[kittieheretic]

our tarantula is stuck in his molt and has been for roughly 48hrs. she/hes less than a yr old(up to a yr) and a mexican red knee. hes got his head and everything off but not his legs. hes on his back and we've upped the humidity of his box by putting a fair amount of water on his substrate and puttin the heatmats on him. its starting to steam up. we opened the box and he has moved a couple of times within the last hr so he is alive still. what we really need to know is how long till he is too hardened to escape, can we help at all and if he cant get the old skin off will he be ok?
we did try to brush a little water onto the old skin on his legs incase it was too dry.
help?!

 

[kittieheretic]

i forgot to say his legs have been about 1/3-1/2 off for at least 24 hrs

 

[SK8TERBOI]

If he is Truly Stuck you could try carefully assisting him out

 

[kittieheretic]

how? we read a little bout it and tried but to no avail

 

[Abby]

Oh I'm so sorry about your T.

I recently read about another T being stuck in the molt, and the owner helped.
Here is a thread in the forum I read it.
http://www.atshq.org/boards/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=26521&hilit=stuck+in+molt

Also Robc has a video about him helping his T.
http://www.youtube.com/user/tarantulaguy1976?blend=1&ob=4#p/search/7/-wwygO2ou48

I hope this helps

 

[Falk]

Remove the heat mats, they will cause him to overheat

 

[robd]

I had this happen with a P rufilata sling a couple of weeks ago, when it tried to molt. Pictures would help a great deal in trying to give advice on what to do.

Otherwise, you kind of have to assess the situation on your own. If all of it's legs are stuck, obviously you've got a problem and need to do something about it cause it will have trouble eating. If it's just a couple of legs, the old molt will dry up and become easier to shake off naturally. If it's hanging by enough of a thread, you could take it off with a pair of tweezers, but I would only do that after the T has hardened up, as you run a higher risk of accidentally pulling the leg it's attached to off.

That's my two cents.