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Hi there, first of all sorry for being away so long, the lack of time spent at a PC these days is to blame.
Anyway, as I know that even absent friends can find much in the way of help, encouragment and advice here I have a situation with my little chile rose, Ruby.
I have had her 9 months now, and all has been well with one moult early on in Feb/Mar time. She is sub-adult but not far off her full adult size by my judgement. Recently she went through a 'not eating' spell which I put down to the hot weather/impending moult/just plan awkward chile rose behaviour, and she ressumed eating when I switched from locusts back to crickets which she had not had for a while. All was good. Then I fed her a fortnight ago and although she caught the blighter with no apparent problems she seemed a little unsteady on her feet and was dashing round the tank like a spider possessed. I hadn't seen her 'walking' for a while as since I have been putting her heating on during the day she spends most of her time spread-eagled (spread-spidered?!) on the side of her tank trying to cover as much as the heat pad as is spiderly possible. I watched her for a while, took the lid off and had a good poke around until she got fed-up, nothing seemed out of order although the tank did smell a bit so a scheduled her for a substrate change.
I removed her and kept her in a 'holding tank' over the following evening whilst I replaced the substrate, cleaned tank and water bowl etc. then popped her back in with the heat on and she settled back to snuggling up to the side (albeit slightly subdued due to 'unfimiliar' surroundings). She quickly webbed a few areas for comfort and safety and then just hung out on the artificial plants which are a new addition to this set-up. Again quite happy. I fed again this week and she was having none of it. I guess she might still be a little perturbed by the recent movement, but last night she started doing the dashing around thing again, stretching her legs out in all directions as she went (like she was stretching for something in the dark, which I guess is what spider-walking is really!) now I know she may have just been exploring the 'new' set-up but it has me a little worried. She also has what might be a bald patch but might also be a scratch on her back/abdomen and is generally out-of-sorts, spending a lot of time with her legs curled over her. So:
moult?
grumpy spider?
poorly spider?
something else entirely?
Thoughts and comments gratefully recieved.
In contrast her counterpart, Tallulah, another chile rose (but RCF this time) is happy, chowing down on whatever-whenever and just generally doing-the-do.
Strange.
Anyway, as I know that even absent friends can find much in the way of help, encouragment and advice here I have a situation with my little chile rose, Ruby.
I have had her 9 months now, and all has been well with one moult early on in Feb/Mar time. She is sub-adult but not far off her full adult size by my judgement. Recently she went through a 'not eating' spell which I put down to the hot weather/impending moult/just plan awkward chile rose behaviour, and she ressumed eating when I switched from locusts back to crickets which she had not had for a while. All was good. Then I fed her a fortnight ago and although she caught the blighter with no apparent problems she seemed a little unsteady on her feet and was dashing round the tank like a spider possessed. I hadn't seen her 'walking' for a while as since I have been putting her heating on during the day she spends most of her time spread-eagled (spread-spidered?!) on the side of her tank trying to cover as much as the heat pad as is spiderly possible. I watched her for a while, took the lid off and had a good poke around until she got fed-up, nothing seemed out of order although the tank did smell a bit so a scheduled her for a substrate change.
I removed her and kept her in a 'holding tank' over the following evening whilst I replaced the substrate, cleaned tank and water bowl etc. then popped her back in with the heat on and she settled back to snuggling up to the side (albeit slightly subdued due to 'unfimiliar' surroundings). She quickly webbed a few areas for comfort and safety and then just hung out on the artificial plants which are a new addition to this set-up. Again quite happy. I fed again this week and she was having none of it. I guess she might still be a little perturbed by the recent movement, but last night she started doing the dashing around thing again, stretching her legs out in all directions as she went (like she was stretching for something in the dark, which I guess is what spider-walking is really!) now I know she may have just been exploring the 'new' set-up but it has me a little worried. She also has what might be a bald patch but might also be a scratch on her back/abdomen and is generally out-of-sorts, spending a lot of time with her legs curled over her. So:
moult?
grumpy spider?
poorly spider?
something else entirely?
Thoughts and comments gratefully recieved.
In contrast her counterpart, Tallulah, another chile rose (but RCF this time) is happy, chowing down on whatever-whenever and just generally doing-the-do.
Strange.
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