My mealworm ate my tarantula!!!

Arachnophoric

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I just find it funny that OP kept complaining that they had to leave the dish in there because of the T's fasting habit, seeming not to realize that they were probably causing it - Ts are opportunistic predators and the moment it got hungry it'd go gorge itself stupid on those mealworms, and then proceed to fast for another 6 months. :rolleyes:
 

JPG

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I wonder if this guy continued to keep leaving "mealworm dish" in the T enclosures and wonder why his Ts kept dying...
 

ThatsUnpossible

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I for one am pleased this thread has been resurrected. I was chopping up mealworms for my slings, but last night I just crushed the heads - I wasn’t sure if I’d done it enough.

When you crush the head do you have to smash it to oblivion or just squash it until some juice comes out? Also, same question for crickets?

They were gone this morning, hopefully eaten. Neither one was trying to burrow last night. Just lying on the sub, not moving.
 

Ultum4Spiderz

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I'm sorry that happened. I have sadly had mealworms eat two slings in the past - that was a lesson learned on my part for sure.

If you're going to stick with mealworms, crush the heads before feeding them to the tarantula.
For slings I always cut them up in multiple pieces , I however need a job to afford new slings still hunting .
Right now I’m dealing with substrate issues . Ehh
 

aarachnid

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I for one am pleased this thread has been resurrected. I was chopping up mealworms for my slings, but last night I just crushed the heads - I wasn’t sure if I’d done it enough.
I was concerned about this as well. I crushed the head of a super worm til I felt a crunch, but it still managed to burrow. I told AB I did it wrong and was told to dig it up ASAP. Spent 30 minutes to find a very dead super worm. Still glad I didn’t take my chances, but now I feel more confident in my head crushing abilities.
 

Brachyfan

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I for one am pleased this thread has been resurrected. I was chopping up mealworms for my slings, but last night I just crushed the heads - I wasn’t sure if I’d done it enough.

When you crush the head do you have to smash it to oblivion or just squash it until some juice comes out? Also, same question for crickets?

They were gone this morning, hopefully eaten. Neither one was trying to burrow last night. Just lying on the sub, not moving.
I either cut the head clean off and wait several minutes to make sure it's not moving at all, or just crush its head with a spoon and check in a half hour to make sure it is dead. Probably overkill but my one t that gets mealies poses some problems as they are never out. I haven't even seen it in months outside of a few legs and the booty! So the last thing i want is to put a half dead worm in there while the t is molting. Cause I'll never see the outcome.

When feeding super worms to my leopard geckos I take my heavy duty tongs and crush the living daylights out of them. They really fight a lot and are vicious. I have seen morio worms stand up and try to bite my leos. I never even leave one in the cage for more than a minute. Either she eats or not.

Super worms would pose more risk by a long shot.

Crickets I just mash up with tongs when grabbing them for prekill. Usually target the head and body if I'm trying to prekill and maybe the back legs for a spider that needs more incentive to eat. When feeding my liphistius i just grab em by the antennae and drop em in(thanks for the tip Basin79!).

If a mod can merge my last 2 posts that would be great! Edit button isn't working for some reason:embarrassed:
 

EtienneN

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I for one am pleased this thread has been resurrected. I was chopping up mealworms for my slings, but last night I just crushed the heads - I wasn’t sure if I’d done it enough.

When you crush the head do you have to smash it to oblivion or just squash it until some juice comes out? Also, same question for crickets?

They were gone this morning, hopefully eaten. Neither one was trying to burrow last night. Just lying on the sub, not moving.
When I crush worm heads I crush along the sides of their head and not on the top and bottom. Always do it around the mouthparts, too.
 

Ultum4Spiderz

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I wonder if this guy continued to keep leaving "mealworm dish" in the T enclosures and wonder why his Ts kept dying...
Maybe he thinks tarantulas are in the reptile family?
We’re did op go anyways ? Didn’t reptilian shapeshifters catch him
 

TriMac33

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I for one am pleased this thread has been resurrected. I was chopping up mealworms for my slings, but last night I just crushed the heads - I wasn’t sure if I’d done it enough.

When you crush the head do you have to smash it to oblivion or just squash it until some juice comes out? Also, same question for crickets?

They were gone this morning, hopefully eaten. Neither one was trying to burrow last night. Just lying on the sub, not moving.
For my 1" slings I cut the worms in halves, but I'll still smoosh the head. I'll also feed off the pupaes in halves.
 

Erica Danielle

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I’m SO glad I read this thread, and I know it’s super old! I haven’t gotten my first T yet - still doing abundant research and reading through as many forums as possible before I bring an animal into my home. As soon as I read the line “I like to leave a dish of worms out for my T” I was like “NOOOOOO!” o_O This is exactly what I DON’T want to happen. I’d hate to bring a T into my home and it pass due to my lack of knowledge. So thanks everyone for revisiting an old post because I’ve got some good insight on the crushing of heads that I did not know!

Back to cruising old threads and learning!
 

