'Trapdoor' blue-foot tarantula/I. mira broken!!

[emartinm28]

Lo and behold, it was in pre-molt! Issue is, I recently tried to feed it easier today, and a cricket is still somewhere in the enclosure. It seems its molted OK, but do I need to worry about the cricket or shall I get it out? Molts are so flipping stressful! View attachment 382181

Yes remove that cricket immediately, crickets are known to kill molting tarantulas!

 

[ErinM31]

I’ve found that for some of my fossorials, it helps to start with the substrate fairly well packed down except for a starter burrow (for slings I put a finger in the substrate and pack it down all around. I think if the substrate is too loose it just collapses in as they try to burrow.

 

[Oswoc]

Worth the wait. Colours are amazing, and she's hardening up nicely

 

[ErinM31]

Worth the wait. Colours are amazing, and she's hardening up nicely View attachment 382372

Glad to see and congrats on the lovely T! Hopefully she’ll settle in and get to work on her burrow after she’s fully hardened, which can take a while depending on size.

My I. mira always obliterates her molts and scatters the pieces throughout the substrate as if she were trying to hide the evidence! I’ve never seen another T do this and wonder whether it’s peculiar to the species or an individual quirk.

 

[Kamikaze]

Congratulations! What a good looking specimen!

 

[Oswoc]

Sorry to Resurrect this old thread, but seeking more advice on my I. mira. Since molting, she's not eating. I offer her food every week, crickets, roaches, worms, but they never disappear. She's well and truly built a burrow and covered it, presumably a trap door, but she's never had to use it. She has plenty of clean water too, I even spray her door sometimes In case she doesn't want to come out lol

Is this normal? I know Roseas and brachys can fast, but didn't know mine would? Been over 6 weeks now!! Or am I just being a noob again and panicking over nothing?

Thanks again!

 

[8 legged]

I could see with my mira that a "home" is important to her. If I move it, it won't eat until its "trap door" is completed...
If nothing else is noticeable, I would not worry for the time being.

 

[liquidfluidity]

I have 2. They are definitely out of the norm and stop eating off and on regularly. All I can say is patience.

 

[Oswoc]

Ok thanks guys, will keep waiting and update you in a month or so when she orders a takeaway

 

[Oswoc]

Update!
She's molted AGAIN without eating anything since her last molt. No idea how she did that. Seems to have molted twice off whatever her previous seller fed her before shipping her out to me. I also have no idea how she stuffed her molt down the side of this rock thats hugging the glass!?!
She's my strangest T by a mile...

Love it!

 

[Ungoliant]

Update!
She's molted AGAIN without eating anything since her last molt. No idea how she did that. Seems to have molted twice off whatever her previous seller fed her before shipping her out to me.

Are you sure she didn't actually eat anything?

If she truly didn't eat, she may have had an issue that prevented her from eating and did a "fast molt" to repair it. Hopefully she will eat when she hardens up.

 

[Oswoc]

Are you sure she didn't actually eat anything?

If she truly didn't eat, she may have had an issue that prevented her from eating and did a "fast molt" to repair it. Hopefully she will eat when she hardens up.

I never leave food in with her, except for waxworms. She may have eaten a burried one that I missed... other than that, I have no idea what happened.
Keen to see what she does next!

 

[Smotzer]

I never leave food in with her, except for waxworms. She may have eaten a burried one that I missed... other than that, I have no idea what happened.
Keen to see what she does next!

Be very careful leaving burrowing worms in an enclosure without crushing their heads, there is potential risk to a molting arthropod getting fed on my some feeders.

 

[Oswoc]

Apologies again on Resurrecting this thread - my I. Mira appears to have ESCAPED! Or has been crushed inside her burrow for a long time and disintegrated.

So my last post was July, with a molt of hers. I hadn't seen her before or after this strange molt. I assumed she was healthy but just hiding underground. I'd always keep fresh water in there for her, I'd throw a roach in once a week but she'd never eat it so I'd take it out after a few days.

I thought she was being fussy or shy this whole time... but my patience ran out and I JUST dug out her entire enclosure and have found no sign of her. Just some webbed up coir chunks, but no remains of a dead T.

Her enclosure has a fairly strong magnetic lid, often with other items on top to weigh it down, and she was a small T - but I can only imagine she escaped!?

Value any input on this... quite unerving. Really frustrating to find her infamous webbed up trap door, but no Tarantula

I'd rather find her dead than not find her at all if I'm honest...

 

[Wolfram1]

sorry to doubt you but are you sure that second molt was acctually a molt and not a dead, dried up spider? i couldnt tell from the picture...

 

[Oswoc]

sorry to doubt you but are you sure that second molt was acctually a molt and not a dead, dried up spider? i couldnt tell from the picture...

Turns out you're right

I falsely assumed it was a molt...
I keep all my old molts thankfully and I rexemanied this one to find it wasn't a molt but a dried up intact spider

Peace of mind at least that I don't have an OW roaming the house... but sad as I don't know what I got wrong with husbandry!?

 

[Wolfram1]

probably just the stone placement, it might have gotten stuck in the crevice

and maybe not paying enough attention...