White Spot on Abdomen Post Molt

[volcanopele]

My AF L. klugi "Wanda" molted last night (thus answering my earlier question about pre-molt length, turns out it is about 1 month). I've been very careful to leave her be today, except to remove the discarded shed, and even then I waited until she was touching no part of it (she is actually still hovering over her old carapace so that's still in the enclosure). Shortly after I removed the old shed, I went back to my shelves to check in on her and she was lying on her side and moving her legs and chelicerae around. Never seen that before, but post-molt, I guess tarantulas can get into odd positions to stretch things out. I even took a video of it, which I'll post on Youtube shortly.


While I was checking Wanda out, I noticed that there was a bright, somewhat shiny, white spot on the underside of her abdomen. Is this some sort of injury? I can't think of when she might have hurt herself. She's mostly been doing typical, post-molt things (except for tipping over on her side to do some grooming). Other than the white spot, she doesn't seem in distress. Right now she is lying low on her substrate and stretching.

I don't know how old she is. Wanda was purchased as an adult and the store where I got her from said that she had been part of an arachnologist's collection and they had been looking to offload some of their excess specimens.

I guess whether it's an injury or now, given that she is very much in early post-molt, there wouldn't be anything I could do anyway besides just leave her alone for a while. I hadn't planned on feeding her for at least a month but should I consider going longer because of this? Or am I just being an overly concerned tarantula parent?

 

[volcanopele]

Here's that video of Wanda stretching and moving on her side:

 

[Bugmom]

There's no need to wait a month after a molt to feed. Wait a week, she'll be ready to eat.

As for the spot, I looked at the photo of the molt, and it kinda looks like there's a spot on the molt in the same spot as the white spot on your T. Is it possible that it's always been there? In any case, if it's not leaking fluid or her abdomen isn't deflating, and she's behaving normal (the grooming/stretching after a molt is normal) then I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[volcanopele]

If you look at the photo from when Wanda was on her back, taken just as she was starting to molt, or within a couple of hours of her flipping over, there is a dark spot surrounded by a bright ring on her abdomen, right about where the bright spot is now. Unfortunately I've never seen her underside except for these two opportunities; she just isn't inclined to try to climb the glass like my other Ts.

Her abdomen isn't deflating as far as I can tell and otherwise she seems to be acting normally for a T that just molted the night before. As far as fluid leakage, that kinda what I was wondering, if this bright spot is fluid leakage from a wound. I just can't think of what should could have possibly injured herself on.

I've read different amounts of time to wait before offering food. She is by far my largest T and my only adult at the moment so I don't feel right using the same time frames I use for the others. For the others, I let them decide: when they are out and about, I figure they are ready for food. But she molted out in the open. She's always out and about and only hides if I am doing things in the cage. So yeah, I have to use some amount of time.

 

[Bugmom]

I'm not sure that she injured herself, I'm thinking it might be something congenital. All you really can do is wait and see, especially since you can't do anything with her until she hardens up.

A month is still way too much time to wait to feed a T after molting though. That's beyond caution and into paranoia territory. Don't start wearing a tinfoil hat

 

[viper69]

I've seen that type of spot on a T or two of my own. I've always interpreted it to be a weak spot on the exoskeleton. My Ts are alive, so I can't exactly open them up and look hah.

I feed them a bit less over time. As it molts, that portion will slowly go back to normal.

As for when to feed, you feed when fangs are black. Molts: white>red>black. My B smithi, an AF, sometimes will wait a few weeks after her fangs are black. Being black is not a guarantee it will eat.

 

[volcanopele]

Thanks for calming me down viper and bugmom. This morning she again seems fine, just doing more stretching. Her abdomen actually seems fuller, as expected. Regardless of what it is, it doesn't seem to be bothering her.

I just noticed in the big photo I posted up at the top that Wanda is once again using her water dish as a toilet. Nothing I can really do about it right now since she's too close to it. Because she throws up a threat pose whenever I do cage maintenance (she NEVER uses her hairs, which was the main reason I had to ask about the length of a typical pre-molt last week since she had no bald spot), I use the cage lid to block her if I need to use my hands.

 

[volcanopele]

I managed to get a better photo of the spot though from a bit of a weird angle. She definitely didn't have a spot like that before she molted...

 

[viper69]

I managed to get a better photo of the spot though from a bit of a weird angle. She definitely didn't have a spot like that before she molted...

My emilia had something like that. In point of fact, it could have been something completely different but looked the same. I fed her lightly, molted it's practically gone. There's a sticky in one of the forums about Ts getting cysts for lack of better word. I'd look into that.

 

[volcanopele]

So this is reviving a bit of a zombie thread, but I thought I would provide an update. Since Wanda's molt back in October 2016, she has molted three more times, most recently on July 18. After her molt in March 2018, the spot looked much the same. After her molt in June 2019, it looked like a dark spot ringed in an orange outline:



I finally got a good look at her underside today for the first time since last month's molt, and this is how it looks:



Any know a good tarantula dermatologist? Seriously though, she's been doing fine these last four years except for that spot on her abdomen. Doesn't seem to slow her down.