I don't know how or why she has passed. It was unexpected and very sudden. After all the stress of her over eating after the waxworm, she went into an unexpected molt about 10 to 14 days later. I kept an eye on her, checking and misting every day. Today at lunchtime she seemed to come out of her molt just fine - all limbs intact, seemingly no issues. I was so happy and felt I could finally relax - I took a photo and left her in her molting hammock excited to see her new clothes and slimmer waistline...
But just a couple of hours later she was gone. I found her on the floor of her enclosure in a death curl. It is unusual for a spider to leave their molting hide after such a small amount of time. I had expected her to be in her molt hammock for at least four days, in line with the last molt... So why did I find her on the floor, several inches away from her nest? I have so many questions.
Her abdomen does not seem shriveled or detached - indicating dehydration or separation respectively - but her head/carapace seems sunken in. I wondered whether she had maybe fallen out of the nest and injured herself before her exoskeleton had a chance to harden. I approached the breeders in my social media groups with this question, and they say it is possible, but the chances are that she just had an "internal mismolt". That something went wrong internally during the molting process. They say that there was no way to predict it and that there was nothing I could have done.
This may be true, I guess. But I feel an intense amount of guilt right now. I feel like it's my fault for feeding her that damned waxworm. If she'd never eaten the waxworm, then she wouldn't have gorged, then maybe wouldn't have gone into what felt like a very premature molt cycle (she only molted a month ago) and then maybe she'd be here now. As a spood mama, I absolutely do NOT recommend feeding waxworms to your spoods. It's just not worth it. The number of posts I see daily about impaction issues due to waxworms, abdominal separation due to gorging, and now I have been told by breeders in my spider community that they themselves no longer feed waxworms because they believe them to cause molting issues... Do not feed waxworms. Sure, your spood may well be one of the spoods that can eat them with no issues. But is it worth the risk to find out?
RIP Winnie - I am sorry that I failed you.
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