RowanFG

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Dec 16, 2019
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This thread is wild. I crush the heads of my meal worms. They can still wiggle a little no? Or is that bad.
 

ThatsUnpossible

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Yes, mine still wriggle (actually they thrash around like mad when I first crush the head - I feel bad for them), but they don’t burrow. The danger comes from them burrowing out of sight and hiding.
 

Asgiliath

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Yeah, mealworms will also burrow and reappear as darkling beetles that could also eat your T's.

Keeping "food dishes" in the enclosure is pretty impractical.

And what do you mean by "hand feeding" ? That sounds dangerous
 

Mr B Smithi

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Jul 21, 2013
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28
Dish of feeders is a big no-no! Asking for trouble.
Feed only when needed and take out if not taken by the T, no need for feeders to be in the enclosure if not taken.
Hand feeding again is a no-no in my book, let the T take it in his/her own time.
Slings I would only feed pre-killed, until you are sure they will take down live feeders.
My two cents.
 

Lothars Spades

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Apr 15, 2020
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Hi everyone!
I’ve got an issue with a zophobas that dug in my T’s enclosures substrate...
So as I read here, terrible things can happen to my T...
So I came up with a question, is there a way to lure that flash eating worm out of my T’s substrate, without ruining the whole setup and stressing out my T?
Thanks in advance!!! 👊
 

kingshockey

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Sep 4, 2017
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easy answer for you trash that dish and the idea of using it you just found out why its no good feeding live prey using your method just cut the heads off with scissors then you can leave a fresh corpse for the t to eat and remove it the next morning or few hours later.far as your other t if it was me i would dump all that sub out put fresh clean sub into its cage.to avoid a repeat of what just happened again
 

Horned baboon

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Nov 20, 2020
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Hello im new to this forum and this is my first post, been wanting to make an account for some time now but this indecent has forced me to stop procrastinating it!

Summary: My T was fine yesterday, but today it was on its back in a slight indentation in the substrate so i thought well its molting, so i left it alone for 10 minutes and placed its enclosure in a more accessible place to keep cheeking it every few minutes as i always do to watch it molt(a process which never ceases to amaze me) but i noticed something odd, not sure what, maybe the lack of switching of its legs or something and so i moved it slightly and discovered a rouge meal worm eating it from underneath!!!
Once i saw this i experienced a mixture of horror, anger, sadness, disappointment and curiosity, mostly because the poor spider was eaten alive while it was completely helpless and that alone must be one of the worst ways to go.

T description: it was a wild caught specimen from the mountains of Argentina in Mendoza. Never really verified the species buy my best guess is that it was a Chilean copper because of its small size and its habits, the same as a rose hair t, fasts for months never drinks, basically a pet rock.
It was 3 centimes long from head to abdomen(not leg span). This one was 1 of 2 spiders that i caught, and at the time of capture they looked identical in appearance and size but the one that still lives now is about 3 times as big and has molted much more and always appears much more healthier, the one that died in 3 1/2 years must have molted 3 times and never really grew that much which i always found odd so i thought they must be different species.

Anyway now i am concerned for my other T, even though it is a least twice as big im pretty sure it has some meal worms lose in its enclosure, i used to hand feed them and remove the mealworm if it didn't eat it then and there but because sometimes they have fasted for up to 6 months this last year i have been also leaving a mealworm proof dish with some worms inside so that the may eat them when they are hungry(and they do) but because the Ts move the substrate some do climb out sometimes and get loose in their enclosure.
What should i do? get a very deep mealworm dish so that there is no chance of them getting out or just try to hand feed them each week? has anybody had this happen before, i have read that crickets could harm the spider but i never though that meal worms were this vicious! or opportunistic given that they had nothing else to eat because they were in the Ts enclosure and slowly starving.
dang it :(
 

Rigor Mortis

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Nov 7, 2018
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498
I'm begging everyone to stop resurrecting threads that could now get a learner's permit to drive in several states.
 

vicareux

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Mar 14, 2020
Messages
496
Hi everyone!
I’ve got an issue with a zophobas that dug in my T’s enclosures substrate...
So as I read here, terrible things can happen to my T...
So I came up with a question, is there a way to lure that flash eating worm out of my T’s substrate, without ruining the whole setup and stressing out my T?
Thanks in advance!!! 👊
Depends - are they hungry :lol:
But it's definetly worth a shot - i'd put a piece of apple over the place where the worm dug in,and keep checking on it to see if the worm attached from underneath.
Though i never had this issue so i dont know if it will work.
If that doesn't work,the price of stressing your tarantula is much less than loosing it to a feeder,so it taking the feeder out will be a priority.

I'm begging everyone to stop resurrecting threads that could now get a learner's permit to drive in several states.
Wow,you can do that at 4 years old?! :lol:
Jokes aside,i see nothing wrong with ressurecting an old thread,as long as it still has a point.
This thread contains nice information about the dangers of live feeders lost inside the enclosure for newcomers. And as we saw many times,not everybody knows how to use the search function,so this is one way the thread will be easily visible for them for a while.
 
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