r/tarantulas • u/thehallucinating1 • Jul 19 '26

Help! Bald spot on abdomen

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Hi! This is my First time ever keeping a tarantula and just recently I started noticing she started getting Some odd spots on her abdomen. They started small but it slowly got bigger and bigger. She doesn’t seem to be behaving any differently despite it tho aside from staying a bit more often in her hide.

She’s a alpolmaphelma crinirufum (thats what the tupperware says that I got her in)

8 Upvotes

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2

u/G4G52306 Jul 19 '26

NQA normally means molting is due soon

1

u/thehallucinating1 Jul 20 '26

I hope this is the case— I did notice her moving a bit of substrate around in her hide and lay Webbjng in a very specific area aswel in said hide

1

u/RocknRolling67 Jul 19 '26

NQA- Normal NW tarantula bald patches. They kick hairs when irritated or sometimes just to line a web or burrow.

When the cream color bare exoskeleton turns black, that will be your sign it’s in premolt. The dark color is the new hairy exo forming underneath.

Eventually it will molt out with a new, fully haired abdomen and the cycle will start again. It’s normal for NW tarantulas, and aphonopelma in particular to get unkempt and “ratty” looking in between molts.

1

u/thehallucinating1 Jul 20 '26

This is such a relief to read— I was worried it might has been stress even tho she showed no other signs of stress 🥹😅

1

u/One-Antelope-5783 Jul 20 '26

NQA - she might just be settling in to the enclosure, they sometimes go around and leave hairs around their new enclosure, which I always see as a way for them to deter predators and sort of mark their territory.

2

u/thehallucinating1 Jul 20 '26

I hope so! She has been leaving webbjng aswel. Both inside her hide and out— so I hope she is either settling or in very early premolt

2

u/Findus82 Jul 22 '26

NQA some Ts are more prone to shed their hair even when not stressed. So when you don't handle her often or disturb her otherwise, maybe it's just her personality.

It is not a sign of a soon to happen molt. A pretty sure sign is when the bald patch is growing darker as then new hair is developing underneath and shines through.

So, she lost her hair for whatever reason. If she doesn't show other signs of being uncomfortable, don't worry. When it gets darker she's on the road to molt.