Question about my Greenbottle Blue

[lizwalsh]

Hi all

About a month ago i got a beautiful greenbottle blue instar 3 at the beginning he moved around alot in his tank and was eating no problem now he sits in a corner has made some dense webs and has not eaten in a week and a half. I thought he might be ready to molt but am still learning about tarantulas and not sure exactly how long they go off their food before begining to molt. any advise would be much appreciated.

Liz

[Kate Arbon]

Hi Liz. Welcome to the forum.

It is true that spiders tend to go off their food before moulting. Greenbottle Blues are very good eaters, unlike some species which will just go on random hunger strikes, so if they stop feeding it is a good sign that they may be in pre-moult. Also the dense webs are an indication of a moult coming up as well.

As yours is quite small I would expect that you wouldn't have very long to wait for a moult once he stops eating. As they get larger they can tend to stop eating earlier and earlier before a moult. If yours has already been off his food for nearly two weeks then I would expect it would moult in the next week or so.

Having said that, there are no hard and fast rules and they can be unpredictable, so don't worry if he seems to be taking too long. As long as he doesn't look like he's getting skinnier then he's ok.

[lizwalsh]

Thanks

Thanks Kate for replying fell happier now was a bit worried there.

cheers
Liz

[Peter Lacey]

I think Kate has covered this so no need to repeat.
My GBB took a while to moult and of course I had the same worries about feeding. The general rule is if food isn't eaten within 24 or most 48 hrs then remove it for a week. However an alternative is to provide a food which isn't a danger to a tarantula in moult eg. maggots, roaches, worms.
Hopefully you'll find a "new, larger" GBB shortly which is a great time to show it off to all our forum readers

[patsyking]

My GBB is coming up for her third moult in the five months that I've had her and only eats 3 maybe 4 crickets between each moult. She stops eating for a good few weeks before moulting. She is in her hammock now. I think by the middle of next month she'll have moulted again.