Agh, feeding time is hard. (Arboreal Spiders at least)

[Hunter1134]

Just wanted to say feeding my Pink Toe is hard. Since he is in the top right hand corner behind all the foliage, it's hard to get the cricket to him. I get small tongs and try to give it to him, but he gets too scared I think. And when I drop a cricket near him, he goes for it a little bit, but when the cricket runs, he just won't go after it. Ugh. How do you feed your Arboreal spiders.

 

[DalilahBlue]

Step 1. Open container
Step 2. Toss in foodie bits
Step 3. Cricket carnage!

Each spider is different. Make sure the prey items are no longer than the spiders abdomen.

If your spider is a sling you might need to pre-kill its food and leave it in a place it ventures as most slings are scavengers.

If not, no worries. They will eat when they want something.

Trust me. I know I drove some of these guys NUTS with my first T's. They will eat when they are ready. Are long as the abdomen looks rounded and not shriveled you are fine.

 

[Hunter1134]

Ok. Will he go wandering around for food when he is hungry and sees any prey?

 

[DalilahBlue]

Pretty much.

 

[Sabeth]

My one arboreal spider is a sling, so I kill the crickets before feeding. Usually I place it in the webbing right next to him, but once I just put it on top of the cork bark and he found it just fine. I've read you can also toss a few crickets upwards into the T's lair with a flick of your wrist. Tarantulas can also sense the vibrations caused by the crickets' movement and will usually learn to find them.

 

[donna]

we try to place the live cricket as close to the t as we can but usually if we just drop it into the container the t will go find it when it's hungry enough.

 

[BigTGirl93]

I myself have a Pink Toe as well and feeding time for him is like a hit or a miss! But my LP sling and my Chaco sling chow down big time on anything haha! For these arboreal T's it's almost like you have to find what works for them. When I first got Aragon he would snatch the cricket from my tweezers and bite it, drop it, then later on he would go look for it. He stopped doing that, so I would just hold the cricket as close to him as possible and he just walked away, then I tried just dropping the cricket in there (leaving in overnight) and he didn't like that way either. So now I pre-kill his crickets for him and place them in his web and walk away. When I come back in to check on him he's chowing down. My slings will eat their pinhead crickets alive or pre-killed. So it really depends on what your T likes I think. Every T is different. Goodluck!