Blue fang emergancy

[sarah Smith]

If anyone can help me I would really apperciate it, my blue fang kiwi has had a bad moult and lost the tip of both pedipales and is very weak is there anything I can do to save him. And yes I do know its a male as this moult was his matuering moult and his hooks have turned up.

[Neil Richardson]

He moulted what we thought was successfully last night. Was full of beans when we retrieved his skin.

This morning however he was very weak, with his legs tucked under him, but was still alive. By midday we thought he was dead. Close inspection of his body revealed the tibial spurs that showed he was now a mature male. Also, the final segment of his pedipalps was missing, and just scar tissue was present, showing that he had got them stuck in the moult. We assumed that the loss of blood had killed him.

Checking on him just now showed that he was still twitching, so right now he's on his back, with a drop of water in his mouth, in the hope that he can still drink to restore his blood levels.

[mary walters]

Hi Neal,
Try to keep your spider alive using the technique we did with our coloratovillosum, if it is strong enough cut the head off a wax worm and put the body, cut side, into its mouth parts, it may hold it there or you may have to keep trying. We kept it up for a month till ours moulted for new fangs. Good luck.
Mary

[sarah Smith]

Sadly we just lost Kiwi I keep wondering if I should have taken his pedies off while he was still strong enough to cope with it and let his value close and stop the fluid loss. I also cant help feeling I let him down by not realising sooner that something was wrong but he was fine last night.

[Neil Richardson]

Hi Neal,
Try to keep your spider alive using the technique we did with our coloratovillosum, if it is strong enough cut the head off a wax worm and put the body, cut side, into its mouth parts, it may hold it there or you may have to keep trying. We kept it up for a month till ours moulted for new fangs. Good luck.
Mary

Thanks, he'd only moulted last night, he couldn't even take the water we offered to him.

Unfortunately, he died 30minutes ago. Here is the last picture of him, in all his splendor, you can see the damaged pedipalps on it.

[Layla McInnes]

Sorry to hear of your loss. Its horrible anyway but when its a fave its worse.
good luck with all the rest of your Ts tho and hope we still get to see plenty of your pics still

[Neil Richardson]

Thanks. We're going to keep our eyes peeling for some E.Cyanognathus slings in the near future.

But right now, we have our own breeding projects to start

[mary walters]

Sorry you lost your T, you did your best!
Mary

[sarah Smith]

actually I was thinking of juves again for the blue fangs as I already have my hands full of slings right now. And this time I definately will be picking up more than just the one Kiwi showed me how much of a great T the blue fangs really are. They really have funny personalities and are nice tempered as well tho stubbon at times.