what all have you fed your spiders?

[jetfire]

One of my favorite things to do with my T's is to see just what they will or won't eat. They get a base diet of crickets and dubias, but sometimes I like to offer different prey items. For instance, the redleg absolutely LOVES tree frogs, as soon as she senses it, she runs it down. I've seen her run up the side of the cage to catch them.
I just offered my Suntiger her first green anole, and she took her time checking it out, before deciding it was edible.
To date, I've offered occasional ground skinks,mediteranian geckos, tree frogs, grasshoppers, locusts, and toads.
They ate everything quite readily, with the exception of the toads. They just ignored them, paid them no attention.

 

[jetfire]

Forgot to caption the pics, those are some shots of Araña having dinner

 

[Josh]

Wow that's pretty insane! Do you have any follow up photos for the rest of the process? How long does a prey item like that last?

 

[jetfire]

The first pic was about 1 1/2hrs into the process, she'd already eaten the head. The second pic I just took, so it's about 13hrs in now ...just a back leg and the tail left, really (she stopped cooperating, moved away from the tank side).
She likely won't need to eat again for at least a week, probably a week & a 1/2.

 

[Josh]

Wow. Incredible! Next you need a tripod and a video camera! A time-lapse video would be soooooo cool.

 

[kheymann]

Now see that.. hmm I don't know I think I would of kept the reptile as a pet .. Although.. in my experience with Aquariums.. specifically Cichlids.. i'm kind of brutal.. if there was a bully in the tank I would throw him in my 300 gallon setup with the Ornate Bichir and teach them a good lesson. Perhaps once I get my T. setup I will get into the same frame of mind and go for a good treat now and then.

 

[jetfire]

I'm just trying to keep their diet as natural as possible, its not like they live solely on crickets and dubias in the wild, they eat whatever is unfortunate enough to scurry across their path.

 

[Samuraisid]

Currently I stick to crickets and superworms, but have considered using the occasional wildcaught skink/anole. I just dont have time to go looking for them. Id love to set up a breeding viv with some WC skinks. See if I can maintain a population of them while using them as feeders.... probably need a huge tank and have to research cannibalism.

I know a fellow Canadian enthusiast who only feeds WC lizards and snakes to his matures.

Awesome pics!!

 

[Josh]

What would it take for someone to set up a camera and film the entire process? I bet that would look amazing sped up so that it's reasonably short <5 mins or so...
Does anyone have a tripod/equipment to pull something like that off?

 

[Samuraisid]

Any recently made camera would work. My camera is a 10-year-old digital and has the option to make vids. All you need is a memory card large enough to record a video of X minutes. No idea how to figure that out, but Im guessing new model cameras probably have 5gb memory cards. Should be good enough for 1-3hrs of film.

To speed it up all you need is some good editing software.

 

[Dr Mengele]

I guess we all go through that period where we like to see what our monsters will and wont eat . Mine get large crickets and thats it. I wont feed them Mice or lizards or frogs because these dont deserve to die like that. If it happens in the wild then its fine but feeding mice to T's in captivity, where the Mice have no choice is kinda sad. Do your own thing, these are your spiders in YOUR care but im giving mine Hissers and large crickets...

 

[MassExodus]

I guess we all go through that period where we like to see what our monsters will and wont eat . Mine get large crickets and thats it. I wont feed them Mice or lizards or frogs because these dont deserve to die like that. If it happens in the wild then its fine but feeding mice to T's in captivity, where the Mice have no choice is kinda sad. Do your own thing, these are your spiders in YOUR care but im giving mine Hissers and large crickets...

Awww...not hissers...they have character..lol, I just started collecting them, I can't feed em to my tarantulas. My dubias are meat for the grinder though. Funny how we compartmentalize these things..

 

[Dr Mengele]

Awww...not hissers...they have character..lol, I just started collecting them, I can't feed em to my tarantulas. My dubias are meat for the grinder though. Funny how we compartmentalize these things..

It is and i respect your thinking

 

[RedCapTrio]

Any recently made camera would work. My camera is a 10-year-old digital and has the option to make vids. All you need is a memory card large enough to record a video of X minutes. No idea how to figure that out, but Im guessing new model cameras probably have 5gb memory cards. Should be good enough for 1-3hrs of film.

To speed it up all you need is some good editing software.

Wow, to talk of 5GB like it's some big thing... 32GB right now is pretty common for memory cards and that's just a couple of years. Imagine how it is in a couple of years more...

 

[timc]

Awww...I don't have the heart to feed my spiders something that blinks.