I have a Curly Hair tarantula and this morning I see he is light brown, usually he's a very dark brown.?

Question

He's moulted a few times but I don't recall him going light brown, is there any reason to be concerned or is this normal? He's approximately 2.3'' and about a year old.

Answer 1

I have three curly hair spiderlings and they vary in coloration depending on how far they are from a molt. One of them is almost black and another is a very light brown. I want to say they lighten a month or so before a molt, but unfortunately I haven't kept track of their molt dates to tell you for sure.

Does it also have a very dark spot on the rump? If so then I would just assume that the old cuticle is starting to loosen and pull away giving it a lighter appearance..

The only time I can think of that you'd be concerned about color change is if there's also a great deal of hair loss beyond what is normal or if the pattern of hair loss is beyond the section of urticating hairs that most new worlds lose between molts. For instance, I had a C. Crawshayi lose most of the hair on it's rump even though that species does not have urticating hairs. That's the only problem I can think of that would look like a color change.