OBT feeding habit

Dochardee

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 19, 2013
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13
I have a 2 in OBT that has been doing a different feeding behavior. It has been storing its prey. It will hang out at the front of its burrow and wait for a cricket or a roach like normal. Then takes the prey item down its burrow long enough to dispatch it and then returns to its original post at the mouth of the burrow without the prey item and will sit for a few hours. This behavior is new to me, so I figured I would share it and see if anyone else has a T that does this too.
 

MarkmD

Arachnoprince
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Aug 9, 2012
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1,835
Chances are it could be storing it for later or wants it dead and not hungry.
 

Dochardee

Arachnopeon
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Sep 19, 2013
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Its just strange to me because all of my other T's would eat after killing a prey item. I do not tend to over feed, 1 to 2 crickets or roaches a week and it molted about 3 weeks ago. It did not do this until its most recent molt.
 

Dochardee

Arachnopeon
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Sep 19, 2013
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Hmmm. Well maybe I could back off on the feeding to just 1 cricket per week and see if the behavior changes. We will just have to see. If it is storing prey I hope that mold does not become an issue.
 

Teal

Arachnoemperor
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Jan 11, 2009
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Sounds like a result of overfeeding to me, as well. Stored prey WILL mold... is there any way you can clear out what he has stored?
 

Dochardee

Arachnopeon
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Sep 19, 2013
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Yea I can lift the cork bark and clean it out. I did not think that I was over feeding it with 1 or 2 crickets a week. Well that's why I ask
 

viper69

ArachnoGod
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Dec 8, 2006
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I hope you keep your Ts home dry, or you will likely end up with mold mites if you don't. Dead crickets are nothing but bad news
 

Dochardee

Arachnopeon
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Sep 19, 2013
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Yep fairly dry. I perform regular cleaning of left overs. This is something that just started. Never had a mold or mite issue...knock on wood. So I will stick to feeding a single cricket to it once a week.
 

freedumbdclxvi

Arachnoprince
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May 28, 2012
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1,426
When is the last time it molted? If this is recent behavior and a molt is due, it may simply be killing them as a precautionary measure. However, my son's rosea will kill mutliple crickets at once then eat.them one at a time.
 

Tongue Flicker

Arachnobaron
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Jan 26, 2014
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I have some brachys do the same, killing then i thought they were eating. Even doing the stilting while eating and webbing. After a few hours, prey is dumped into the water dish lol
 

Hobo

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Staff member
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Jul 27, 2009
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Assuming it's eventually eating these killed prey items, I like to think it's adaptive behavior.
I mean, sometimes prey items come more than one at a time (think swarms, or bugs flushed out by passing animals, winds, etc).
To be more efficient, it makes sense for a tarantula to take and subdue prey just long enough for it to be immobile, and prepare itself to catch more that may happen to bumble by rather than settle in and start feeding.

Some of my tarantulas will do this rarely, some will wait for hours, some will wait minutes. (I had one that did it almost always and never end up eating it, but she was never quite right, and ended up dying shortly after a molt).
I see it most often in my communal tank, where it so happens I dump a huge amount of prey items at the same time once a week.
Here you can see one of the females with a stockpile inside her burrow still waiting at the entrance for more to walk by.
[youtube]e8dpdKYJ1bo[/youtube]
 

Dochardee

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 19, 2013
Messages
13
When is the last time it molted? If this is recent behavior and a molt is due, it may simply be killing them as a precautionary measure. However, my son's rosea will kill mutliple crickets at once then eat.them one at a time.
I do not think its an impending molt. It just molted 3 weeks ago. I also went to clean out the stored prey and they have been eaten. So I don't think I was over feeding. I think that Hobo's theory is accurate and that it is storing and waiting for another prey item to come by. I would expect this from a WC specimen not CB. Its interesting how these guys have a behavior hard-wired like this.
 
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