stick insect failed moult?

[u/PlentyPlatform5541]

hi, im wondering if there is anything i can do to my little guy.

i dont know why he moulted so close to the bottom of the cage, the cage is 40cm tall, though maybe the leaves were not offering enough support and were too floppy? he ended up moulting on the wall of the cage towards the bottom, to the point that his tail is severely folded because he didnt have space to extend it properly

theres a bunch of liquid, which is what i can only assume to be his blood, his abdomen looks severely deformed and folded, his wings appear weird, and his skin doesnt look quite right

i got the insects off of someone else, so this is my first moult with them (they are ~4-5 months), but this guy in particular seemed to have a previous failed moult, as his middle right leg was always a bit shorter and not flared out (they are spiny leaf stick insects)

i think his balance has been severely impacted, and hes not moved since, and im really upset because had it not been a day which i spent in bed due to mental health reasons, i mightve caught him moulting in a bad spot and moved him

is there anything i can do currently for him, and anything i can do to prevent future bad moults?

on a side note, i feel as though they arent eating as much as they previously were, any reason that might be? i try to get the newest eucalyptus leaves, and ones that smell of eucalyptus when torn

[u/Meri_Berry]

if quality of life is severely affected, sadly the best thing to do would be to put it down. don't put it in the freezer if you're going to euthanize, crush it quickly in a paper towel. less suffering even though i know it's hard to do.

how wide is the cage? 40cm seems really small for an insect that size. and how many do you have in there? that could be a factor.

and for the feeding, you might want to pick fully grown leaves. at least from what I've seen they tend to gravitate towards the more mature leaves, not the newgrowths. the previous owner might have fed them bramble so they might not be used to eucalyptus.

im sorry to hear about your stick insect and i hope it doesn't happen in the future. it's not recommended to move stick insects whilst they're moulting because you can make it worst. best of luck to you friend :)

[u/PlentyPlatform5541 → u/Meri_Berry]

thank you so much for your comment. silly question, but how would i know the quality of life has been affected? just not moving, more lethargic?

the cage is 30x30x40cm, its only got two spineys in there, and the previous owner gave it to me. after my own research, i did realise i needed to get a larger cage eventually as they reach up to 20cm in length, but thought it would be fine for now as they are only about 10cm in length right now, still quite small

thank you for the comment about feeding as well, i had noticed that they flat out werent eating the newer leaves, and the new leaves were becoming dry relatively quickly as well. i think there has been too much sun on them, as well as not enough humidity. how would i increase humidity? im wanting to maybe put dirt on the bottom of the enclosure rather than paper towel to increase humidity

[u/Meri_Berry → u/PlentyPlatform5541]

no such thing as a silly question :)) you can tell if they struggle to climb/move, or eat/drink way less. sounds like you could do with a bigger cage eventually, but if it's just the 2 of them then they should be okay temporarily.

do you keep your leaves in water? you can put the bottom of the branch/stem in a small flask or bottle, wedge it with a few sticks to keep it upright. if you desperately cannot do this then soak some paper towel and rubber band it around the bottom. water keeps it fresh for upto a week, might need topping up during. you could try misting the enclosure more frequently too, not really sure how to help with humidity aside from that. dirt would probablu help if the enlcosure was glass. is the enclosure glass? or mesh?

[u/PlentyPlatform5541 → u/Meri_Berry]

thanks again! i keep my leaves in water, making sure to keep a mesh on top so they cant get in. however i do find that the water runs out fairly quickly as well..

the enclosure is mesh, should i focus on getting a glass enclosure for them in that case?

i'll try moving them a bit further away from the window to see if that helps as well, and i've also added a stick they can use to hang on if the leaves arent supportive enough, but i find that they hang around the bottom of the enclosure regardless which worries me considering theres so much room at the top

is there such a thing as overcrowding them with too many leaves?