What to do???

[Taylor]

I have a mature male and i dont know what to do. He is old now. Been matured for almost a year. He rejects food and just sits crumpled in the corner, sometimes he moves to get water. He is not in a death curl. He has stopped trying to escape the enclosure to look for a female. I dont know if i should put him down or not. I have been fortunate and have not lost a T. Before. My other mature males were sent to breeders. So should I wait and see if he has a little longer or not?? When do i know its time to help him move on??

 

[phil jones]

sad to say i think he had it keep a look out for the old boy ---

 

[cheetah13mo]

At this point it is up to you as to what you think is moral. First, you can make it as comfortable as possible and wait for him to pass on his own or second, you can put him in a small container and put him in the freezer to end any possible suffering. It just depends on what you think is right for him.

If you want my opinion, it's hard to watch but I would let him pass on his time unless I knew for sure he was in pain. At that point I would intervene.

Sorry for your loss.

 

[Mina]

At this point it is up to you as to what you think is moral. First, you can make it as comfortable as possible and wait for him to pass on his own or second, you can put him in a small container and put him in the freezer to end any possible suffering. It just depends on what you think is right for him.

If you want my opinion, it's hard to watch but I would let him pass on his time unless I knew for sure he was in pain. At that point I would intervene.

Sorry for your loss.

I agree completely. My condolences.

 

[Poolnymph]

My heart aches for you!

Personally, unless I thought there was pain, I would let him be and when his time is here, he'll go peacefully.

Whatever you decide, my thoughts are with you!

 

[Johnny_27]

I lost a male this morning and I let him go on his own. He's gonna die anyways and there's nothing you can do about it. It might not be the best thing to hear but its the truth. It sucks watching them waste away tho.

Its up to you to freeze him or not, personaly unless stuff is dropping off, I would let him go by himself.

 

[cacoseraph]

well

considering the spider can't feel any pain or emotions i think worrying about making it "comfortable" is a waste of effort and purely for the human's misguided benefit.

honestly... no one seems to worry about the crickets and roaches "feelings" and they are just about as complex as the spiders that eat them.

so, don't worry about it... it is certainly not suffering

 

[cheetah13mo]

well considering the spider can't feel any pain or emotions

Are you speeking emotional or physical pain?

 

[cacoseraph]

Your correct on emotions but they have a nervous system that tells the T where water is and where it's next meal is. Along with wet, dry, hot, cold, vibrations and other things, why would pain not be a part of it? I had a T break it's foot and it darted around for the next couple of minutes like it was in pain. If it wasn't pain, why would it have acted that way?

well, i hate to drag the thread to another pain discussion/argument which is where it feels like it is going so i will basically sum up both sides.

science tells us that a tarantula does posses the nerves to have a damage reaction and avoidance system. but science also tells us that the level of sophsitication of a brain that is capable of feeling pain is orders of magnitude more cells and complexity. by feeling pain i mean that the creature anticipates pain with fear, remembers it with sorrow, and experiences cognition devoted to but apart from the impulses reaching its brain when damage is occuring.

there are all kinds of interesting experiments and anecdotes that tell us that inverts don't feel pain. look up some of the other threads, especially where code monkey talks

the emotional side tells us that because a tarantula runs away from damage it obviously feels pain. the problem with this is that even amoeba... single cell life forms... will avoid and react to damage. they will retreat from concentrations of acids or whatever that are bad for them towards purer water or whatever it is they live in.

don't get me wrong. i love animals. not humans so much, but all the other animals i am quite fond of. but to worry about how a simple animal that lacks emotions "feels" just seems like a big waste of time to me. all are certainly free to do as the wish, of course

 

[green_bottle_04]

were you not able to find someone to send him to for breeding?

my opinion...id freeze him. unless you have an emotional attachement to him (which i could never have to a spider as i only emotionally attach myself to things that reciprocate said emotions) then you are just dragging on the inevitable...and look at it this way. when he IS gone youll have room for a new baby to take his place.

 

[cheetah13mo]

Cool, learn things every day. Thanks. I didn't want to take the thread somewhere else either but in hind sight, I'm glad I asked.

I did the edit because as I was typing, I realized we might be in a different topic.

 

[cheetah13mo]

don't get me wrong. i love animals. not humans so much, but all the other animals i am quite fond of.

Couldn't have said that any better.

 

[Taylor]

No one wanted to take him for breeding. But i am attached to him. I dont really understand how someone can not get attached to something when they feed, water and care for it. Even though it does not love me back, I think it's very shallow not to care for something cause it cant love you back. We all have something we cherish that is not living and loving us back. It can be a car, jewelry, blanket, even a stupid book. If you dont have something you love like that, I feel really bad for you. Being sentimental is a great thing.