Glasgow Andrew Has Some Questions

[Andrew Murdoch]

Hi Everybody,
well I was wondering what was going on with my Red Knee, cos it went underground for a while and was off its food! I put up a few posts and it was suggested that 'Boris' was pre-molt.
Well I moved my vivarium to a warmer part of my room and I think that has been a good idea.
Well I saw Boris today and he/she came out and did a bit of rearranging of the burrow. He looked like he had lost a wee bit of weight but I also noticed that he/she had molted as I saw the shed part in the burrow, I was well exited, Boris is looking all 'new' with shiney hair and stuff. he looks 'skinny' tho.
So will my Red Knee through out the shed skin, if not should I just leave it, I am not too sure when the molt happened, so should I give crickets just now or wait another day or so. My Red Knee is a juvinile)
I am well chuffed. Boris looks good. he just needs to be plumped up a bit.

[Phil Rea]

If you can get to it with tweezers, then remove it. If not, then don't worry too much about it. He'll get rid of it or web it up if it's bothering him, as long as it's not in a particularly moist area it should be fine. They sometimes do look thin just after a moult, so no worries there either

I'd give him a few days before feeding just in case. It won't do him any harm even if he is already fully hardened up

[Andrew Murdoch]

Thanks Phil

Cheers for that Phil.
After reading other posts I am wondering again! if my heat mat is ok. I have it on the base of the viv, i see other folks have it on a side etc. I am a wee bit confuused again. Just wanna do the best i can.

[Dee Pluck]

its great that you're asking questions rather than not being bothered,
every member here is only too glad to help if we can because we've all
been there starting out and asking questions,
and the questions NEVER end. lol

you should put the heat mat on the side of the tank not under it.

[James Box]

Andy, everyone goes through these learning stages, so it's great you're asking questions!

i only recently learned about putting the heatmat on the side myself lol!
i'm getting far better results now. the heat diffuses better throughout the area and i'm finding it's possible to heat more tanks with less effort.
apparently i may be forced to take notes and observe and churn out some sort of article now, though lol...so be careful, it could happen to you too

some don't use heatmats at all, but instead use bulbs that heat from above, like the sun. others use the ambient temperature of the room, which is usually fine if kept a bit warmer and fairly constant (dropping off at night is good if you can do it).

many T's spend alot of time in burrows that are cool compared to outside temperatures, and also come out at night, again when it's cooler. just another thing to keep in mind.

this is another thing i only learned recently: after a tarantula moults, its fangs take a bit longer than the rest of its body to harden, which makes it inadvisable to try eating. you can see that the fangs are white right after a moult. now, if his fangs are already dark, he may be nearly ready for food, but don't worry too much. it's not the end of the world for your tarantula to lose a bit of girth, and (another thing i've just learned) you probably don't want him to be too fat, anyways. let the abdomen be a bit larger than the carapace, and he should be alright.

[Phil Rea]

Ok people. I've moved Ole's posts and the responses to a new thread here to avoid cluttering up Andrew's thread.

The discussion can continue over there