Vinegaroon issue?

[rls0719]

Hi there, we’ve had our Vinegaroon for about a year now and suddenly these new scrapes appeared on the side of her abdomen along with white stuff around her tail (which was broken when we got her). I’m guessing the white stuff is poop, but it’s not normal. Has anyone seen this before? Also not sure where the scrapes came from. Could she be molting? She isn’t eating so something has changed. Thanks for any advice!

 

[darkness975]

Hi there, we’ve had our Vinegaroon for about a year now and suddenly these new scrapes appeared on the side of her abdomen along with white stuff around her tail (which was broken when we got her). I’m guessing the white stuff is poop, but it’s not normal. Has anyone seen this before? Also not sure where the scrapes came from. Could she be molting? She isn’t eating so something has changed. Thanks for any advice!

Looks very full.

What is the entire enclosure setup? Has it gone through its hibernation period?

What are the average temps and substrate moisture level?

How much substrate is there? Can it burrow?

 

[rls0719]

Here is a pic of the enclosure. We just changed it to clean it out and make it deeper. Coco fiber and reptisoil mix. We had sand in there before but it wasn’t very deep. Room temp is kept at 70 as my daughter has all her other critters in her room so no additional heat source. The light is just a critter black light for viewing. Always has a full bowl of water and she drinks regularly. Sometimes she’s more active than other days but lately she has been in her hide more often. A few weeks ago she was acting oddly like she was trying to scrape the adhesive from one corner of the tank. It was just a couple nights and then she stopped. When she digs it’s only on the surface or in the corners. She was very active after cleaning out the tank. Presumably just exploring her new terrain. Are we missing something important or doing something wrong?

 

[Smotzer]

Here is a pic of the enclosure. We just changed it to clean it out and make it deeper. Coco fiber and reptisoil mix. We had sand in there before but it wasn’t very deep. Room temp is kept at 70 as my daughter has all her other critters in her room so no additional heat source. The light is just a critter black light for viewing. Always has a full bowl of water and she drinks regularly. Sometimes she’s more active than other days but lately she has been in her hide more often. A few weeks ago she was acting oddly like she was trying to scrape the adhesive from one corner of the tank. It was just a couple nights and then she stopped. When she digs it’s only on the surface or in the corners. She was very active after cleaning out the tank. Presumably just exploring her new terrain. Are we missing something important or doing something wrong?

Okay so yeah it doesn’t look truly optimized for Thelyphonida care there’s no burrowing depth and it looks rather dry. You didn’t say species but in general Thelyphonida should have enough substrate that is slightly moist to dig burrow in and create chambers in. They are a fossorial creature that lives underground portions of the year and you have very little substrate for it to burrow in. I would replace the substrate with some type of additive free topsoil or something that holds moisture and doesn’t dry out to quickily and add that up to at least halfway, if not a little more, full up. This should help.

 

[rls0719]

Okay so yeah it doesn’t look truly optimized for Thelyphonida care there’s no burrowing depth and it looks rather dry. You didn’t say species but in general Thelyphonida should have enough substrate that is slightly moist to dig burrow in and create chambers in. They are a fossorial creature that lives underground portions of the year and you have very little substrate for it to burrow in. I would replace the substrate with some type of additive free topsoil or something that holds moisture and doesn’t dry out to quickily and add that up to at least halfway, if not a little more, full up. This should help.

Thanks so much! We’ll fix up her place up!

 

[Smotzer]

Thanks so much! We’ll fix up her place up!

Anytime! And sounds good! We’re given a species name when you were sold it?

 

[rls0719]

Anytime! And sounds good! We’re given a species name when you were sold it?

No, my daughter is the one who is really into critters and this was her first one. She purchased it from the local pet store and it was just marked Vinegaroon so we did research on those but didn’t find a ton of information available. Your info is super helpful. We just know it was sitting in a critter keeper for like 9 months with very little soil so we thought our tank was luxurious in comparison until she started acting different. We’ve had her for a year now.

 

[Smotzer]

No, my daughter is the one who is really into critters and this was her first one. She purchased it from the local pet store and it was just marked Vinegaroon so we did research on those but didn’t find a ton of information available. Your info is super helpful. We just know it was sitting in a critter keeper for like 9 months with very little soil so we thought our tank was luxurious in comparison until she started acting different. We’ve had her for a year now.

Maybe this will help, where are you from or was it bought, ie. country/state?

Well don’t beat yourself up I am sure your tank was a huge improvement over what it has before that and you did put in thought into it I can see that, what I suggested is only a minor change. You’ve had it for a year you say, did it every try to go underground or seal itself off during the winter? This should happen every year but the lack of depth and moisture may have hindered that.

 

[goonius]

Okay so yeah it doesn’t look truly optimized for Thelyphonida care there’s no burrowing depth and it looks rather dry. You didn’t say species but in general Thelyphonida should have enough substrate that is slightly moist to dig burrow in and create chambers in. They are a fossorial creature that lives underground portions of the year and you have very little substrate for it to burrow in. I would replace the substrate with some type of additive free topsoil or something that holds moisture and doesn’t dry out to quickily and add that up to at least halfway, if not a little more, full up. This should help.

I agree with this and wanted to add that you will want to pack the new substrate down very, very firmly. This will help the burrows that the vinegaroon excavates hold their shape and not collapse. We use peat for our vinegaroon because we can’t find topsoil — this works fine too. Do know that, once set up properly, the vinegaroon will hide herself for perhaps months out the year. We haven’t seen ours since November.

 

[Smotzer]

I agree with this and wanted to add that you will want to pack the new substrate down very, very firmly. This will help the burrows that the vinegaroon excavates hold their shape and not collapse. We use peat for our vinegaroon because we can’t find topsoil — this works fine too. Do know that, once set up properly, the vinegaroon will hide herself for perhaps months out the year. We haven’t seen ours since November.

Yea I did forget to add that! And what I will say is that Peat works too, just make sure you pre-moisten it before hand in a tub! I get more rapid burrowing out and better burrows of topsoil with my vinegaroons now that I’ve switched over to it but peat or any mixture of peat or otherwise is just as much suitable!!. I had to switch off of peat as it was drying way to fast for me having to moisten the soil every week for every one of them.

 

[darkness975]

Here is a pic of the enclosure. We just changed it to clean it out and make it deeper. Coco fiber and reptisoil mix. We had sand in there before but it wasn’t very deep. Room temp is kept at 70 as my daughter has all her other critters in her room so no additional heat source. The light is just a critter black light for viewing. Always has a full bowl of water and she drinks regularly. Sometimes she’s more active than other days but lately she has been in her hide more often. A few weeks ago she was acting oddly like she was trying to scrape the adhesive from one corner of the tank. It was just a couple nights and then she stopped. When she digs it’s only on the surface or in the corners. She was very active after cleaning out the tank. Presumably just exploring her new terrain. Are we missing something important or doing something wrong?

Is that a UV light ?