- Messages
- 127
- Location
- the great north west
Got my first Tarantula "B smithy" about 3 years ago. Turned out to be a male (bought as female) so when it quit eating I thought it was in final molt.
There's a thread "how long can a tarantula go w/o eating. Here's 875 days. !!!!!
NOT on purpose, thought he was in final molt.
Here's the story, kinda long.
Fed 2 crickets on Oct. 6th 2017, only 3 left in the bin on the 8th, thought I'd get rid of them. grabbed one by hand and thought I dropped it before it made it to the opening. Couldn't see it in the tank. Brought the other two with tongs and dropped them in. On the 10th, I see Andy sitting back from the corner where the heat light is. Couldn't figure out why, closer look, all three crickets were huddled in corner at the light/heat source. I thought for sure Andy was in molt. About a year later find out they can go almost 3 years to molt. So I got another 3 inch (female guarenteed-ya sure you betchya) Mexican red knee, to replace him.
Well HE wouldn't eat the first week of April this spring, so I figured he's off to final molt also. The new one "Mr Torts" started acting funny last week, roaming, searching and climbing. So I got some crickets the other day. Boom he's hungry again.
Now that gave me pause... what if Andy just took a break from eating???
Dropped a cricket in and BOOM he's on it like stink. He's had three in the last two nights.
He went 875 days with out eating anything but clean water. He looked perfectly fine, abdomen didn't shrink up. Nothing out of the ordinary except he didn't move around much. I thought he was using his resources to build a final molt.
Advice for the new folks, if they stop eating, wait a month or so and try again, thats if they've got some size to them.
There's a thread "how long can a tarantula go w/o eating. Here's 875 days. !!!!!
NOT on purpose, thought he was in final molt.
Here's the story, kinda long.
Fed 2 crickets on Oct. 6th 2017, only 3 left in the bin on the 8th, thought I'd get rid of them. grabbed one by hand and thought I dropped it before it made it to the opening. Couldn't see it in the tank. Brought the other two with tongs and dropped them in. On the 10th, I see Andy sitting back from the corner where the heat light is. Couldn't figure out why, closer look, all three crickets were huddled in corner at the light/heat source. I thought for sure Andy was in molt. About a year later find out they can go almost 3 years to molt. So I got another 3 inch (female guarenteed-ya sure you betchya) Mexican red knee, to replace him.
Well HE wouldn't eat the first week of April this spring, so I figured he's off to final molt also. The new one "Mr Torts" started acting funny last week, roaming, searching and climbing. So I got some crickets the other day. Boom he's hungry again.
Now that gave me pause... what if Andy just took a break from eating???
Dropped a cricket in and BOOM he's on it like stink. He's had three in the last two nights.
He went 875 days with out eating anything but clean water. He looked perfectly fine, abdomen didn't shrink up. Nothing out of the ordinary except he didn't move around much. I thought he was using his resources to build a final molt.
Advice for the new folks, if they stop eating, wait a month or so and try again, thats if they've got some size to them.