littl story about my Goliath (T blondi)

[arachnomania]

Weeeeeeeeeell here's my little situation 've been having with my adult goliath that some of you on msn might already know about. My female has been hanging around, book lungs and all 2/3 of her body in her water bowl for at least 3 weeks now and not coming up for air. Last week I came up with the idea of removing her water dish as I kept taking her out but she kept going back in. I could turn her on her back and was getting really worried about her especially since she has been bred a couple months ago. Sooooo after taking away her water bowl she got the idea of going into her water fall that is kind of hard for me to remove due to the way I have wied it into the 33 gallon tank I have her in. So now I went into her room to take a picture of my snakes that i have put in another thread and to my surprise......she is shedding! I had come home this afternoon and noticed her out of the water fall which is unusual and she was "half dead"....I even came a hairs lenght of putting her in the freezer to end her suffuring. Thanks_______I didn't. This is a wild caught female and is her first time shedding with me. I've had other large goliaths shed in my care and never noticed such a behaviour.
Hope you enjoyed the story.
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/2/1126PIC00004-med.JPG

[Dragoon]

Rob, I was actually going to post the same thing!

You know the B.emilia I got from you? Its not a tiny sling, so I figured it would be OK with bone-dry peat and a water dish. I kept seeing it standing over the dish all last week.
Then one day I saw it leaning forward, and had its mouth touching the water. Cool! I'm seeing a spider drink for the first time!
Next I saw it laying over the water. OH NO! I tapped the cage, and it ran off...
Next time I checked after that, I saw the whole body slumped down into the dish (the water level was low). I thought it was dead. I touched the cage and it ran off....
I dumped a bunch of water onto that end of the cage, now only half is moist. He sits on that side, but not in the water dish anymore, thank goodness. You can see in the 'my slings' post, how half is dark, and half is light (dry).

But the funny thing is, he shed only a couple of days after being shipped to me. He isn't going to molt, like your blondi did. Wierd, huh? I keep reading its best to keep older animals bone dry...
D.

[arachnomania]

WOW Dragoon...I never realized that you and Tracy were the same, LOL. Happy to see and hear that all these slings made it to a wonderfull home.
I always keep part of my enclosures somewhat humid even for the desert species (larger ones) along with a water bowl. As for the slings, as they are kept in small vials and dry up fast in my warm room, I keep them one week humid and the other dry (for desert species).
Take care,

On a sad note my blondi had to have 2 legs amputated by myself this morning as she had a horrible molt and not sure if she'll make it. I feel like crap! I still don't understand why she was constantly in her water bowls etc.. as her humidity level was appropriat as for the rest of them. It could be a multiple of problems as she was wild caught, old and it was her first shed in captivity.

[Dragoon]

That's very sad. Sorry. Hope she pulls through.

Now my sick curiosity gets to me...
how do you amputate a limb from a spider?
especially a defensive one like a blondi?

...and do you think it hurts them? :(
D.

[arachnomania]

All you need to do is pinch the limb at the area where you need it to drop with forceps. This generaly has to be done imediately after a shed therefor the tarantula isn't very defensive. I do beleive it somewhat hurts them but only till it is amputated. They act totally fine afterwards.

[skinheaddave]

When Spider Bob did a demo at the last ATS conference, he applied an upwards twisting motion to the limb. He then applied a dab of nail hardner to the "stump" as it were.

Cheers,
Dave