Feeding habits

[kormath]

My son and i were discussing this last night, how each of our T's has different feeding habits, and i thought it would be fun to see how they compare with everyone else's

The GBB is like a snake. You drop a roach into his web and he strikes the second it hits. Sometimes though he'll just teleport (or so it seems) to that spot in the web and wait for it to move again, then strikes and impales the roach with his fangs.

The B. boehmei is a brawler, and a drama queen, exagerating everything. When a roach gets near him he hits it like a linebacker, i've watched him charge the roach and catch it, with his legs flailing around as he positions it to sink his fangs in. Quite funny. My son said he'd flipped over, like he tackled the roach and rolled, when he fed him 2 weeks ago or so. I'm just glad he's gotten a stomach for roaches finally

The B. vagans is an ambush predator. He'll wait by the opening of his tunnel for hte roach to pass and ambushes it, then drags it down in his tunnel to the den he's created below.

The B. albos were lazy, they'd wait for the roaches to come to them, then hit them with a ferocity similar to the boehmei.

G. rosea hasn't eaten yet, so no idea what she will do. Going to try a cut up meal worm tonight to see if she'll take that.

The A. genic hasn't been out in the open yet to watch eat. But what i have seen is similar to the boehmei, lots of scrambling legs in the opening of his hide.

A. Versicolor hasn't eaten yet, so it will be interesting to see it's habits.

My LP hasn't eaten yet either, i'll try a piece of meal worm tonight and see what it does.

So how do yours behave when feeding?

 

[SasyStace]

Dead ringer on the B. Albo!! Mine is the same way- My gbb is a strike on web contact- my OBT likes to stalk and my Avic is a monster and will eat anything dropped in. My lemon patch is also a stalker. My P. irminia has slowed way down on eating since he matured last month and my Poec -p regalis is the fastest killer of them all

 

[MassExodus]

I'm happy to say most of my collection are great eaters. The reigning champ is my female Lp of course. She's a machine. My adult female porteri thinks she's a small Lp, she always eats, and right now looks like a bloated cow. And my P antinous, at 4 inches, has never once refused food, she takes adult male dubias down like a boss.. she's going to be be so huge and gorgeous..I have one juvie A avic that fasts, a lot, and my adult female C lividus is hit and miss, but the rest are great eaters that love superworms and dubia roaches. My six new Hapalopus sp columbia large slings and my two P campbridgei slings are continuing the tradition.

 

[Fuzzball79]

Bearing in mind I just throw the food in and let the Ts work it out for themselves:
From botttom of shelf to top:
G. Rosea: Has turned into your typical GR (if there is such a thing). Eats when it suits her but can go without for ages, too, even without premolt. She's more of an opportunistic hunter. If the cricket or roach runs by her she grabs it, if it doesn't then she won't go out of her way anymore hunting it down (she used to). It's as if she knows that the prey can't get anywhere and it doesn't matter if she misses a meal or two.

A. Geniculata: The average lifespan of prey is about 30 seconds to 1 minute (5 minutes if she's in premolt and just casually kills them for nibbles). She jumps, catches in midflight, digs out and chases relentlessly. It's great to watch. When she's caught them she usually carries them to her water dish or one of her rocks. Saves her from having to web a feeding mat, lol.

G. Actaeon: Likes to eat, but isn't the fastest yet. It does eventually manage to catch its food, but I've noticed that with larger prey it eats a little, leaves it stuck to a web and them comes back to it after a while to continue feeding. It's spent 2 days with the last cricket. It usually disposes of the heads behind its water dish.

B. Boehmei: Always up for a meal and has tendency of getting quite fat. He seems to even pick up on when his neighbours' are getting fed, because he runs straight to the relevant side of his tub.

LP: I got it at about 1/4" and it would run and hide from any live prey, no matter how small (I even tried flightless fruit flies and what a PITA they were). It would eventually eat pre-killed items, so all was good. Then about 2 molts later, it discovered its inner beast. Now, it jumps around like a Jumping SPider when I only open the tub looking for food. When it catches the prey, it tackles it like a rugby pro and sometimes even does a full roll, never letting go of its food.

GBB: Again, great eater. When it's hungry it patrols its completely webbed up tub from top to bottom. The crickets occasionally try to hide under the web, but they have no chance. The GBB just bites right through the web and then I usually find it the next day furiously webbing over the damage.

