Force Feeding Information

[VanessaS]

Okay, so it looks as though Evelyn isn't eating at all and it was just wishful thinking. She wants to eat, she grabs the prey, and then just crushes it and doesn't eat it. I have had her do this the last two times. When I took those ventral photos of her, I didn't see anything unusual going on with her fangs, and they don't look damaged, but maybe that is the problem?
Has anyone had success in force feeding? Is there a proper way to do it? I am clueless and never thought this would be something that I would be doing in my lifetime.
If anyone has any information, or knows where I can get it - especially videos - that would be awesome. I'm going to have a look myself, but thought I would ask so it would help me weed out the bad information that I will probably come across.

 

[Psyrocke]

My first thought is to somehow creat a cricket/food of choice slushie and use a syringe, similar to what one would do for water in an ICU situation..but I have no clue how "right" that is as I've never had this problem before.

 

[VanessaS]

From what I have read, that is basically what I have to do.
What are the best prey items to use? How much do I drop at a time? How liquid does it need to be? Can I add a bit of water to it to make it easier for her to digest? How long do I wait to see if the drop I put on her mouth gets sucked in before I give up?
I couldn't find this information when I tried googling it.

 

[Psyrocke]

Um, I wouldn't think adding water would hurt, especially if you are unsure she is getting enough hydration. As for the rest, unfortunately I don't know since I have never had to it myself, but I would guess the ebst ones might be worms or something without a hard exoskeleton? I don't even know anyone on this forum whose done ICU type stuff that I could tag, but maybe @Tomoran knows someone?

 

[Kymura]

Assuming fresh molted meal worms might be the easiest.? But usually I see it listed as cricket soup. As gross as it sounds. Crush a cricket head and rip the abdomen off. Flip her and Squeeze it a bit and place the nasty side on her mouth. See if she shows any interest? Thinking if it's open and soft it might possibly trigger some interest.

 

[MatthewM1]

How long has it been since the T ate? How big is it and what species? You can't force a tarantula to it, it has to willingly suck up the food. Its not like a snake, frog or reptile where you can shove food in its mouth and it will swallow.

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[Psyrocke]

How long has it been since the T ate? How big is it and what species? You can't force a tarantula to it, it has to willingly suck up the food. Its not like a snake, frog or reptile where you can shove food in its mouth and it will swallow.

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While you cant force a T to eat a whole meal, the cricket smoothie is basically liquid you eyedrop onto their mouth parts. Either they will intake it, or clean it off.

 

[MatthewM1]

Exactly what I meant, you can't force the spider to eat. And if a T is starving to death I there must be something else wrong causing it to not eat. The only time I've heard a liquid diet being useful is for a T who has lost its fangs in a molt.

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