My Chromatopelma Cyaneopubescens molted about two weeks ago, and now very skittish. She will no longer take crickets from my tongs. She was a good eater! She now spends most of her time hiding under her web tunnels and almost never out. All conditions are species appropriate. If she happens to have her legs out, I'll dangle the prey in front of her and she runs away and hides. I've been leaving prekilied cricket in her tunnel entrance and she used to scavenge, now won't. Any help would be appreciated!
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My 3" GBB stopped eating and it's not premolt.
- Thread starter Steve Ts
- Start date
She's about 3" and would readily take prey before. After she molted a couple weeks ago, it's like she turned into a different T, and hasn't eaten yet. I would think she'd be hungry.
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- Location
- The Oregon rain forest
Photos...
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Why do you tong feed?
- Messages
- 6,382
- Location
- The Oregon rain forest
In another thread hes got a Avicularia metallica doing the same thing.
OP....I would recommend to stop tong feeding. Theres many variables that can make tong feeding difficult and or dangerous for your tarantula. A Gbb depends on vibrations on its webbing to hunt...not a roach dangling in the air. Gbbs have poor vision so it can make a already skittish spider worse. The Avicularia has better vision but needs to hunt on there own...ambush and attack. Thats how they want to hunt...its instincts. When spiders are young they will grab what ever is in front of them. They are trying to get big fast. You've been pretty lucky so far getting them to eat.
The biggest reason to not tong feed is fang damage. A tarantula can brake or damage one or both fangs. If they dont brake them off right away they may damage the new exo inside. This can cause them molt without fangs. Imagine having to grind up your spiders food and put it in a syringe and feed them by hand. It's no fun let me tell you from experience. Just the urticating hairs all over you will make you never want to tong feed again.
Just a little insight from a guy that has had to save spiders from people who tong fed them.
That's how I've fed my other T's and it has worked well for the most part. The Avicularia is my first arboreal, and she's never on the ground in her arboreal enclosure though I have left a couple crickets in the bottom to see if she'd eat them, but no luck.
I crushed a cricket's head and left it in one of her tunnels where I knew she was and left her alone for 15min. I went back and she was munching on the cricket!
If I just leave wild prey in with her she doesn't take it.
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For my avics, and young non-avics, I cripple roaches and drop them into the webbing, feet a flailing - it's like a dinner bell for a hungry spider. Unless they are in premolt, they are on it pretty quickly.
For my GBB, I drop a crippled roach or hobbled cricket at the mouth of the web tube and let the prey draw the spider out with its movement
Too many stories of OBTs running up tongs, and risk to spiders/fangs, to make tong feeding attractive to me.
For my GBB, I drop a crippled roach or hobbled cricket at the mouth of the web tube and let the prey draw the spider out with its movement
Too many stories of OBTs running up tongs, and risk to spiders/fangs, to make tong feeding attractive to me.
Personally, I feed in the late afternoon/evening and take it out after 24 hours if not eaten or dead/motionless. I like to give the T the overnight option as many feed after dark in the wild.