A. Versicolor: I don't need to tell anyone who owns a Versi how greedy those are, lol. Anything in her vicinity is potentially food and will get bitten (including rehousing tools, like paint brushes and water droplets or the leaves they land on). The other day I was feeding her a locust. She grabbed it by the front leg and it got away by letting the leg fall off. She sat there for ages, holding the leg in her fangs then took it into her web, came back out and hunted down the locust, as if she figured "Hang on, there's more!". She jumps onto her prey and often lets herself drop backwards onto her bottom web using it like a fall net. She's nuts!

A. sp. "Amazonica": I have only ever seen it catch its prey once (grabbed it in mid flight from its web hammock). All I know is, that every time I put a small cricket in, it catches it overnight and munches it in the mornings.

T. Gigas: When it was a small sling, it would stalk its prey like Friday 13th Jason. Relentlessly, mercilessly, always ending it with a strike. Now it seems to rather wait until the prey makes its way into its web (they always do), but first it gives me a nice threat display for daring to open the tank, lol (obviously from the safety of its den behind the bark and plants, lol).

 

[kormath]

Nice!

My A. versicolor ate last night but i didn't get to see it. Used a half meal worm and dropped it in so it would get caught in the top web but the versi just sat there. My son checked it later just before bedtime and worm was almost fully eaten I'll have to feed her last next time so i can sit and watch how she eats.

Now to get the the LP and rosea to eat. I'm hoping the rosea is molting, she took to the hide i put in Monday (or maybe Tuesday?) and hasn't been seen since.

 

[rénee]

My A. Avic likes to drag its food into the water dish and leave it there for a bit, I guess to soften it up?, now its meals are pre-killed so it doesn't have much of a feeding habit yet or much of a hunt, but I have caught it sitting on top of the prey sometimes as if "I'm the boss, and I killed you", meanwhile.. it was already dead.

My G. Rosea has not eaten in my care, so not sure yet.. I'm excited to see, I feel as if she will just wait for the prey to come to her though.

My P. Imperators(Yes I know they arnt tarantulas lol but I might as well throw them in this convo). They will wait by the cave entrance with claws wide open until the prey comes to them, but sometimes the crickets like to bask on top of the cave, so then the scorpion will come out and climb on top of the cave to stir them all up and then go to the ground and sit very still, and when one gets close enough, it will close its claws on them. My P. Imperators can be pigs. I have often caught them with a complete mouth full of cricket and then a cricket in each claw just munching away.

 

[Meludox]

My G. pulchra, B albopilosum and H. columbia slings are beasts! They will tackle anything the second it hits the sub. Watching the H. columbia is the most fun, because it is so small yet but it tackles crickets like it's nothing.

G. rosea is a little more lazy, she waits for prey to pass by a few times before even attempting to act interested. But she is the only of my spiders that eats the adult dubias, so I can't complain much.

My LP sling is weak and only eats pre-killed food.

Everyone else eats pretty normally...or not at all.

 

[timc]

I love this topic!

My GBB, OBT, & A. avic don't waste time or pull punches. As soon as something hits their web they're on it in a flash. The Avic often hits so hard there's a leg left behind for a snack later.

My LP & pumpkin patch are very different. Neither likes to eat until I put the lid back on. It's funny because the LP will stand right over his prey just waiting for the lid to go back and the WHAM! It's over.

My blue fang is the waiter. She stays in her burrow until the prey strolls by and then she's out and back in so fast it's not even funny. Her attacks are very violent. She's the only one who when she attacks I actually feel bad for the poor thing she's eating.

Last but not least my P. rufilata is my only stalker. She'll follow her prey around like she just wants something to do until I suppose she gets bored and then pounces like a pokie out of hell!

 

[RedCapTrio]

My son and i were discussing this last night, how each of our T's has different feeding habits, and i thought it would be fun to see how they compare with everyone else's

The GBB is like a snake. You drop a roach into his web and he strikes the second it hits. Sometimes though he'll just teleport (or so it seems) to that spot in the web and wait for it to move again, then strikes and impales the roach with his fangs.

The B. boehmei is a brawler, and a drama queen, exagerating everything. When a roach gets near him he hits it like a linebacker, i've watched him charge the roach and catch it, with his legs flailing around as he positions it to sink his fangs in. Quite funny. My son said he'd flipped over, like he tackled the roach and rolled, when he fed him 2 weeks ago or so. I'm just glad he's gotten a stomach for roaches finally

The B. vagans is an ambush predator. He'll wait by the opening of his tunnel for hte roach to pass and ambushes it, then drags it down in his tunnel to the den he's created below.

