whats going on

[vincent winyard]

hi everyone hope you can help. first of all about a month ago i got a aphonopelma seemani adult female she settled in realy well but for some reason she's not taking any food i dont think she's due to molt and the temp and humidity are fine. im having the same problem with my brazilopelma colloratvillosum i've had her for about two months although she did take one cricket when i first got her. she spends all her time in her hide very rarely see her not even her water gets disturbed once in a blue moon maybe there's a sign that she's been out. i dont know if it's something to do with the time of year but all my t's have been a bit hit and miss with there eating habits lately just wondered if anyone could shed some light on this for me thanks.

[Peter Lacey]

If you're providing water, feeding once a week and the abdomen isnt shrivelled there's little cause for alarm. Remove any uneaten food after a day or two and try again in a weeks time. Lack of eating is probably one of the main issues people have with their tarantula, funnily enough the tarantula don't seem to have an issue with it at all

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Vincent, nice to see your collection is gradually expanding. The Seemani are a nice T, our's is a little aggressive, does your's have orange spinnerets?

[vincent winyard]

hi linda thanks for getting back to me. yes she does have orange spinnerets and most of the underside of her is orange as well she,s brilliant not one bit aggresive though i dont want to speak to soon ha ha. the only thing that does concern me though is she's not eaten yet.

[vincent winyard]

hi peter thanks for getting back to me. i just presumed that once they settled in they start to take food. i'll just have to keep a close eye on things. by the way what steps should be taken if the abdomen does start to shrivell as this would cause me to be very concerned as i've never had any real problems as yet.

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Vincent, I wouldn't worry too much, it might still be settling down. Our Female went into pre moult about 9 weeks before she actually moulted, so with her being a new addition you'll probably have no idea when she last moulted, and sometimes a change of environment and stress of transportation can sometimes bring forward a moult. Their abdomens don't normally start to shrivel, unless they are badly dehydrated or towards the end. We recently lost one of our adult female Parahybana's, she went 56 weeks without eating after having eaten a bad locust, and never recovered, but her abdomen stayed firm until about a week or so before she finally died, we now never feed locusts, just crickets, roaches and an occassional pinky for the bigger T's

[vincent winyard]

Thanks for all the info Linda, it's crazy they can starve for so long I have fed locusts befor but think I'll give them a miss in the future,
I'll keep you informed of whats happening here' or not! as the case may be.