- Joined
- Mar 7, 2012
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- 4,095
On September 15 (two weeks ago), Bulldozer, my female Grammostola pulchra, molted. As far as I could tell, the molt looked normal. All of the parts that should be there are there, including the sucking stomach.
For the last two weeks, I've just been letting Bulldozer rest as she hardens up. Her water dish always has water in it. Last night, I saw her with her legs curled under her but didn't think much of it, because I've seen her (and other tarantulas) in odd positions like this in the weeks following a molt.
However, I started to worry when I checked on her this afternoon and found her in the same position. I am an experienced keeper, so ordinarily, I probably wouldn't be so quick to worry or intervene, but I have had three deaths in the last 12 days (more on that below), so I felt compelled to check on her. Bulldozer is clearly alive but lethargic. I did feel somewhat heartened that she is "fighting me" when I try to move her, but she is not her normal self.
I got Bulldozer over to her water dish and put her there for about 10 minutes in case she was too weak to go get a drink on her own. I am not sure if she actually drank anything. (The yellow thing you see is a mealworm pupa -- normally one of her favorite snacks -- that I tried to give her tonight to see if she would feed.)
Bulldozer is one of my first tarantulas and a personal favorite. I would be gutted to lose her. Is there anything I can do for her, or should I just let her rest and wait? I thought about putting her in a fresh enclosure (even though this is the same enclosure she has lived in for years), but I don't want to cause her any unnecessary distress.
A bit about the deaths, as this may be part of a pattern. On September 17, I lost my Augacephalus ezendami, which I got in 2018 as a sling. I am pretty sure that she failed to molt, because she had sealed off her burrow a few weeks ago, and when I found her, she was on her back and unresponsive, as if she had attempted to molt in her burrow, crawled out, and attempted again outside the burrow. (She was not yet dead when I first found her, but by the next evening, it was clear that she had passed.)
On September 26, I found my Megaphobema robustum dead. I am not sure exactly when she died, as she is a burrower that I rarely see. I did not see any obvious injuries, but it looked like she had been dead for a while, as the body was somewhat desiccated. As far as I can tell, she was eating and looked healthy whenever I saw her out. It is, however, possible that her enclosure got too try. (I know some people have had unexplained deaths with this species.)
Last night, I found my Caribena versicolor sling dead. I have raised a versi from sling to adult before, and I have also successfully raised Avicularia slings to adulthood, so I know how to care for these and how not to set up a death trap. I'd had this sling since December 2021, and she last molted on July 8. As far as I can tell, the molt was normal, and she looked and acted fine in the following two months.
Any one of these deaths I could probably write off as one of those unfortunate losses that hobbyists sometimes experience, but I've never lost three in such a short timeframe, so I am beginning to worry that there is something going on.
The way I've been keeping tarantulas has not changed. However, one thing I can point to that has changed is that we moved out of our apartment into our new house. We do not use pesticides. I don't know what the previous owner of the house may have used over the years, but the rooms where we are staying (we are renovating) were all thoroughly cleaned weeks before we moved in. We are not spraying chemicals in or near the home. We haven't even run the central A/C that services the part of the house where my tarantulas are, because it needs to be replaced.
I am somewhat inclined to think this is not a poisoning in the home, because there were no signs of problems with any of my tarantulas for the first two months we've been living here. However, I can't entirely rule that out, because I simply don't know the home's history prior to us taking possession in March.
One other thing that has changed is that two months ago, we adopted a kitten that was abandoned at the end of my driveway. Our cat lives outside and has no contact with the tarantulas. We do give him Revolution (selamectin), which is a topical medicine that protects him from fleas and ticks, but we always wash our hands after applying it and after handling the cat. So I don't think the cat is an issue.
Maybe I just rolled "snake eyes" with my collection and have experienced a bit of bad luck, with the three deaths being unrelated coincidences, but I can't help but worry that my other tarantulas are at risk. I don't have any obvious leads on what is going on and what I should do to address it. Unfortunately, we have a hurricane bearing down on us, so I am somewhat limited in what I can do immediately.
