Imminent Moult???

[Jane Mitchell]

Hello again everyone,

If you cast your minds back about a month, we'd just bought a salmon pink bird eater (which was mistakenly sold to us as a pink toe - hey ho!). At the time we were asking for general advice and posted a photo as Mikey had shed a lot of hairs on his abdomen before we bought him. The skin at the time was pink as you can see from the photo in the thread 'Advice for a new pink toe owner'

Anyway, over the last couple of days, we've noticed that the exposed skin has turned darker and more grey. He has never been a particularly active T (OK, so we weren't expecting tap-dance routines) but he is seeming to move even less and the slightest thing will send him to the back of his tank where he hides. He also looks a bit squashed. So are we right in assuming that he is going to moult soon?

If so, what can we expect as this will be the first one we've seen? We have read the notes in the Guides section but would welcome some first-hand advice. We have already made sure there are no crickets in the tank (he's only ever eaten one so that wasn't too difficult) The tank is pretty constant in temp - about 22-24oC during the day, probably about 20oC at night, is this warm enough? Also, we know not to disturb him at all but are there any signs to look out for that he is having problems with the moult? How long will it take on average? How long is too long? When should we intervene - if at all? How long should we leave it after the moult to feed him again?

Questions, questions!

Thanks in advance,
Jane

[Matthew Baines]

Oh i love the first molt ! Its like waiting too die. I remember the first few times my spiders have shed and it is a traumatic experience for the keepers . Don't fret over it too much , just leave it too its own devices , maybe up the humidity more than usual. And just don't disturb it too much and cause it too much stress , but keep an eye on it . Im not too sure about how and when too intervene as i have only ever lost one sling too a bad molt so far ( Touch Wood).

[Stuart Lee]

Dont worry too much, Theres not a lot you can do to help them. If you never seen it happen before, They sometimes make a carpet out of web on the floor first,Then flip over on there backs and its just a matter of time while they get out of there old skin, Can take many hours so if you can see it happening keep popping back now and again but try not to disturb him.

As have been said, Make sure the humidity is right maybe a light misting if you know hes deffo shedding and just leave him quiet to get on with it. When he's finished leave him for a week before you feed him, Thats about it.

Hope that Helps, Stu.

[Phil Rea]

The main advice I would give you is to leave the spider to it's own devices, and keep disturbance to a minimum. Not sure that humidity needs to be upped myself because I'm of the opinion (and it is just that, my own opinion) that if the spider is properly hydrated in the first place, then there shouldn't be a problem with moulting. I have had spiders moult without my knowledge in bone dry tanks, and they have been fine.

There is no fixed timescale, but if you get the chance to watch the process, it's absolutely fascinating

Remember that in general the spider itself knows what's best for it!

[Jane Mitchell]

Dont worry too much, Theres not a lot you can do to help them. If you never seen it happen before, They sometimes make a carpet out of web on the floor first,Then flip over on there backs and its just a matter of time while they get out of there old skin, Can take many hours so if you can see it happening keep popping back now and again but try not to disturb him.

That's good news. He's been covering his 'den' in web for the last couple of weeks, we just thought that's what they liked doing. For some reason, despite giving him a half covered plant pot and some cork bark to hide under, he's chosen to tuck himself up behind them, which is useful because we can still see him so we can check on progress without having to interfere.

Fingers crossed!
J

[Peter Lacey]

Timescales are merely a guide but I'll try to provide such.
A moult could take anything from a few hours to a day. You may first observe it moving into a strange position and eventually flip over onto its back. It will slowly push itself out of its old skin, pumping its new body and forcing its way out. Much of its body will appear white at this time and you'll find a complete shed skin folded over itself. This is followed by your T stretching its legs, curling them and stretching repeatedly. You may find it completely stretched out flat to the ground for long periods. Its also quite likely that it will stay close to the shed skin for the next few days. Over time the new skin will harden and once the fangs have changed from white to black its a good indicator that the vulnerable time is over. This may take a few days and most people will leave the T alone during this time and not feed until 5 days after moult.
Its important to remember this is a very vulnerable and stressful time for your T so make sure there are no food items and try not to disturb it too much. Many people raise the humidity by moistening the substrate prior to moult which is supposed to stop the skin drying out too quickly before the T has had time to stretch its new skin. However, like Phil, I have had Ts moult in dry conditions so its not imperative that you do so.

[Clinton Hogben]

Hello again everyone,

If you cast your minds back about a month, we'd just bought a salmon pink bird eater (which was mistakenly sold to us as a pink toe - hey ho!). At the time we were asking for general advice and posted a photo as Mikey had shed a lot of hairs on his abdomen before we bought him. The skin at the time was pink as you can see from the photo in the thread 'Advice for a new pink toe owner'

Anyway, over the last couple of days, we've noticed that the exposed skin has turned darker and more grey. He has never been a particularly active T (OK, so we weren't expecting tap-dance routines) but he is seeming to move even less and the slightest thing will send him to the back of his tank where he hides. He also looks a bit squashed. So are we right in assuming that he is going to moult soon?