The B. albos were lazy, they'd wait for the roaches to come to them, then hit them with a ferocity similar to the boehmei.

G. rosea hasn't eaten yet, so no idea what she will do. Going to try a cut up meal worm tonight to see if she'll take that.

The A. genic hasn't been out in the open yet to watch eat. But what i have seen is similar to the boehmei, lots of scrambling legs in the opening of his hide.

A. Versicolor hasn't eaten yet, so it will be interesting to see it's habits.

My LP hasn't eaten yet either, i'll try a piece of meal worm tonight and see what it does.

So how do yours behave when feeding?

Excellent descriptions! As we have quite a similar lineup, I have to agree that these are pretty much the same as mine in terms of eating habits. Unbelievable!

 

[rénee]

My A. Avic likes to drag its food into the water dish and leave it there for a bit, I guess to soften it up?, now its meals are pre-killed so it doesn't have much of a feeding habit yet or much of a hunt, but I have caught it sitting on top of the prey sometimes as if "I'm the boss, and I killed you", meanwhile.. it was already dead.

My G. Rosea has not eaten in my care, so not sure yet.. I'm excited to see, I feel as if she will just wait for the prey to come to her though.

My P. Imperators(Yes I know they arnt tarantulas lol but I might as well throw them in this convo). They will wait by the cave entrance with claws wide open until the prey comes to them, but sometimes the crickets like to bask on top of the cave, so then the scorpion will come out and climb on top of the cave to stir them all up and then go to the ground and sit very still, and when one gets close enough, it will close its claws on them. My P. Imperators can be pigs. I have often caught them with a complete mouth full of cricket and then a cricket in each claw just munching away.

Well I was wrong about My G. Rosea waiting for her prey to come to her.. She is a striker, and she is fast.. 1st time I dropped one in she gave a threat pose, smacked it, then struck. Last night I fed her again, I was planning on capturing the moment.. but when I dropped cricket in, turned to grab phone and turned back to her.. it was too late, she had struck and had it all up in her fangs already, standing on her tip toes doing a little dance, cute. Although she doesn't like to be watched, if I sit there too long she turns around and sticks her butt at me.. poor cricket even lost a leg she was so quick (Just like @timc mentioned).

 

[Bugmom]

Non-burrowers:
*cricket goes in*
*Tarantula makes mad dash to eat it.*
If it's the geniculata, then several crickets go in and she plays the "how many can I stuff in my mouth at once" game.

Burrowers:
*cricket goes in*
*cricket walks by burrow*
*Like Jaws rising from the depths, the cricket is grabbed and dragged down below to it's demise*

Arboreals:
*cricket goes in*
I eventually hear *thumpthumpthump* when the tarantula realizes dinner has arrived and goes to catch it. I don't usually see that part as I've moved on to feeding the rest.

I have a few feeding videos on my YouTube channel, if you care to watch (I love feeding vids)

 

[kormath]

.

I have a few feeding videos on my YouTube channel, if you care to watch (I love feeding vids)

I will have to watch them! Those are my favorite T vids. That's what got me hooked on them my son and I were watching and researching. Mostly watching lol.

I keep trying to get a good vid of mine for feeding but my phone takes horrible videos but awesome pics. Have to get the video camera out of storage I guess.

 

[RedCapTrio]

Non-burrowers:
*cricket goes in*
*Tarantula makes mad dash to eat it.*
If it's the geniculata, then several crickets go in and she plays the "how many can I stuff in my mouth at once" game.

Burrowers:
*cricket goes in*
*cricket walks by burrow*
*Like Jaws rising from the depths, the cricket is grabbed and dragged down below to it's demise*

Arboreals:
*cricket goes in*
I eventually hear *thumpthumpthump* when the tarantula realizes dinner has arrived and goes to catch it. I don't usually see that part as I've moved on to feeding the rest.

I have a few feeding videos on my YouTube channel, if you care to watch (I love feeding vids)

Hi @Bugmom , may I ask for your YouTube user name? As your link is not working (the one in your sig?). TIA

 

[Bugmom]

Hi @Bugmom , may I ask for your YouTube user name? As your link is not working (the one in your sig?). TIA

https://www.youtube.com/user/desertwillow82/videos

 

[RedCapTrio]

https://www.youtube.com/user/desertwillow82/videos

Cool vids you got there, very nice resolution too. Thanks a lot, really appreciate it.