Palp question

[Barbara Gittings]

Hi All

Hope you all had a good Christmas and New year, sorry if I'm a bit late with my greeting but have been off line again for a few weeks (long story).

Could one of you be so kind as to tell me if a T loses one of its palps during moult will this affect its eating? will it grow back with next moult? Has anyone heard of this before?

My reason for asking is (back to the petshop!) The T in my local pet shop lost one of its palps during a moult, the T was picked up before it had finished moulting, so it could of happend then. I'm a bit concerned about him as they have put him in a room with bright lights all day, he's quite high up as well I can only just see him on tip toe!! ( I can feel a rescue mission coming on here)

Your thoughts please

Barbara

[James Box]

hi! best belated wishes of the season to you too! welcome back

pet shops can be very careless in how they house animals. in my local, they have P cavimanus mixed with P imperator! apparently no deaths, but i wouldn't want to try it. also, the possibility of cross-breading makes it quite bad.

i think a T might be able to eat with one palp...but i would expect it to be a handicap in actually securing prey. T's are very adaptable, though, so maybe if not traumatised too badly it may just get on with things.
some T's eat food that's already dead, apparently, so that might be an answer.
regeneration, so i'm told, can sometimes not happen if the break happens too close to the body, but i'm not sure about that. but there's reason to hope that with some attention and care, the T should recover.
what kind of T is it, out of curiosity?

if you do rescue it, i hope it's not too expensive. i suppose you can haggle seeing as it's injured... be merciless in your haggling

[Barbara Gittings]

Hi James

Thanks for your reply, very helpful. I'm not entirely sure but I think it's one of the curly haired T's, although it looks very black in colour. Unfotunately too high for me to get a good look, but I'm back up that way later in the week so will go and have a good look then. Maybe ask a few questions about whether he's eating or not.

It's begining to prey on my mind alot at mo, but don't worry I shall certainly haggle, I think its up for about £37.00, not sure if that's good or bad, I buy mine from online shops. Tarantula shop and Spider shop.

Thanks again James

Barbara

[James Box]

no prob! well see if you can talk them down. £37 doesn't sound terrible if for a decent-sized T, but save what you can

[Ray Hale]

A tarantula can often lose a leg or palp during a moult. It shouldnt really have too many problems eating and it will regenerate at the next moult.It is not an uncommon occurence and the spider should recover. They have a very clever self healing system.

On rare occassions it has been known that a mature male can moult again. This however does cause problems since the mature male has fully developed palpal bulbs and these can often be pulled off during the moult and the spider can become stuck. I would stress that for a mature male to moult again is rare.


Hope this helps

ray

[Barbara Gittings]

Thanks Ray, he/she is definitely not mature, as they have had the T since it was about 5cm. Probabaly about 10 -15 cm now so not that old. I got my G.rosea from there in about March and they did not get this one till after March, more like May/June time.

I'll keep an eye on this one tho, as I'm getting rather attached (there's a surprise) I think I'm the only one who bothers to even look at him.

On another point, just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the mag, have only just got around to reading it.

Barbara

[Ray Hale]

Thanks for the compliments on the Journal Barbara. Always happy to help.

One should remeber that anything is worth what someone is willing to pay and if you think it is a reasonable spider then go for it. It really depends on the species. Did you say what it was? If you did and Ive missed it sorry.

Best wishes

Ray