Artificial food?

[Zervoid]

Has anyone ever considered feeding their spiders, scorpions etc food that is artificial instead of live prey? I know for me the thought of having to kill another living creature everytime I feed my spider is something if I could avoid I would. Although I don't own any spiders etc as I live in Australia where not many people own them and I don't think we have as an exciting variety as seen overseas. I think for me the need to feed them live food is what stops me from owning them myself.

Is theri anyway we could feed them fake food that mimics the real thing? I know it sounds silly at first outset, BUT in theory it sounds plausable, infact considering everything in nature can be manufactured these days and processed down to it's mathematical base through a computer I see this as being a viable alternative to live prey in the future. I know people dust their crickets etc or feed them with vitamins so their spiders get the right nutrition but would their be some way of manufacturing the proteins found in their prey along with the appropriate level of vitamins etc synthetically?

I was thinking you could convert a Hex Bug Nano into the delivery vehicle and have attatched to it a soft capsule that contains the "meal" which the spider would bite into and dissolve and feed from. You could set the Hex Bug Nano so that it shuts down once this capsule is broken so that it has the illusion for the spider that it's prey has died and it is safe to feed on it.

Just a passing thought I had, maybe a bit out their but I only came back to this forum recently and realized how huge the community is and how it's so easy to get lost here, and that this hobby must have a huge market and that perhaps an idea would be something welcomed by the community as it would make the hobby easier and you wouldn't have to keep live food on hand all the time.

What are your thoughts? Is this idea crazy or brilliant?

 

[viper69]

Has anyone ever considered feeding their spiders, scorpions etc food that is artificial instead of live prey? I know for me the thought of having to kill another living creature everytime I feed my spider is something if I could avoid I would. Although I don't own any spiders etc as I live in Australia where not many people own them and I don't think we have as an exciting variety as seen overseas. I think for me the need to feed them live food is what stops me from owning them myself.

Is theri anyway we could feed them fake food that mimics the real thing? I know it sounds silly at first outset, BUT in theory it sounds plausable, infact considering everything in nature can be manufactured these days and processed down to it's mathematical base through a computer I see this as being a viable alternative to live prey in the future. I know people dust their crickets etc or feed them with vitamins so their spiders get the right nutrition but would their be some way of manufacturing the proteins found in their prey along with the appropriate level of vitamins etc synthetically?

I was thinking you could convert a Hex Bug Nano into the delivery vehicle and have attatched to it a soft capsule that contains the "meal" which the spider would bite into and dissolve and feed from. You could set the Hex Bug Nano so that it shuts down once this capsule is broken so that it has the illusion for the spider that it's prey has died and it is safe to feed on it.

Just a passing thought I had, maybe a bit out their but I only came back to this forum recently and realized how huge the community is and how it's so easy to get lost here, and that this hobby must have a huge market and that perhaps an idea would be something welcomed by the community as it would make the hobby easier and you wouldn't have to keep live food on hand all the time.

What are your thoughts? Is this idea crazy or brilliant?

You obviously don't know a lot about science. Because this is NOT true at all, it's not even remotely true, whatever makes you think this crazy thought of yours (I'm not really asking you because it's beyond crazy) >>> "considering everything in nature can be manufactured these days and processed down to it's mathematical base through a computer"

My guess is that you are not yet in a university. You have a lot to learn about science and man's "capabilities"

The idea is CRAZY, it would NEVER work, they have evolved to eat LIVE prey.

Cartoon ideas look great as cartoons, but not in real life at times, this is one of them.

 

[Kibosh]

Yes animals doing what nature intended them to do sickens me too. lol If you think feeding a T live food is wrong then obviously keeping it in a cage should be very wrong too. lol +1 to crazy

 

[Heckapunchez]

Trust me that the food doesn't have to be dead for the spider to feel safe eating it. I watched something I'll never forget with my P. Metallica eating a male dubia. Straight off the cover of silence of the lambs and just as creepy she spread its wings out and proceeded to devour him. He kicked for the entire 30 minutes I watched. I left came back to find him half there and still kicking.

 

[Zervoid]

I agree that it is an outlandish idea. And plus with it being cheaper to produce live foods their is no way artificial foods would take off.

I'm not worried about keeping them in cages because I know their basically just running on instinct and are happy with a hiding place and the odd meal every now and again. They like to stay near their burrows/hiding places so don't require lots of exercise and don't see keeping them as pets being a problem whatsoever.

I just re-discovered the largest Australian spider, and remember why I originally joined this forum, that happens to be in the family tarantula and is also from my state after a quick google search and was thinking of getting one Selenocosmia Crassipes but now I hear about them eating prey alive I am not sure if I could watch that! Makes me want to try doing my own experiments to see if they will take to synthetic food lol.

But the fields of computers and biological sciences are rapidly changing and intertwining. With the breakthrough in quantum computing recently it's impossible to rule out anything. It's actually kind of scary.

Sorry for posting this here was unsure where to put it. Newbie alert sorry.

 

[Kroogur]

What are your thoughts? Is this idea crazy or brilliant?

Not really viable but it is an interesting idea and the fact that you are thinking and developing ideas is great! it's how some people "dream things that never were and say why not".

