Leave Crickets in with your T?

[sAdam]

i've heard that you should remove uneaten food after 24 hours.

just wondering the logic behind this. the crickets can't harm the tarantula can they? won't the spider just eat them when it's ready?

or do the crickets just gross up your enclosure?

sorry for the noob questions but i am what i am :wall:

 

[7mary3]

Actually, the crix can kill your T if it's in a molt. They're quite nasty lil buggers when they feel they can get away with it.

 

[AudreyElizabeth]

Yep, crickets will eat just about anything, including your freshly molted tarantula.

 

[sAdam]

so, if checked eveyday to be sure the T. isn't doing the molting thing, its ok? or still no?

i just have the one spidder and she'd be pretty obvious if she decided to chill out on her back for a bit

 

[AudreyElizabeth]

I wouldn't. I used that for an example because that is the time when a tarantula is the most vulnerable. it just isn't a good idea. Only feed as much as your tarantula will eat.
How large and what species is it?

 

[kripp_keeper]

I'm fairly new to T's, but I've been "bitten" by my crickets when I grab them. It doesn't hurt me, but I wouldn't trust them comes to anything other then my gecko.



I have also seen them kill and eat other crickets at times.

 

[FireGuyX]

Never feed large crickets to your tarantula, only feed it large tickets until their close to 2" inches, if you have nothing but large crickets kill the cricket first than feed it to your T. You put a cricket in your tarantula cage, leave it their for 24 hours, if it's still alive that means your tarantula is in either pre-molt or not hungry. If your tarantula has very bluish abdomen, you definitely do not feed it anything. After your tarantula molts you usually wait around 5 days before you can feed it again.

 

[Mad Hatter]

I have also seen them kill and eat other crickets at times.

Yeah, crickets are gnarly little creatures - I hate them. I have witnessed them murder one another as well. A couple of crickets ganged up on one and chewed its head clean off. After that, I decided not to leave those hideous things in the container with the T unless the T ate it right away.

You can leave it in there for a while and keep an eye on them and you will know fairly soon whether or not your T wants to eat or not. If it doesn't - remove the crickets.

Another option: you could also smash their heads, or cut the heads off and toss them in. I do that for my small slings.

 

[AudreyElizabeth]

^ +1 I can't stand crickets.

 

[sAdam]

I wouldn't. I used that for an example because that is the time when a tarantula is the most vulnerable. it just isn't a good idea. Only feed as much as your tarantula will eat.
How large and what species is it?

about a 3" Avic.

thanks, i will take all ur guys' advice.
the last crick she took she didn't make a bolus, she left it mangled but still recognizeable.
is that a sign of not being hungry?

 

[bryanon]

you really should take the cricket out if it's not eaten the next day. It means that your T is in pre-molt or not hungry. You should learn the signs of pre-molt and keep track of molts on a calendar.

A friend of mine told me that a cricket killed his T by biting it, they are truly nasty critters. If you leave them in the cage then not only do you risk your T getting bitten, they are extremely stressful to the T as well. Imagine if you were trying to sleep and animals kept running through your bedroom, messing up your stuff...

 

[gvfarns]

Dude, crickets can be dangerous for a molting T, but for a T that's healthy they don't pose any particular risk.

HOWEVER, they stress the T out and annoy the heck out of it. The T climbs up the wall or something and that makes me feel sad. Don't do it.

 

[Lucille]

. Imagine if you were trying to sleep and animals kept running through your bedroom, messing up your stuff...

I spose you are not yet a parent

 

[Royal_T's]

so, if checked eveyday to be sure the T. isn't doing the molting thing, its ok? or still no?

i just have the one spidder and she'd be pretty obvious if she decided to chill out on her back for a bit

It's better not to leave them in there... they can harm your T not only physically but they can also stress your T as well.

 

[bryanon]

I spose you are not yet a parent

LOL....I actually am.. and that thought went thru my head too

 

[Mattyb]

I leave maybe 1 or 2 crickets in with my Ts. had no problems.

 

[lilmoonrabbit]

the last crick she took she didn't make a bolus, she left it mangled but still recognizeable.
is that a sign of not being hungry?

