Tarantula moulting

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	One of the most traumatic events in tarantula's life is moulting, this is how tarantulas and other invertebrates grow, and they shed their old skin and underneath there is a beautiful new one. You may notice your tarantula acting different this is nothing to worry about, your tarantula is just preparing its self to moult. At this point you should make sure that any uneaten food has been removed as a cricket can attack a moulting tarantula, as they are very vulnerable. Your tarantula will either lay down a silk mat or web itself into its hide; this will be your tarantulas chosen area to moult. Sometime after this your tarantula will flip over onto its back and lay totally motionless for hours, it is usually at this point people new to tarantula keeping really start to panic, please don't worry your tarantula isn't dead, so don't poke it as poking it will probably kill it. Now all you have to do is wait.
	After some time your tarantulas carapace will "pop" your tarantula will be wiggling his legs now and you will be able to see the skin on the abdomen has split, the next part will be the fangs, when you see the new ones emerge they will be white but they will gradually darken as your tarantula hardens up. Soon your tarantula will begin to push its old skin off and you will be able to see the difference in colour between old and new.
	When your tarantula has discarded its old skin it will continue to lay on its back for a while, it will lay motionless for a while then wiggle its legs like mad; it will do this for as long as it needs to. Now your tarantula will flip back over onto its feet it will appear wobbly, but given time will harden up. It is best not to feed for a couple of weeks until it has hardened up properly. Now you can remove its shed skin from its enclosure and perhaps reshape it and place it on a piece of board or if it is large enough it could be sent to a tarantula sexing practitioner who will then be able to determine the sex for you, you will be able to find one of these by contacting a tarantula society in your country.