my tarantula is losing hair?!?

Question

My tarantula started losing all the hair on its abdomen about a week ago. we feed it 2 crickets each week . Is it his(her) diet or could it be something else

Answer 1

While your spider could be molting, losing hair around the abdomen is also a sign that your tarantula is under stress. When they don't have enough places to hide or their environment isn't well suited to them, they get stressed and will flick hair. They take their back legs and use it to flick the hairs from their abdomen at whatever is causing them the stress (people walking by, cat watching, etc). If the hairs get into your eyes, they're very irritating and so it's a good defense mechanism.

Some breeds are more prone to hair flicking than others, so you may want to research your specific type a bit more to see if that might be the problem and if so, how you can change the cage to reduce the stress.

Answer 2

She's probably not sick. When tarantulas feel threatened-they'll rub off the hair, and try to put it on whoever is bothering them. It's an irritant, and will burn. Just make sure that no one is tapping on the glass or bothering her on purpose-that can stress them out and make them sick. Good luck

Answer 3

Its possible the spider is molting...losing hair from the back, butt and abdomen can be signs of this.

If your pets back shows signs of splitting, perhaps it flips onto its back and lays prone, then its definately molting. You'll need to put it away from noise, light and people as molting takes almost every ounce of its energy...

Answer 4

It's probably starting to molt. It will lose it's entire "shell"

Answer 5

hard to imagine anything uglier than a tarantula, but I guess a blad one would be even worse!

Answer 6

loosing is spelt with 2 oos double os