If so, what can we expect as this will be the first one we've seen? We have read the notes in the Guides section but would welcome some first-hand advice. We have already made sure there are no crickets in the tank (he's only ever eaten one so that wasn't too difficult) The tank is pretty constant in temp - about 22-24oC during the day, probably about 20oC at night, is this warm enough? Also, we know not to disturb him at all but are there any signs to look out for that he is having problems with the moult? How long will it take on average? How long is too long? When should we intervene - if at all? How long should we leave it after the moult to feed him again?

Questions, questions!

Thanks in advance,
Jane

Hi Jane
My L para (salmon pink) tends to moult about every 6 months so here goes the last moult history
10th may going off food bald spot going a bit grey
20th may bald spot goes very dark no food taken
30th may laying web around tank and waterbowl
1st june in bad mood tried to attack me when cleaning water bowl
3rd june lays first layer of moulting mat overnight
4th june lays second heavy layer of moulting mat overnight
5th june 5.00am shes on her back on moulting mat
5th june 7.00am carapace splits and moult starts by 8.30am its all over

temp 74deg during the day dropping slightly at night
humidity 70% throughout

the following 3 days she spent streched out drying off her new skin and started eating again about 10 days later

Beware the dreaded personality change in L para after each moult if you had a docile floor dweller before you may end out with a semi arborial psycotic beast afterwards and then the following moult may bring the return of its loving side (te he)

be prepared for a large increase in size as well mine was about 4 inches legspan last october and now a year later she is pushing 9 inches and i expect after her next moult she will top 10 inches (beast)

All the best with the moult

[Jane Mitchell]

Thanks for all the detail Clint, that's really useful. He was a bit more active last night and looking at your timescales, I think we were probably getting a bit excited too soon! He's put down some webs all over the back his tank and up the glass but we haven't noticed any serious matting going on yet. At the moment, he's about 3.5 inches across so it will be interesting to see how much he grows with this moult. We'd heard before about personality changes after a moult and in the month we've had him he's been pretty docile and has only eaten 1 cricket in that time (which we had put down to the moult) Who knows what monster we'll have afterwards!!

Ooh, I'm so excited!!!

[Peter Lacey]

I'm getting the feeling my 8" L. klugi is up for a moult as it was last October that she moulted and she hasn't eaten anything for a couple of weeks, she even refused the pinkie a few weeks back. So, I've started to raise moisture levels a bit and I've noticed her drinking from the water bowl. I'm interested to see the new size and I'd be seriously tempted to rehouse her if she gets much bigger.
Best of luck with your L. parahybana.

[michaelmckinney]

Well if your parahybana is anything like my 3, waiting on a molt, is like watching paint dry!! LOL. As far as I can tell too, the longer its takes to molt from the bald patch turning black, til they are fully recovered, the growth is alot more. My 2.5 inch parahybana molted last weekend, and is now closer to 5 inches!! And they do have a personality change with each molt, big time LOL. But it is one of the coolest things about keeping tarantulas.

[Jane Mitchell]

Successful Moult!

Hi - just a quick update really.

After 2 weeks of 'brewing' our L Para has finally moulted. I was lucky enough to catch him on his back when I got home from work yesterday afternoon with one leg still to go. I was a bit worried at first because it looked like he'd lost a couple of leg sections but when he flipped back over (something which I missed because someone came to the front door - bloody typical!) he looked fine and everything is present and correct. We can't really tell how big he has grown yet as he is still recovering from his exertions and apart from some stretching, isn't really moving much yet, but looking at his legs, he's at least a couple of inches bigger!

I will hopefully post some photo's of our brand new shiny T later but for now, we're just relieved that he (and us) got through it!

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Jane, we have just spent most of the afternoon watching our A. Genticulata (giant White Knee) moulting. She only went off her food about 10 days ago , last night she was busy laying a thick mat, and at lunch time today she flipped over and by 4.30pm she was out. We still find this fascinating to watch. She now looks resplendent in her new coat, but strangely she has moved away from her old skin. (Yet our B. Smithi clung on top of hers for the best part of two days). So at this moment she's nudged up to the heat mat taking a well earned rest. We have 4 more T's gone into pre moult so it's going to be an interesting time.!!

[Jane Mitchell]

Hi Jane, we have just spent most of the afternoon watching our A. Genticulata (giant White Knee) moulting. She only went off her food about 10 days ago , last night she was busy laying a thick mat, and at lunch time today she flipped over and by 4.30pm she was out. We still find this fascinating to watch. She now looks resplendent in her new coat, but strangely she has moved away from her old skin. (Yet our B. Smithi clung on top of hers for the best part of two days). So at this moment she's nudged up to the heat mat taking a well earned rest. We have 4 more T's gone into pre moult so it's going to be an interesting time.!!

Blimey! And we got excited over just one moult! I'd never get to work if I had that many to watch. I'm just relieved that it's all gone OK and as it was the first one we'd seen, we know more what to expect next time.

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi, just thought you would be interested, our P. Cancerides (Haitian Brown), has just flipped over on her back, commencing her moult, it looks like Saturday night's the night for moulting. hope this one goes as well as the A. Geniculata did earlier today.