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i have a brazilian white knee that has lived with me since it was about the size of a quarter, at least 5 years. I just check on her and she had just molted and was dead in her enclosure. I am really upset about this, what happened? she appears to be a little wet and maybe some insides hanging out of her bottom side. This is a huge bummer, what could have caused this? She has always done great, eaten grate, and looked great.
Thanks,
Shaun

>>i have a brazilian white knee that has lived with me since it was about the size of a quarter, at least 5 years. I just check on her and she had just molted and was dead in her enclosure. I am really upset about this, what happened? she appears to be a little wet and maybe some insides hanging out of her bottom side. This is a huge bummer, what could have caused this? She has always done great, eaten grate, and looked great.
>>Thanks,
>>Shaun

Hard to say without seeing it myself, but it sounds like it got a wet molt or possibly had an abdomen rupture. Sorry for your loss.
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KJ Vezino
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Missouri Tarantula Enthusiasts Group

Thank you for the reply. What is a wet molt? She waswert when I found her. I should have taken pics of exactly how I found her but I was pretty shocked and didn't think about it at the time. I feel horrible that this has happened, is there anything I could have done to prevent this? I keep thinking that there wasn't enough humidity for her to molt properly and maybe that caused her to tear the abdomen.
Thanks,
Shaun

Without knowing what happened it'd be hard to say how to prevent it. A Dehydrated tarantula is more likely to get stuck in the molt. I've never heard of a tarantula getting an injury like that coming out of a molt.

A wet molt is when the new exo doesn't form properly and when they shed they have an overall wet appearance. Most tarantulas don't survive that. You mentioned it was wet and that made me think of wet molt. Probably not the case.

I'd say the more likely cause is it fell on somehting and ruptured itself. If it just molted then its new exo would be extremely fragile. ENsure you have enought substrate in the cage so that the distance from the substrate to the lid is no more than the legspan of the tarantula. This minimizes the distnace of a fall.
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KJ Vezino
My Gallery
Missouri Tarantula Enthusiasts Group

I guess the wet molt sounds likely. as far as her falling and rupturing her self I don't think that is possible. I'll try and get a pic of her enclosure just so you have an idea of how it looks. Thank you for your help.