Avicularia Feeding

Erin Bradley

Arachnopeon
Joined
May 13, 2017
Messages
4
Advice needed... I recently purchased a bunch of dubia roaches for my Ts, but I have a slight problem with my A. avicularia. This particular T won't eat food fed to by chopstick or tongs, she will only eat by hunting the food down in the cage after a while. Due to the terrarium setup, the roaches run away and then dig to the bottom of the substrate and isn't easy for her. What are good feeding techniques for this and other arboreal T's? I'm also fairly new to the hobby so occasionally I get worried over some basic things.

Extra info: She is my first arboreal tarantula and has molted about 2 1/2 weeks ago, so I'm assuming fairly hungry?

Image for reference
 

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Moonohol

Two Legged Freak
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Aug 8, 2016
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115
Crush the heads of the dubia before you throw them in. That way they'll still wiggle around, but won't be able to burrow. I learned this the hard way after switching to dubia for feeders and having a bunch of them go rogue and try to cohabitate with my Ts, haha. They will also wiggle around for WEEKS
 

darkness975

Latrodectus
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Aug 31, 2012
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5,610
Advice needed... I recently purchased a bunch of dubia roaches for my Ts, but I have a slight problem with my A. avicularia. This particular T won't eat food fed to by chopstick or tongs, she will only eat by hunting the food down in the cage after a while. Due to the terrarium setup, the roaches run away and then dig to the bottom of the substrate and isn't easy for her. What are good feeding techniques for this and other arboreal T's? I'm also fairly new to the hobby so occasionally I get worried over some basic things.

Extra info: She is my first arboreal tarantula and has molted about 2 1/2 weeks ago, so I'm assuming fairly hungry?

Image for reference
You shouldn't have to tong feed them. Hunting them in the way your Avic. is doing is actually natural for them.
 

Andrea82

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Jan 12, 2016
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3,686
Tong feeding actually creates a risk of injuring their fangs. If the spider lunges for the prey but hits the tongs instead, the fang can break.
 

viper69

ArachnoGod
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Dec 8, 2006
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This particular T won't eat food fed to by chopstick or tongs, she will only eat by hunting the food down in the cage after a while.
You don't have a problem, but your T has a problem-- your husbandry. Ts are natural hunters, there's no reason not to feed live without using human tools. Not to mention that tong feeding is a great way for a variety of bad things to happen such as the following

1. Your T bites the tongs and breaks both fangs (which is a great way to have your T die if that happens)
2. Your T decides to climb up your tongs and escape

Why not enjoy the natural beauty of nature doing its thing, as opposed to crushing roaches in this context? The hunting is amazing.
 

Bearded Brian

Arachnopeon
Joined
May 12, 2017
Messages
11
I have a couple of avics who love Dubia roaches, I have noticed mine lay in wait and will not so much hunt,they would rather perch and do a reaction attack on moving pray. That's the thing with Ts, each has their own way of doing things
 

Erin Bradley

Arachnopeon
Joined
May 13, 2017
Messages
4
You don't have a problem, but your T has a problem-- your husbandry. Ts are natural hunters, there's no reason not to feed live without using human tools. Not to mention that tong feeding is a great way for a variety of bad things to happen such as the following

1. Your T bites the tongs and breaks both fangs (which is a great way to have your T die if that happens)
2. Your T decides to climb up your tongs and escape

Why not enjoy the natural beauty of nature doing its thing, as opposed to crushing roaches in this context? The hunting is amazing.
Yeah, I got the tong idea from reading some other posts from people online, but now I'm increasingly viewing more people telling it's a horrible idea so I'm for sure ditching tongs/tools for any future feeding. Thank you all.

Also I browsed the linked thread in your signature and now have better knowledge of avics and through these few days of browsing on here I've learned a lot more about T husbandry in general
 
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