A. avicularia Question

stargell

Arachnosquire
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I consider myself an intermediate T keeper, but a newbie when it comes to arboreals. I've had my A avic for about 3 months now and in that time it has consumed, at most, 4-6 cricks. I'm starting to worry about it not eating. Here is the relevant information.

1. It's about 3.25"

2. It is not, from what I can tell, in pre-moult.

3. It is kept in a 12X12X12 exo-terra tank. (Spends most of its time up on its bark, just as most arboreals would).

4. I've tried feeding by simply dropping cricks in. I've tried by dropping them into the webbing. It's ignoring them in both instances.

I loathe to get another enclosure, but right now i'm leaning towards the enclosure being too large. Any thoughts?
 

Snipes

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My female a avic is about 3.5". She does not really like to eat for some reason, but she seems healthy enough. It is hard for me to tell when avics are in premolt except for they are a bit dull. Dont worry too much.
 

JCola

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i've kept about 5 a. avicularia and many other avics. sometimes, they just don't eat. it's also tough to tell when they're in premolt cause they're abdomens are so dark to begin with. has it made a nice retreat that it stays in most of the time?

also, perhaps you're not leaving the prey in long enough?

some of my avics will take prey right off my tweezers, some want the prey to walk right up to them. you could also try different types of feeders, I had good luck with superworms, roaches, and the smaller ones like waxworms too.

don't worry too much, and good luck.
 

swade655

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thats a good thought u have there, I had my a.avic and my p.cambrigei in 10 gals for a while because i had a lack of enclosures. they both ate rarely and always had to hunt down prey in the substrate. while it was fun watching the occasional hunting behavior, it didnt give them near as many meals as I normally feed my arborals. Since then I have transferred both into 2.5 gal enclosures and they both eat 1-2 crix bi-weekly. As stated above, it is common for avics to go on strange fasts, although it doesnt hold true with mine. Also, many T's can go a long time without eating, if you do keep it in a large enclosure, keep an eye on the size of the abdomen to make sure it doesn't get too small or shriveled. make sure to mist the enclosure well also, a bigger enclosure will zap your humidity quicker than a small one in my experience. Good luck with whatever your decision is.
 

bkirchner81

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:cool:

-I would NOT get a new tank. The Exo-terra should be perfect for an arboreal.

My Avic sling hasn't eaten in 2 months and he is perfectly healthy from all observations. He kinda makes me worry- but I should know better- these guys probably can go for quite a few months without eating. Usually after a molt the appetite will increase for a period of time, then... back to fasting. His legspan is about 1.3" and his abdomen never looks any different.

For good humidity control search " Tropicaire Humidifier " in this forum- you may like the idea...


peace
 

demicheru

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I wouldn't worry about that at all. At that size, it is pretty well established as an adult and has far fewer needs, diet wise. I had a female a. avic that was about 4" that didn't eat much, or regularly. It went off food for about three weeks, spun a web and dropped a sac which produced ~30 slings about a month and a half ago. I think two have died so far (my brother is taking care of them right now, since they would have hatched while I was driving across the country). As others have pointed out, it's not anything to worry about.

If you start to see it looking or acting strange, do a search on dehydration, and see if that might be an issue. For now, if it looks healthy enough, I would just drop a crick/roach/worm in there once a week and remove it the next day or so if it hasn't been eaten yet. Does it have access to plenty of water? A lot of t's simply won't eat if they are dehydrated.

There are a couple things to look for if it appears unhealthy, but if it looks fine, don't worry.
 

gumby

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1. personally I would move it to a little smaller enclosure thats just me Id save the enclosure u have for a little bigger T. it might make it easyer to catch the food.
2. its also possible your T. could be getting ready to molt and wont eat for that reason I like jcolas idea of avics will take prey right off my tweezers.
3. you may also want to ask the person you got it from what your T. was being fed before you got her if it was something different your T. may like that better. id go with the other options first though
 

IguanaMama

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Personally, I hand feed my Avics, but I like to live dangerously. I don't recommend doing this, but this is what I do. I hold the cricket by the legs and I let it go right by its mouth. I hand feed a lot of my ts. I even had the cricket jump back on my hand yesterday and my smaller blondi jumped right out of it's enclosure and pounced on the cricket right on my hand hahahahahaha. Good thing it has good aim and got the cricket and not my finger. I think if the enclosure is too big, the T might have no idea that there is a bug in there.
 

gumby

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:clap: :clap: thats the way to go IguanaMama has mad skills. I think I would have wet myself if my T. blondi jumped on my hand to start feeding on that cricket lol:D
 

Dewaine

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What stands between a hungry t and a juicy cricket??