For the last two weeks, I've just been letting Bulldozer rest as she hardens up. Her water dish always has water in it. Last night, I saw her with her legs curled under her but didn't think much of it, because I've seen her (and other tarantulas) in odd positions like this in the weeks following a molt.
However, I started to worry when I checked on her this afternoon and found her in the same position. I am an experienced keeper, so ordinarily, I probably wouldn't be so quick to worry or intervene, but I have had three deaths in the last 12 days (more on that below), so I felt compelled to check on her. Bulldozer is clearly alive but lethargic. I did feel somewhat heartened that she is "fighting me" when I try to move her, but she is not her normal self.
I got Bulldozer over to her water dish and put her there for about 10 minutes in case she was too weak to go get a drink on her own. I am not sure if she actually drank anything. (The yellow thing you see is a mealworm pupa -- normally one of her favorite snacks -- that I tried to give her tonight to see if she would feed.)
Bulldozer is one of my first tarantulas and a personal favorite. I would be gutted to lose her. Is there anything I can do for her, or should I just let her rest and wait? I thought about putting her in a fresh enclosure (even though this is the same enclosure she has lived in for years), but I don't want to cause her any unnecessary distress.
A bit about the deaths, as this may be part of a pattern. On September 17, I lost my Augacephalus ezendami, which I got in 2018 as a sling. I am pretty sure that she failed to molt, because she had sealed off her burrow a few weeks ago, and when I found her, she was on her back and unresponsive, as if she had attempted to molt in her burrow, crawled out, and attempted again outside the burrow. (She was not yet dead when I first found her, but by the next evening, it was clear that she had passed.)
On September 26, I found my Megaphobema robustum dead. I am not sure exactly when she died, as she is a burrower that I rarely see. I did not see any obvious injuries, but it looked like she had been dead for a while, as the body was somewhat desiccated. As far as I can tell, she was eating and looked healthy whenever I saw her out. It is, however, possible that her enclosure got too try. (I know some people have had unexplained deaths with this species.)
Last night, I found my Caribena versicolor sling dead. I have raised a versi from sling to adult before, and I have also successfully raised Avicularia slings to adulthood, so I know how to care for these and how not to set up a death trap. I'd had this sling since December 2021, and she last molted on July 8. As far as I can tell, the molt was normal, and she looked and acted fine in the following two months.
Any one of these deaths I could probably write off as one of those unfortunate losses that hobbyists sometimes experience, but I've never lost three in such a short timeframe, so I am beginning to worry that there is something going on.
The way I've been keeping tarantulas has not changed. However, one thing I can point to that has changed is that we moved out of our apartment into our new house. We do not use pesticides. I don't know what the previous owner of the house may have used over the years, but the rooms where we are staying (we are renovating) were all thoroughly cleaned weeks before we moved in. We are not spraying chemicals in or near the home. We haven't even run the central A/C that services the part of the house where my tarantulas are, because it needs to be replaced.
I am somewhat inclined to think this is not a poisoning in the home, because there were no signs of problems with any of my tarantulas for the first two months we've been living here. However, I can't entirely rule that out, because I simply don't know the home's history prior to us taking possession in March.
One other thing that has changed is that two months ago, we adopted a kitten that was abandoned at the end of my driveway. Our cat lives outside and has no contact with the tarantulas. We do give him Revolution (selamectin), which is a topical medicine that protects him from fleas and ticks, but we always wash our hands after applying it and after handling the cat. So I don't think the cat is an issue.
Maybe I just rolled "snake eyes" with my collection and have experienced a bit of bad luck, with the three deaths being unrelated coincidences, but I can't help but worry that my other tarantulas are at risk. I don't have any obvious leads on what is going on and what I should do to address it. Unfortunately, we have a hurricane bearing down on us, so I am somewhat limited in what I can do immediately.
