Feeding Dubias for the first time...

[Dustin Amack]

I have always fed all of my T's B. lats (red racer roaches), or something like that. I have recently switched to trying to feed my larger T's Dubia roaches for many obvious reasons. My question/concern is this: the Dubias seem to stay alive for a lot longer than any B. lats that I have fed in the past. I literally fed my two 4+" Avics an hour ago and the Dubias are still very much alive and trying to fight their way out of the T's fangs. Is this normal? I have a hard time watching the Dubia suffer so much.. any advice / thought are appreciated.

 

[ALD]

Interesting. I think that would bother me to- that seems like a long time for that to go on. I may be wrong and being a newbie and all- but do you feed these half dead? I thought I read that somewhere. Maybe this is why? Good to know though as I am trying to decide if this is something I would want to offer.

 

[Dustin Amack]

I feed these fully alive and they tend to struggle for some time. I do like the fact that I only need to feed once a week verses 2-3 times. I now have my own dubia colony now and I would highly recommend it. Welcome to this amazing hobby!

 

[ALD]

Thank you!!!

I am addicted. This time next year I'll probably have quite a collection

 

[Dustin Amack]

That's how it happens for me. I've got a variety available if you're interested, let me know. I sell all the time. How many are in your collection so far?

 

[InEx Situ]

@Dustin Amack, I've experienced the same and have seen adult and juvenile Blaptica dubia fight for more than an hour. IME, when I feed dubia to my Old Worlds, they tend to stop fighting within a short period of time (most likely because of the potency of the venom?). I have noticed that the exoskeleton on the dubia extends further out from the head and thorax, potentially resulting in the Tarantula's fangs hooking into this tough exoskeleton instead of the soft underside and resulting to the dubia struggling for a long period of time.

 

[Dustin Amack]

@Dustin Amack, I've experienced the same and have seen adult and juvenile Blaptica dubia fight for more than an hour. IME, when I feed dubia to my Old Worlds, they tend to stop fighting within a short period of time (most likely because of the potency of the venom?). I have noticed that the exoskeleton on the dubia extends further out from the head and thorax, potentially resulting in the Tarantula's fangs hooking into this tough exoskeleton instead of the soft underside and resulting to the dubia struggling for a long period of time.

Thank you for the advice. Since this was several months ago when I first began using Dubia, I have learned a lot and now have a fully sustained colony. When feeding my larger Ts big Dubias, I have found that if it is possible, I try to crush the head of the roach and this reduces the length of time they struggle. I have done this for my large Avic sp. to help them avoid any falls. So far this method has worked well for me. I agree with OW, the roach passes much quicker. I also tend not to worry about it as much with a terrestrial T. I'm learning as I go Thanks again.

 

[NukaMedia Exotics]

I don't think they really "suffer" they're just trying to get away from something that is obviously a negative stimulus for them. I've heard that half eaten roaches will still try to mate like nothing even happened to them, their sense of pain isn't anything like ours from what I understand (no type of awareness to be in "pain").

Not saying its pleasant for them obviously and I'm not in any way an expert, I've just been reading on this stuff the past couple of days and the entomologists discussing it seemed pretty sure. This was a little ill-explained summary of the conclusions I gleamed from them (I can link you the threads I got this from if you want).