I keep seeing comments about keeping t's in small tanks so they can easily catch their food. How easy does it have to be? I mean really -- how big is their natural habitat!?!

It just seems like they don't need to be hand or bottle-fed like a baby calf. If they are hungry, t's eat. If they are not hungry, they can't be force-fed; they'll just kill they cricket and leave it.

I don't have too many years of experience, but from what I've seen, most crickets cannot outrun a hungry t for more than a minute or so. The human spectator just needs a little more patience: Put the t in a big tank, throw in 5 crickets, in a coupla days -- no crickets. Unless they t isn't hungry, in which case, take the crickets out and don't worry..
:)
 

gumby

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Dewaine good call on "The human spectator just needs a little more patience" the only piece of the puzle you might need that will help is that avic avic is arboreal which tends to make it a little different because arboreals live in trees and make their webs off the ground in general

The question would then be how does that make it harder for the T. to find a cricket? well if the web is in the air and the cricket makes it to the ground that could be a problem. Ts use vibrations much of the time to catch food so if they dont feel those vibrations on their web its harder for them to find food. ive had my avic avics go down to the ground in search of food befor but usually I try to at least put the crickets in the web to start with. you may be right though sometimes we just need more patience:worship:
scott
 

spid142

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I have watched my larger arboreals, and it seems it depends. Sometimes they move down to near the substrate and ambush a crix there, and sometimes they wait up on the tree climb til the crix climbs up. Maybe it depends on 'Im really hungry now Ill go get it' or 'I can wait for it to come by'
 

Dewaine

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I suppose if the t is in surroundings so different from its natural habitat it could be handicapped and need some sort of help in catching its prey. But it is hard to imagine a hungry t being so helpless that it needs help fanging a cricket.

And human hands aren't natural to their habitat and they don't have any problem nabbing those once in a while!

:}
 

gumby

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:} :? its not really a matter of the Ts being helpless or human hands bothering them. even in the wild Ts dont generally roam far from their burrows or trees. mature males do when they are looking for a mate but most of the time Ts stay fairly close to home from what Ive read. :cool: many even spend most of their time in their tiny burrows this is more of a quetion of what can he do to help his T find food if this is the problem. it could be the T. is just not hungry but many Ts do wait for food to just stumble on by. ive had a G rosea go with out food for 5 and a half months :drool: she just didnt move much and didnt need as much food she still only eats once every two weeks as a full grown T.:D good to have you on the boards:p
scott
 

Dewaine

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Gumby, this board is kind of addicting. (But shouldn't it be arachiboards, with an "i"?)

It is interesting to "meet" all these people and their spiders..

I have only owned two g. roseas, so I'm no expert. But I have found they will go months without eating, usually before a molt, and are not shy at all when they are hungry.

I realize all t's are different, but still, they are hearty enough to have survived this long, and they wouldn't have if they were shy about dinner!

Actually, I think most of it is that watching them catch their prey and eat is one of the most fun parts of having t's, and if they don't eat their humans don't have as much fun with them!

:razz:
 

stargell

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Guess it might be a health issue. She is now laying on the substrate. Four of her legs and half her body are just pressed against the ground and the other four are clutching the glass.

Not a death curl but definitely not a healthy look for an arboreal T.

I made sure to move her water dish right near her. Other than that I'm at a loss for what to do.
 

bonesmama

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Sounds like dehydration to me- can you place her in the dish? Just make sure you keep her booklungs out of the water. Keep a close eye on her- you may want to get her into an ICU. If you are comfortable with handling her, you can use an eyedropper to give her some water.
On the issue of feeding- don't forget that in the wild, there is alot more than crickets- arboreals feed alot on flying insects- moths, etc. You can get some waxworms and let them pupate into moths and try that.
 
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