help my avic.avic

[Naython J]

im quite worried bout my avic.avic at the min basically she has not ate for about 2 months and turned a very pale colour, until recently i guessed she was pre molt but she still has not webbed she rarely moves and it seems labourous when she does

i keep the humidity at roughly 75-80 and the temp at a steady 75 i mist her every 2-3 days but recently have started doing it daily i have a shallow water dish in so sghe has plenty of water.

yesterday i decided enough was enough as she still did not sem ready to moult so im guessing she is poorly so i placeher her in a icu unit with half wet tissue and half dry tissue i place the container in a large box to give her complete darkness and placvced a medium cricket in after 24hrs cric was still there and she was just laying on the tissue.

i wanted to check her out so i gently nudged her bum and she did make a movement and is moving pretty ok now but i was worried she was not eating looking at her fangs they seem ok but i placed a small plastic straw in front of her and moved iti to hwer mouth she slightly reared but did not make an agressive attemt to bite after a while i moved the straw onto her fangs literally touching he and she wouldnt do antything no biting no rearing she did start to move away eventually.

her movement is more fluid again but still not interestedin attacking or being mad the cric has now been removed and will retry tomorrow

anyone have a sim expereince or good advice as im very worried about her

[James Box]

my Avic fasted for a couple months as well, may have even been three months.
she also was slow in general, but she proved she could still run and jump
i tried to raise the humidity in her tank, and eventually i put a cricket in and saw her with it in her jaws not too long after.
i'm not at all knowledgable on this genus, but after asking a very similar question here, minus the ICU, i was told that they do in fact fast for periods of time, relating to the dry and rainy seasons they normally have.
might be worth looking into raising the humidity and try some more feeding.
i'm sure your spider is fine

[Naython J]

cheers mate knowig that its happened somewhere else and is fine now eases my mind somewhat i am using the 24hr in and out technique with feeding at the mo so hope it works

im concerned at the lack of reaction to having the straw on her fangs though if she was fine would she not maybe ward off the straw with a warning bite or stance??

[Nicola Dolby]

Hi Naython,

Although I've not seen this behaviour from Avics before, James clearly has so all I can add is how is she drinking? If the spider is taking fluids that's half the battle won. You could give her a water bowl but my arborials ignore theirs, proffering to drink water droplets from the back wall of the tank or off of the leaves on the ornamental flowers in their tanks. Whichever way works keep her fluids up, then we can deal with the rest.
Good luck.

[James Box]

interesting, Nicola...i should probably be dribbling water down for her rather than relying on the water bowl.
i didn't catch mine drinking that whole time either, but doesn't mean that she didn't drink.

the lack of reaction to the straw doesn't surprise me. this species seems incredibly reluctant to bite in my very limited experience.

[Naython J]

finding it difficult to tell she does seem to ignore the water bowl most of the time so as i say i mis regular whilst she in icu she seems to stay off the wet section which if she is dehydrated is strange tending to guess she not im not sure in all honesty, i must say though i got home from work just and found her actually on the wall of the icu which made me smile somewhat since recently everytime she tried to climb she fell so im guessing her strength is coming back i hope im going to leave her in icu for a few more days, and ive started building her a new enclosure new substrate/hide/plants etc so when thats done and its at right temp/hum ill put her back in there im not gonna feed here again for a few days either the fact she is ignoring food and her abdomin is a fair size suggests she is fasting,

im just hoping its a long pre molt and im just over worried with the death of my l.para recently

thanks for all the advice

[Tom Forman]

what exactly are you feeding her?

Very few spiders will turn down a maggot or a waxworm, you could try one of those maybe and see if she eats it.

[Naython J]

usually locusts but not been able to get them so just changed to black crix tried her on waxworms when i had her she had none of it lol

not gonna give her crix again unless they silent ones bloody keep me awake all night and i got em downsairs behind FOUR closed doors/rooms lol

[lee smith]

hi naython

i would suggest increasing the temperature that she's in up-to 85f, this may stimulate her into thinking that its high summer and become more active.

i hope this helps

lee smith

[Naython J]

yeah i might try that ,

would it be worth letting her try out a lil first so she dont get overly humid?

[Naython J]

lil update:

i transfered her back into her regulare enclosure which i had compleley cleaned and sorted out i removed the wood log and replaced it with a fake plant plant up the one side,

she loves it she climbed to the top and is exploreing around it as i found out the main reason she prob aint able to climb the walls is premolt so all seems well

icu definatley helped though since she been in and out she is so much more lively when she moves she darts instead of edges.

without getting to ahead all seems to be good and normal again


THANKYOU EVERYONE for the great help and advice ill always be grateful to you

[Naython J]

well its been a few weeks and she still not eating i have a fresh water bowl in there ive got the temp runnig between 75-85 humidity up at 80 and im leaving her to herself only go in the tank to spray or give new water and a cpl of times to feed,

but still nothing she wont eat so ive give up trying sometimes i think she is gonna start a molt she webs a lil then nothing, what was crazy about four days ago she spun a mat on the fllor and sat on it and im thinking thats a dead cert molt matt so i walked away ididnt even go near the tank for a cpl days now i look in and she chilling across from the mat its still there but no matter where i look there aint no molt.

im not particularly worried about her right now as she seems healthy but im somewhat confused with her now.

just wanted to let all that checked into this thread how things where going.

[Nicola Dolby]

To be honest Naython I'm confused about this. Avics usually live in sock webs and when they are ready to moult they seal the ends so bugs like crickets can't get in. Myself I'd keep the humidity up, and the temperature, throw in half a dozen crickets and leave them there. Also make sure there is good ventilation. You say she recovered in ICU. Which area did she profer then, the damper or the drier? Also contact Ray Gabriel and ask for his help. He knows loads about Avic and may be able to advise you more.
best wishes

[Naython J]

ever since i have had her i have only ever known her to have one tube web, i think she likes being different to befair she rarely webbed apart from pre molt i was thinking about leaving a few in with her but when i had one in with her she never bothered with it even when it crawled on her and being evil things they are i dont want them to be the death of her.

its ben about 10 wks or so now since everything went wierd and when in icu she stayed on the drier side, she seems to be ok but in a stupidly long premoult so gonna leaver her for another say 3 weeks and if she aint eaten or moulted then well it will be drastic emergency action then, i just dontr want to put her in the freezer!!