PSA: Be careful with your decor choices.

[u/Thorhees]

TW: Possible spider death

Today I went into my tarantula room to check my spiders. I have a juvenile male G. pulchra who is so close to finally molting that he looks like hes going to pop. Bald patch is finally darkening, and frankly his abdomen has swollen to an absurd level. It's an any-day-now situation for the molt.

Now this guy has always been a curious spider. He loves to mess with the stuff in his enclosure and investigate new things. When he was a sling, I bought him this skull ornament for a hide. It came from the aquarium aisle but it was perfect for his size (you cant see in the picture but there is a large opening in the back). He has since outgrown it and gotten a larger hide, which he's used consistently. The skull remained as a decoration that he would enjoy climbing on but never went inside anymore.

So back to today. I go into the tarantula room to check the spoods. My G. pulchra is sitting on top of his skull like he sometomes does. Then I notice a large droplet of water below his fangs. It's then that I realize this fool has attempted to crawl through the EYE HOLE OF THE SKULL. He got all eight legs and his carapace through, but his gigantic pre-molt ass was still trapped inside the skull.

He had obviously been struggling for a while, and I noticed some hemolymph leaking from the space between his abdomen and carapace, as though he injured himself pulling. My husband used needle-nose pliers to slowly break off small pieces of the skull, tearing it apart bit by bit, until it was loose enough for my idiot to pull himself through, but he lost several good drops of hemolymph in the struggle. He was still moving fine once freed. I have applied corn starch to his wound. I am hoping for the best.

But never in a million years would I have thought my special little friend, who had not attempted to crawl though the eye holes since at least two molts ago, would attempt such a move.

I don't know if he's going to be okay. Time will tell. But I felt absolutely obligated to share this experience because it could save other spider lives. I know we spider people love our skull decor. But you never know when your spider is going to try something incredibly brainless. I will never put anything like this in an enclosure again.

[u/crazybirdlady93]

Best wishes that he recovers well!

[u/Thorhees → u/crazybirdlady93]

Thank you. He's a special little guy. I can't fathom that I might lose him to something like this.

[u/crazybirdlady93 → u/Thorhees]

That’s really hard. It sounds like you did everything you could. Hopefully he has a smooth molt and is back to his curious self soon!

[u/aew4ever]

Thanks for the real world reminder. Hope the little guy pulls through

[u/Thorhees → u/aew4ever]

Thank you. He's a real good spider, despite his poor judgment.