 

[Introvertebrate]

I don't know if it would work for Ts, but I've seen people fake out mantids by putting a dead feeder on a stick, and jiggling the feeder in front of the mantid. The jiggling motion makes the mantid think its looking at live prey, and it strikes at it.

 

[oooo35980]

It is really not that outlandish. Who here hasn't seen a T scavenge dead prey? I had a mantis as a kid that I fed bologna. It's kind of pointless but I don't see why it would be outside the realm of possibility. Except for the tiny robot part.

 

[viper69]

I've never seen any of my Ts over 1" eat dead prey that was inside their home

 

[Blut und ehre]

Outlandish is maybe the wrong term......MAYBE.!??!?
I think it better described as "unfeasible"....after going through the whole "robotic" thing.......You'll have to kill the prey anyway?....to attach it to your "bot"?!?!? Either way it is dead??
Why suppress millions of years of evolution and survival?? If a spider hunting and eating live prey wasn't perfect for their kind in nature......there would be no spiders!!??!

 

[Formerphobe]

Many tarantulas will scavenge. If you raise up a sling on prekilled prey, technically, it's feasible that it will continue to take dead prey as a juvenile or adult. There are a couple respected, experienced keepers on this board who have successfully offered some of their tarantulas both cooked and raw human grade meats. Far- fetched to create a simulated diet? Maybe not. Financially feasible? Probably not.

Tarantulas are predators. Killing and eating prey is what they do.

 

[Blut und ehre]

I agree!!
I also have heard of Ts accepting raw meat......as a matter of fact ...In the "old day"...... I read books where a keeper would offer liver strips?!!? I never tried any of that!!
But be that as it may.......It still seems alittle overboard to mount meat or dead pray on a tiny robot to make it "look" alive to coax the T to eat it?? AND still the "meat" and the "prey" was still alive at one time......??? It still would have to be killed at some point.

Many tarantulas will scavenge. If you raise up a sling on prekilled prey, technically, it's feasible that it will continue to take dead prey as a juvenile or adult. There are a couple respected, experienced keepers on this board who have successfully offered some of their tarantulas both cooked and raw human grade meats. Far- fetched to create a simulated diet? Maybe not. Financially feasible? Probably not.

Tarantulas are predators. Killing and eating prey is what they do.

 

[Introvertebrate]

Here's the mantis "faking-out" video I was referring to. Ts might be too smart to fall for that. I don't know. For one thing, Ts detect their prey by feel, not visually like mantids.

[YOUTUBE]lPyNghuTXZQ[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Blut und ehre]

I've seen video of natives coaxing T Blondie [or Stirmi..I can't remember] out of burrows by "wiggling" long blades grass or a small vines in the mouth of there burrows.... same manner...... to simulate struggling prey..... ! But sooner or later they realize it isn't prey and retreat....or get caught?!?!

 

[SeanSYW]

I don't know about you, but I'd rather eat a steak and I'm pretty sure the T would rather eat a cricket.

 

[BobGrill]

They've evolved specifically to eat liv e prey. If you don't like that then maybe these really aren't the right animals for you to be keeping.

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

 

[cold blood]

I have faked out mine with dead prey. I saw a leopard frog jump into a car. The frog was pretty well intact with only a very small laceration, but dead. I held it above the spider and twitched it. It was attacked and consumed. Did the same with a cricket this evening, same result. I just cant see something totally artificial ever drawing interest, much less enough interest to make the t want to stay and consume it.

If you are worried about seeing a cricket get killed, be assured their nervous system isn't like a mammals and they don't "feel" pain in the manner we think of. You can cut the head off a cockroach for example, and it will live and even continue to breed and lay eggs until it finally starves, often several weeks later.

I'd say just don't feed vertebrates and stick to small crickets and the suffering will be about zero. Smaller crickets are almost always killed before the thing knows what happened, its that fast unless the prey item is fairly large. It really is a totally quick and humane death for the average cricket, plus, no one is making you watch, just drop it in and walk away, it will get done without you ever having to see anything unless you really want to. Often you really have to make it a mission to see the kill, I try to see it and still miss it half the time.

 

[LordWaffle]

Prekilled food would be the same as live food if the goal is to not kill animals to feed animals.

Tarantulas are predators. Killing to live is biological imperative to them. This rings of people trying to force their dogs and cats to be vegans to me. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but if feeding crickets and roaches and mealworms to spiders makes you squeamish, stick to not owning them. All things considered, the prey items I have live in luxury until they are eaten. My dubia and crickets get fresh food handed to them regularly, don't have to deal with any pesticides or predators (beyond me feeding them to my tarantulas) and when they do get fed, they die in the exact same way they would if they were in the wild and a spider were to come along and finish them.

Are we to get 3D printers together to start feeding wild spiders and other predators artificial food too?

 

[Zervoid]

Just found this. Someone feeding their Phlogius sarina animal meat because they found the live food cultures smelt and were too high maintenance :0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtzaAAYeDqs

 

[Tongue Flicker]

My Ts eat dead crickets if you drop them high enough. The vibration from the fall is probably enough to trigger a reaction. I can't imagine feeding artificial/synthetic food though. Watching a predator grab its prey is the first reason i got into Ts