What the hell is keeping her alive? (2 year fast)

[luther]

This is my adult female G.rosea. She hasn't eaten a thing in 2 years. She is regularly offered crickets, locusts, roaches, dead pinkies and even a big african mantis. She ignores everything, sometimes kicking them away. She drinks water every now and then.

As you can see she's still sporting a nice, plump abdomen. She doesn't seem to have suffered any ill effects so far.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to persuade her it's time to start eating again? I'd really like her to get back to how she was a couple of years ago. She used to be quite active and a good eater. I've tried to be patient but 2 years is enough as far as I'm concerned.

I keep her tank dry with the temperature in the mid 70's. I have three other NW terrestrials that have identical conditions and are all eating/molting well.

 

[manville]

that is quite amazing

 

[morda]

Rosea is a wierd spider. She can eat a lot or ignore food for a very long time.

 

[Pixie]

Rosies are apparently notorious for going on long fasts but your case is more on the rare side by the fast lasting so long. I don't think that it's unheard of though, even this long.

As long as she's drinking and her abdomen is still fairly plump I don't think there is nothing to worry about. These creatures never cease to amaze us with such "stunts" and are incredibly hardy.

My 2 cents,
Pixie

 

[luther]

I seem to remember that DianeS had a rosea that fasted for 2 years as well. Diane, what did you do to get yours to eat? Should I use mood music, flowers and candles?

 

[G_Wright]

I've herd of rose hairs going for stupid amounts of time too without any food.

I'm sure she'll be fine

 

[Randomosity]

2 years? Wow....maybe Ghandi should've taken lessons from the Roseys.

 

[rknralf]

2 years is incredible! She still looks good though. Doesn't show any signs of the fast. I had a female G. rosea go 9 months without eating and the only thing that broke that fast was her molting. She was pretty weak though and had a difficult time molting. That was a couple years ago and she has molted one more time and has not stopped eating since.
Ralph

 

[vulpina]

That is a long time to go without food but she still looks very plump and healthy in the pic so you shouldn't worry.

Andy

 

[Palespider]

This is the reason I never recommend a G. rosea as a first T. A beginner would likely have lost interest in T's altogether thinking they are all like this. I myself, probably would have lost interest after a couple months if I didn't know better.

Jim B.

 

[Tamara]

My first rosea went over 1 1/2 years without food too. And she survived being thrown 3 meters across my kitchen (NOT INTENTIONALLY!). They are most unusual!

 

[JohnxII]

Have you mated her a couple years back? If so, maybe crank up the temp above 80's?

 

[Chavalon]

And i was worried for my rosie not eating since four days .

 

[Guy]

Try raising the temp and flooding the tank with water for a few weeks - may induce it to moult...

 

[DnKslr]

I seem to remember that DianeS had a rosea that fasted for 2 years as well. Diane, what did you do to get yours to eat? Should I use mood music, flowers and candles?

Yeah, mine went for 2 years without eating. One day I through in a cricket and she tackled it so I thought she was eating but all she did was jab it to death and pushed the dead cricket into the dirt, burying it. :? After that she went for about 2-3 months without touching anything. The weather started getting warmer so I increased the heat around the display (about 75-80 degrees) and about a week ago she finally ate a whole cricket without discarding any of it!
She doesn't do much of anything, not even walk around so some days I wonder if she's still alive.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to persuade her it's time to start eating again?

Don't worry, she'll let you know when she is ready. Just offer her a cricket 1-2 times a week but remove them if they aren't eaten by the next day.

 

[luther]

Thanks for the advice. I'll try raising the tank temperature into the low 80's. I'll raise the humidity a bit if the temperature change alone does not work.

I've never mated her, and she hasn't molted in the 3 years I've owned her. All my other arachnids, myriopods, insects and crustaceans do everything by the book. This rosea must be illiterate.

Diane, nice Mexican Flame Knee avatar!

 

[cichlidsman]

This is my adult female G.rosea. She hasn't eaten a thing in 2 years. She is regularly offered crickets, locusts, roaches, dead pinkies and even a big african mantis. She ignores everything, sometimes kicking them away. She drinks water every now and then.

As you can see she's still sporting a nice, plump abdomen. She doesn't seem to have suffered any ill effects so far.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to persuade her it's time to start eating again? I'd really like her to get back to how she was a couple of years ago. She used to be quite active and a good eater. I've tried to be patient but 2 years is enough as far as I'm concerned.

I keep her tank dry with the temperature in the mid 70's. I have three other NW terrestrials that have identical conditions and are all eating/molting well.

yeal my rosey look exactly thae same as yours as if they were the same spider. thanks for the post now i dont feel so bad about mine. hope she eats soon. good luck.