When should I remove old skin after molting

[Mustafa Ozkaynak]

Hello,
I am relatively new in this hobby. My 2"+ B. vagans molted 4 days ago in his burrow. I hadn't attempt to remove the old skin till this morning to avoid excessive stress. This morning I attempted to remove the old skin but he moved toward the tong. I assumed he is still stressed out and to avoid any possible injury I gave up. The problem is the old skin in his burrow and relatively hard to reach. To conclude, the old skin is still in the enclosure.

What are the risks of leaving the old skin there? Any comments and recommendations are appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

[Ray Hale]

Hi, there are no problems in leaving the old skin in with the spider. Some tarantulas will web the skin into their burrows . So dont worry about it. You can remove it if you wish after a couple of days.

Ray

[Kurt Baird]

As said, leaving it in is not a problem.

I recently rehoused all my spiderlings, some of which have been buried away for the past 5 or 6 months and how I never see. Dug them out and there were molts everywhere!

[James Box]

i agree! if you take them out, you get inundated with them!
some people have the space but not me
it doesn't hurt the spider to leave it in there...often times my spiders chew them up and they turn into dust, pretty much, so they kinda tidy up afterthemselves.

[Mustafa Ozkaynak]

thank you very much for your comments.
I had decided to leave it there but the tarantula carried it all the way out of its burrow this morning so I just removed it easily without interrupting it.

best
mustafa

[Ryan Simons]

I usually remove mine 24 hours after the spider has moulted. so long as its not sitting on it or anything. Doesnt seem to bother the spider at all??

I may be wrong tho!

[Mustafa Ozkaynak]

Hi Ryan,
I dont have much experience on Tarantulas. However, it is almost a consensus at www.arachnoboards.com forums that, the tarantulas are very vulnerable just after molting and they experience a lot of stress until their new skin is tough.
So, it is not recommend to bother them for a while after molting.

[James Box]

that's true. you can see how pale they are, before the new cuticle has hardened.
usually, it's ok, but i'm aware of a story in the BTS journal a while back about a Megaphobema robustum that tried to kick hairs at the keeper, and managed to puncture its own abdomen with the spines on its back leg.
now, i believe that species has extra long spines as a rather unique defense mechanism among tarantulas, but still, all that kick hairs have spines for that purpose, and it's not hard to imagine injury happening.
also, stress during that time could cause it to run round and do itself injury...plus it just isn't nice for the spider.