Yeah, sometimes they will kill the cricket because it is stressing them out and they want the cricket to go away, not because they are hungry.

I had that happen to me last time I fed. I had a little difficulty with her new enclosure, so I fed her 2 crix one day. Both crix disappeared into a hole in a piece of wood. I figured they were goners for good and the poor spider would never get to eat. So, the next day I went out and got a couple more. She ate one, but just killed the second one and just left it there. Later, when I was cleaning out the cage, I noticed more boluses... and realized that the crix from the day before probably crawled back out of the hole that night, and she ate them. By the time I was giving her "round 2", she was probably already full, so she just killed the other one to get it out of her way.

Sorry for the long-winded story, but I figured it would be a good example of why it might happen.

 

[Satellite Rob]

I never leave crickets in with my T's for more tha a few hours.If thay don't
eat them I remove them.I also never feed a T that in premolt because your
only asking for trouble.I sometimes will leave male crickets in with T's over
night.But never females.Because I don't want baby crickets jumping all over
the place in a couple of weeks.I like using crickets as a main food source.I
also like to vary diet with roaches,silkworms,grubs and pinkies.Once you get
use to the noise thay make.Thay make a good food source.

 

[Steve Calceatum]

Nasty little buggers!!!!! I usually take them out if they're not eaten. I prefer feeding roaches, as they're alot cleaner, and easier to deal with.

 

[Stan Schultz]

i've heard that you should remove uneaten food after 24 hours. ... just wondering the logic behind this. ...

Ultimately, the question is almost meaningless. If you can't get the uneaten food out of the cage within 24 hours no lightening will strike you, your teeth and hair won't fall out (at least for doing this), and the tarantula will still respect you in the morning!

... the crickets can't harm the tarantula can they? ...

Yes, it's theoretically possible for a cricket to try to eat a tarantula as food, but tarantulas - under most circumstances - are easily capable of place-kicking the offending cricket into the next week, or outright killing and eating it instead. So there's little to worry about here.

You'll see frequent mention of crickets killing tarantulas while the tarantulas are molting. First, crickets aren't smart enough to launch an attack. All they're doing is trying to eat something, and the tarantula is edible, handy, and won't get out of the way. This isn't a concerted attack, it's more like opportunistic grazing.

Second, tarantulas are vulnerable like that only while they're actually on their backs molting. That's normally a period of 30 minutes to 2 hours out of an entire year (for larger juveniles and adults). What are the chances of that happening? Somewhere between very slim and none at all. Besides, you'll have plenty of advance warning that the tarantula is preparing to molt so you can remove the crickets.

... won't the spider just eat them when it's ready? ...

Probably yes, as long as the crickets are still alive. We used to have a huge Brachypelma emilia (Mexican redleg tarantula) named "Duchess." As a matter of course we'd throw in a half dozen or more adult crickets with her and walk away from the cage. The crickets would survive for several days with her. She apparently was too busy meditating to pay any attention to them. Then, one night, she'd get a sudden attack of the munchies, or completely lose all patience with them. We'd come in the next day to find no crickets, but a large, gooey food bolus in the corner.

The question really is "How much time do you have to waste, fussing and fretting over a spider?" Where do you draw the line? Because we normally had ±1,000 tarantulas to tend to, we didn't have time to give each cage a thorough, once-a-day inspection. Fill the water dish, throw in the crickets, make sure the cover was secure, move on to the next cage. Time's a wastin'!

If, on the other hand, you notice that the crickets are still there after 3 or 4 days, it would be a good idea to get them out of that cage and either feed them to something else, or put them back in their cage so they can eat and drink.

... or do the crickets just gross up your enclosure? ...

Are you an Oscar Madison or a Felix Unger type? (See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063374/.)

Not really "gross up your enclosure," although if they're left so long that they die, they will cause a bad smell and eventually attract mites or flies. And, the sight of dead cricket carcasses isn't all that entertaining.

... sorry for the noob questions but i am what i am :wall:

Not at all! We love newbie questions! Newbie questions are always a lot easier to deal with than newbie mistakes.

While we're at it, read http://www.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/stansrant.html.

Now you need to figure out whether YOUR TARANTULA is an Oscar Madison or a Felix Unger type!