Prekilled or live?

[Zaxxen]

I have 4 species in total. My first and biggest T is my N Chromatus. And i have 3 slings around the same size. C meridionalis, C darlingi and a P Irminia. My N Chromatus eats every time i present her with a cut up mealworm. Same with my Irminia. But neither of my ceratogyrus's wants to eat. I know this normal for tarantulas, hence why im not panicking. But i would like some input as i really want them to eat. Ive had them for a few weeks and i have a feeding schedule on ever 3-4 days. But the Ceratogyrus's both have yet to eat. The darlingi spends 100% of her time in her burrow. And my Meridionalis thinks hes an arboreal. So since they wont eat prekilled cut up worms, should i try a live one? I would have tried already but the worms are quite large for the size of the slings and usually one third of a full mealworm works for slings that size. My Darlingi just webs them up and leaves them outside but my Meridionalis hasnt even webbed almost at all, he just lets em lie there to decay and id rather have them eat than having to worry about a rotting worm somewhere in the enclosure. Whats your input? Thanks and sorry for the long post ^^

 

[Killertut]

cut them up, put them in, remove after 24h.
repeat every week. at some point they will scavange.

 

[mack1855]

They will eat,baring any environmental/physical issues,on their timetable, not the keepers.
The question for you is....do they look like heathly slings to you?
And,post pics of the enclosure/animals..if your worried.
You have posted before,and started threads before,i thought you would know this?.

 

[Zaxxen]

They will eat,baring any environmental/physical issues,on their timetable, not the keepers.
The question for you is....do they look like heathly slings to you?
And,post pics of the enclosure/animals..if your worried.
You have posted before,and started threads before,i thought you would know this?.

They look fine, no questions about that, they act fine aswell, even a bit overenergetic on the meridionalis part. And im not worried in the slightest, just curious and thirsty for knowledge

 

[viper69]

Why wouldn't you feed live prey to animals evolved to eat live prey.....provided they are proper sized prey. Get some small feeders.

Your schedule is just that, YOURS. They don't give a crap.

 

[Paul1126]

Why wouldn't you feed live prey to animals evolved to eat live prey.....provided they are proper sized prey. Get some small feeders.

I never feed my Aphonopelma. seemanni live prey I always pre killed for him.

 

[MBArachnids]

Why wouldn't you feed live prey to animals evolved to eat live prey.....provided they are proper sized prey. Get some small feeders.

Your schedule is just that, YOURS. They don't give a crap.

I have a few species now, never pre-killed. Yes they will scavenge when needed or when opportunity presents but they evolved to ambush and kill live prey so why would you not go with their natural instinct.

Couldn't agree more with @viper69. Get decent sized feeders, they will eat when they need to.

I had a T that fasted for 5 months when i just started out, no pre-molt. Imagine my worry

 

[Urzeitmensch]

I try to feed live feeders when possible. There are 3 reasons for this:

1. Older Ts often don't take dead prey from what have been told.
2. For me, one important aspect of keeping Ts is watching their natural behaviour. Hunting is a key part in that.
3. When I prekill the feeder and the T doesn't eat it, the feeder is wasted, which is unnecessary.

That said, I prekill feeders if I think they might be dangerous for the T., either because I don't know if it has molted or is in premolt or because the T is too small. Edit: Or if it is hiding in its burrow.

At the moment I mix up live and prekilled crickets for some of my slings. Two of then are at a size where a medium cricket is too large and I am afraid it will hurt the T and the micro-crickets are just too small. So I mix up 1 - 2 live micro crickets and one prekilled big cricket. Seems to work.

 

[draconisj4]

I feed live but I disable the feeders since I feed Dubia and red runners. Dubia get their heads crushed so they don't burrow and the red runners get pinched enough so they are not so fast. Mostly for my own convenience in case I need to remove them. The only exception was my P. sazimai when it was tiny, even a pinheads leg waving around scared it. I don't really like maiming them though. I don't bother maiming feeders for my A. geniculata or P. cancerides , I toss them in and they catch them before they hit the substrate,lol.

 

[Ungoliant]

Whats your input? Thanks and sorry for the long post ^^

I generally give diced mealworms to my small slings, because it's safer for them and easier than messing with tiny live prey.

Starting at about 1-1.5 inches, my slings start getting live prey, although many would still scavenge. (I use dubia roaches and mealworms, so I crush their heads before feeding.)

 

[Zaxxen]

I have a few species now, never pre-killed. Yes they will scavenge when needed or when opportunity presents but they evolved to ambush and kill live prey so why would you not go with their natural instinct.

Couldn't agree more with @viper69. Get decent sized feeders, they will eat when they need to.

