gingerlucy
New Member
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- Location
- United States
Hi everyone,
I have an A. Chalcodes sling that I got about 3 weeks ago. She is quite small - maybe 1/2" at most. When I got her home I realized that she had a crusty piece on the back of her abdomen, so I have been trying to keep humidity up and thought it would be shed in the next molt. I'm keeping her in dram vial about 1.5" tall with some Biodude substrate and just a bit of sphagnum. I'm using a syringe with a needle to keep the bottom layer moist and drip some water around the perimeter and onto the sphagnum every few days or so.
Well, yesterday I checked on her and saw that she was standing upright with her carapace popped up. That made me a little nervous and when I checked back a few hours later I could her walking around with a lot of difficulty because she seemed to be dragging her molt beneath her. I interfered then, and used a tiny wet paintbrush and some fine tweezers to pull the molt away. It looks to me like she successfully got all her legs out. I left her alone after that and saw her walking around and grooming a bit, so she seems okay.
However, she still has the crust on the back of her abdomen. I did try to go in with the wet paintbrush again to see if I could wipe it off, but no luck. She is so small that I am not sure I have the manual dexterity to try and grab the crust with tweezers. I just got a clip-on macro lens for my phone camera, so I can get a picture, but it's extremely hard to see otherwise. I've attached a picture with the pre-molt (top) and post-molt (bottom), as well as a pre-molt photo of the crust from the side.
Can anyone recommend what I should do here? I don't want to stress her more.
I have an A. Chalcodes sling that I got about 3 weeks ago. She is quite small - maybe 1/2" at most. When I got her home I realized that she had a crusty piece on the back of her abdomen, so I have been trying to keep humidity up and thought it would be shed in the next molt. I'm keeping her in dram vial about 1.5" tall with some Biodude substrate and just a bit of sphagnum. I'm using a syringe with a needle to keep the bottom layer moist and drip some water around the perimeter and onto the sphagnum every few days or so.
Well, yesterday I checked on her and saw that she was standing upright with her carapace popped up. That made me a little nervous and when I checked back a few hours later I could her walking around with a lot of difficulty because she seemed to be dragging her molt beneath her. I interfered then, and used a tiny wet paintbrush and some fine tweezers to pull the molt away. It looks to me like she successfully got all her legs out. I left her alone after that and saw her walking around and grooming a bit, so she seems okay.
However, she still has the crust on the back of her abdomen. I did try to go in with the wet paintbrush again to see if I could wipe it off, but no luck. She is so small that I am not sure I have the manual dexterity to try and grab the crust with tweezers. I just got a clip-on macro lens for my phone camera, so I can get a picture, but it's extremely hard to see otherwise. I've attached a picture with the pre-molt (top) and post-molt (bottom), as well as a pre-molt photo of the crust from the side.
Can anyone recommend what I should do here? I don't want to stress her more.