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Yesterday, I noticed my Grammostola aureostriata was producing an abnormal amount of webbing in his tank. By the time I returned from work, he had suspended himself in a web hammock, built right at the top corner of the tank.
Before I went to bed last night I checked in on him to find he had fallen through the web, and was hanging by the hooks in his feet, he was not very responsive and all movements seem a little uncoordinated. My first thought was this 'diskynetic'? syndrome i've heard about, but on checking my records I descovered he was over due for his annual moult.
I carefuly slipped him on to his back and kept a carefull eye on him for the next couple of hours and sure enough he started pulsing all his feet at once so I let him be. The moult was succesful, and he has grown quite a lot, probably one more moult away from maturing!
Has anyone seen this type of moulting behaviour before? NOTHING in the tank has changed, substrate, temps, humidity are all the same and I couldn't see any signs of mites or other nasties to cause a desturbance. I've never know a terestrial tarantula try to moult like this before.
Before I went to bed last night I checked in on him to find he had fallen through the web, and was hanging by the hooks in his feet, he was not very responsive and all movements seem a little uncoordinated. My first thought was this 'diskynetic'? syndrome i've heard about, but on checking my records I descovered he was over due for his annual moult.
I carefuly slipped him on to his back and kept a carefull eye on him for the next couple of hours and sure enough he started pulsing all his feet at once so I let him be. The moult was succesful, and he has grown quite a lot, probably one more moult away from maturing!
Has anyone seen this type of moulting behaviour before? NOTHING in the tank has changed, substrate, temps, humidity are all the same and I couldn't see any signs of mites or other nasties to cause a desturbance. I've never know a terestrial tarantula try to moult like this before.
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