ALWAYS crush dubia heads

Moakmeister

Moakmeister

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So today I bought some dubia roaches from Repticon. They aren't mature yet, so I don't need to worry about them breeding out of control until months down the line. But anyway, as soon as I got home, I attempted to feed one to Regina, my G. pulchripes, who's never eaten one.

It was a disaster.

I quickly found that dubias are slippery little buggers that are almost impossible to grab with tongs. It took me a bit to get one out of the tub. So I dropped it into the enclosure, and Regina was in her hide. She refused to come out to investigate the commotion, so I had to keep digging the roach out because it was digging. Eventually I just put it into the burrow, but she IGNORED it! It just ran under her and dug down inside her burrow. Uh oh. I ended up having to just pick up the hide, ruining the webs she had everywhere and pulling up a bunch of substrate.

Regina, understandably, was pretty mad about this. As I was digging up the roach and tried to get her to take it again so I could just be done with this ordeal, she began to perform a threat pose and even stridulated at me at one point. Yeah, I bet you didn't know the G. pulchripes could do that. It was loud, too. She refused to eat this thing, so I put it back in the container and texted cold blood about the shenanigans. He recommended that I crush the dubia's head and leave it on its back. I tried it, and guess who immediately ate it?

So yeah, always crush the dubia's head before you try to feed it to a tarantula.
 
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basin79

basin79

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Moakmeister said:
So today I bought some dubia roaches from Repticon. They aren't mature yet, so I don't need to worry about them breeding out of control until months down the line. But anyway, as soon as I got home, I attempted to feed one to Regina, my G. pulchripes, who's never eaten one.

It was a disaster.

I quickly found that dubias are slippery little buggers that are almost impossible to grab with tongs. It took me a bit to get one out of the tub. So I dropped it into the enclosure, and Regina was in her hide. She refused to come out to investigate the commotion, so I had to keep digging the roach out because it was digging. Eventually I just put it into the burrow, but she IGNORED it! It just ran under her and dug down inside her burrow. Uh oh. I ended up having to just pick up the hide, ruining the webs she had everywhere and pulling up a bunch of substrate. Regina, understandably, was pretty mad about this. As I was digging up the roach and tried to get her to take it again so I could just be done with this ordeal, she began to perform a threat pose and even stridulated at me at one point. Yeah, I bet you didn't know the G. pulchripes could do that. It was loud, too. She refused to eat this thing, so I put it back in the container and texted cold blood about the shenanigans. He recommended that I crush the dubia's head and leave it on its back. I tried it, and guess who immediately ate it?

So yeah, always crush the dubia's head before you try to feed it to a tarantula.
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I can understand using tongs in the tarantula enclosure but why not just pick the roach out if the livefood tub with your fingers?

I only feed live roaches to the tarantulas that are already out or have a good web (Chilobrachys fimbriatus). I also have that rule for morio worms too but broke the rule with my Cyriopagopus hati hati. She grabbed the first and missed the 2nd. Complete rehouse.
 
Rob1985

Rob1985

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This is common knowledge. I alway crush the heads when I use Dubia's as feeders. But since red runners (B. lateralis) are becoming easier to find at my local expo I use them or just old school crickets.
 
Draketeeth

Draketeeth

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I've gotten into the habit with dubias of putting a feeder in a condiment cup for easy dropping into the tarantula enclosure after picking it out with either my hand, or using a piece of scrap paper as a "scoop" to catch the little roaches. From there, dump the dubia in where I want it. Works pretty well for the terrestrials.
 
Chris LXXIX

Chris LXXIX

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Moakmeister said:
So yeah, always crush the dubia's head before you try to feed it to a tarantula.
Click to expand...
Who said that, man? It's not a 'rule' at all :)

Go figure if I bother to crush the head (especially when it comes for juve/adult T's) of my B.dubia. I simply offer 1.0 B.dubia (0.1 are too important, pregnant... plus I've noticed that 1.0 do not dig like crazy like females do) and voilà, in the mouth of my T's.
 
Tim Benzedrine

Tim Benzedrine

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Moakmeister said:
He recommended that I crush the dubia's head and leave it on its back.
Click to expand...
Eh, that's his stock answer to every problem.
I PM'd him asking if he knew how I could stop my new puppy from peeing on the floor and was horrified when he advised using the same method for the puppy.
 
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volcanopele

volcanopele

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Honestly, I can't really bring myself to do that. Crickets, sure, could care less, but I just can't bring myself to crush the dubia heads.

HOWEVER, that does mean that I am limited as to who I can feed dubias to. Only my aggressive eaters get dubias, the ones who pounce on food the second it hits the ground. Dubias mostly go to my bearded dragon. the rest of my Ts get crickets. If any when I get a less aggressive feeder as big as my L. klugi, I don't know, maybe I'll start ordering lateralis roaches? And as Chris mentioned, feeding the males off is even better, though with their wings, that means there are more leftovers.
 
Moakmeister

Moakmeister

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Tim Benzedrine said:
Eh, that's his stock answer to every problem.
I PM'd him asking if he knew how I could stop my new puppy from peeing on the floor and was horrified when he advised using the same method for the puppy.
Click to expand...
Idk what you're complaining about, seems like an effective way to stop it from peeing on the floor to me.
 
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