I had a T that fasted for 5 months when i just started out, no pre-molt. Imagine my worry

Why wouldn't you feed live prey to animals evolved to eat live prey.....provided they are proper sized prey. Get some small feeders.

Your schedule is just that, YOURS. They don't give a crap.

well since there arent many places where i live where mealworms arent the smallest feeder available and the shipping here is quite expensive. The reason i feed prekilled mealworms is because i dont want to order stuff like buffaloworms or baby crickets/roaches is because id much rather walk for 10 minutes to the nearest shop and pickup mealworms for like 10€ a KG, and since the mealworms are cheap and i get them in big numbers, and they work fine for the most part, why not then? feeding live or prekilled is diffrent from keeper to keeper, some feed prekilled, some feed live. Of course when they are bigger than they are now, i will feed live, no question. but the slings hasnt even surpassed 1" in size. When i first got my N chromatus i fed her buffaloworms that were prekilled but not cut up and she ate without a problem. I asked a simple question and there is no need to tell me to get more appropriate feeders when the feeders i feed them currently work just fine for me, most of my species, and most people, i know T's wont always eat and thats fine, just wanted some input. simple as that. I can get crickets quite cheap, i can get mealworms cheap, i can get cockroaches decently cheap. Thats it. if i wanted advice on what feeder to use, thats what i would have asked.

 

[Vanisher]

Buffalo worms kanske funkar. Men håller med. Beställa från reptilgrottan är inte bra då frakten kostar typb3 gånger mer än fodret om man beställer liten mängd!

 

[Urzeitmensch]

Buffalo worms kanske funkar. Men håller med. Beställa från reptilgrottan är inte bra då frakten kostar typb3 gånger mer än fodret om man beställer liten mängd!

While I think I get your meaning with my very basic Norwegian skills, you should really post in English here ^^

 

[krbshappy71]

While I think I get your meaning with my very basic Norwegian skills, you should really post in English here ^^

I didn't get it at all. Google translate for the win! "Buffalo worms might work. But agree. Order from the reptile cave is not good since shipping costs typb3 times more than the feed if you order small quantity!" Those definitely looks smaller than the mealworms. Could be handy, thanks!

 

[Zaxxen]

I didn't get it at all. Google translate for the win! "Buffalo worms might work. But agree. Order from the reptile cave is not good since shipping costs typb3 times more than the feed if you order small quantity!" Those definitely looks smaller than the mealworms. Could be handy, thanks!

yeah buffaloworms are like less than half the size of mealworms and are great for slings but the main reseller that me and Vanisher has used has quite expensive shipping if you dont order alot of insects ^^

 

[Vanisher]

I didn't get it at all. Google translate for the win! "Buffalo worms might work. But agree. Order from the reptile cave is not good since shipping costs typb3 times more than the feed if you order small quantity!" Those definitely looks smaller than the mealworms. Could be handy, thanks!

Thanx heaven for 7Eleven! Or in this case Google translate!

 

[Venom1080]

Why wouldn't you feed live prey to animals evolved to eat live prey.....provided they are proper sized prey. Get some small feeders.

Your schedule is just that, YOURS. They don't give a crap.

Agreed. That said. I have adult spiders that have never had a live meal in their lives. (Tapinauchinius in particular.)

 

[PrimalxTyrantula]

Hey bro.

I have 8. Here's my take on Slings with only over a years experience.

P. Irminia sling
G. Pulchra sling
B. Albopilosum sling
C. Argentenesis
"orange bitey thing " 2x just confirmed females
A. Geniculata female
C. Cyanopubesence female.

All of my t's are fed live. Slings get when available stage 1 crickets at our store (there about 1 to 2 weeks old) but since I don't like feeding crickets anymore. I use a colony I've raised.

To the point.
When it comes to my little Slings I chop them in half and offer them. They will go for them when they are hungry. If they prey item is still inside remove after 1 day. I do not like to leave anything live in the enclosure if they don't take it right away out of fear of harming the T. Be vigilant for premolt. Keep up with keeping one corner of the enclosure moist for slings (I always keep water dishes full and mist that corner. Once a week I will mist one half of enclosure where water is)

Pictures are 2 of my t's eating prekill. The obt was about a week after a molt

 

[EtienneN]

For tiny slings under 2.5 cm I really like red runner roach nymphs. They are quick but still have some mass to them and the spiders go nuts for them. I find pinhead crickets a pain because they seem to just get lost in the enclosure and they don't move as much as the lataralis *excuse the spelling* nymphs. Or you could try sticking a mealworm or whatever worm you're using right onto the web itself so the worm will thrash around and attract the tarantula.

 

[dangerforceidle]

Agreed. That said. I have adult spiders that have never had a live meal in their lives. (Tapinauchinius in particular.)

Do you have a picky spider? My adult female T. rasti is one of the best hunters I have.