Molting issues, maybe. HELP Please.

[Rachel Drewery]

I thought my Brachypelma auratum was finally going to molt. Just a small sling leg span just about 2cm. It had been looking quite large and shiny for weeks and when I went to feed it on thursday evening it had gone dark and was not running around as quick as usual so thought thursday night was the night. This was going to be its second molt with us. Friday morning it was dead. There was no sign of it even trying to molt. It wasn't stuck it was just sitting the right way up legs curled up. Is it possible that a T can be unable to molt for some reason and die?
Temperatures sit at 25c-26c dropping to around 24c at night. Misted once a week to keep dampish while still young. It was an extremely active sling and was a really good feeder, never missed a feed. Fed it on very small dubia roach, was wondering whether there is not enough goodness in that size roach. I always feed the roach colony well though but then that size roach do seem flat if that makes sense.

I have another sling, a B. boehmei, which is only around 1.5cm and that has been looking quite large and shiny but no sign of molting and is on and off feeding. Its not interested in roach so gave it half a mealworm which it tucked into, it ate this just over a week ago and has not eaten since.

Getting paranoid now and have started thinking this Boehmei is going to go the same way as the Auratum. Am I doing something wrong? I have raised other slings the same way with no problems.

Thanks in advance

[Nicolas Charrière]

Hello Rachel! You said you have raised other slings the same way without any problems. For me, it indicates strongly that you didn't do anything wrong. Temps are right, food is ok too (beware of mealworm if they begin to dig - when they're alive of course). Could be humidities issues, because slings depend a lot on that: they need high humidity, but as you said: you misted to keep conditions dampish. As far as I can tell, this is maybe the point you could check.

But otherwise, such things happen without any mistakes from the keeper. It's just that some slings are not strong enough to survive and grow well. In the nature, such slings die early, but in captivity, it could be they survive a little longer and finally die. Natural selection, or something like that. A friend of mine lost a C marshalli sling without any reason; he told me this little one has always been weaker than the others he kept.

You were asking if it is possible that a young T could be unable to molt for some reason. Most of the time, it's because it's too weak. This very weakness may be coming from bad development (from the start), or because the sling has not eaten enough, or because of lack of humidity. But in your case, it seems the two last options are not relevant. We are not even sure that your T had trouble molting... Then I think this death was unfortunately natural. Except if you had external factors that you didn't notice (a drop/shake of the enclosure, pesticides in the house, etc.).

If you want to be sure, you can increase a little bit the humidity in the enclosure of your boehmei because with winter heating, sometimes the air in our flats is very dry. But I don't think you are doing anything wrong. Especially if you had success with the previous slings you had!

I wish you all the best with your B boehmei! Keep us informed when it molts!

[Rachel Drewery]

Thanks for replying it makes me feel a little better

The tubs are kept inside a vivarium with a heat mat taped to the back to keep the air temperature up monitored with a digital thermometer. Maybe I should keep the t in question a little damper this time of year. Guess it can't hurt.