I've got an Alopecosa cuneata (I think the common name is Fox spider?) that I captured in my livingroom some weeks ago. When I found her she was missing legs 1 and 2 on her left side and was very small, about half an inch long at most not counting legspan. While checking on all my spiders last night, I did a triple take when I got to her.. "okay, doing good... oh nice, she got her legs back... what is THAT?" Well, she seems to have gotten stuck at some point, shedding everything but the top part of her cephalothorax which is now attached to her at about a 45 degree angle.
It's been stuck to her all day now and I have no idea if I should attempt to remove it myself or see if she does it. I'm afraid of it possibly complicating her next molt if I leave it alone, but she's extremely high-strung and I don't know how to go about removing it myself, or if I might end up hurting her if I try! I was considering putting her in the refrigerator for a few minutes to slow her down, then trying to remove it with tweezers, but I'm very nervous about attempting that. Also, I don't know if it's pinched in there tight or loose and just barely stuck, so I'm not sure how serious it is.
To make the issue clearer, and since she's too small to take a decent photo of with the camera I've got, I drew a diagram -
It's been stuck to her all day now and I have no idea if I should attempt to remove it myself or see if she does it. I'm afraid of it possibly complicating her next molt if I leave it alone, but she's extremely high-strung and I don't know how to go about removing it myself, or if I might end up hurting her if I try! I was considering putting her in the refrigerator for a few minutes to slow her down, then trying to remove it with tweezers, but I'm very nervous about attempting that. Also, I don't know if it's pinched in there tight or loose and just barely stuck, so I'm not sure how serious it is.
To make the issue clearer, and since she's too small to take a decent photo of with the camera I've got, I drew a diagram -
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