Body language?

[AmberDawnDays]

Small and other subjective words are not helpful for obvious reasons.

What size are the crickets, better yet, what age are they? Many cricket vendors (that sell to petshops) sell by their size which corresponds to their age generally.

They were labeled small and large at the Pet Supplies Plus that I went to. There wasn't anything to indicate their age and I'm not well versed on size relationship to age of crickets. I'd say the small ones are about 1/3 the size of my avic's abdomen and the large ones are about 1/2 or maybe as much as 60% of the size of her abdomen. Could this be why she always attacks her prey so verosiously like she is definitely hungry? I'm providing her with small prey?

 

[Paiige]

They were labeled small and large at the Pet Supplies Plus that I went to. There wasn't anything to indicate their age and I'm not well versed on size relationship to age of crickets. I'd say the small ones are about 1/3 the size of my avic's abdomen and the large ones are about 1/2 or maybe as much as 60% of the size of her abdomen. Could this be why she always attacks her prey so voraciously like she is definitely hungry? I'm providing her with small prey?

Yes that could do it. The "large" crickets sold at Petco/local pet stores in my area are about 3/4"-1" and I feed them to my subadults/adults with no problems.

 

[viper69]

They were labeled small and large at the Pet Supplies Plus that I went to. There wasn't anything to indicate their age and I'm not well versed on size relationship to age of crickets. I'd say the small ones are about 1/3 the size of my avic's abdomen and the large ones are about 1/2 or maybe as much as 60% of the size of her abdomen. Could this be why she always attacks her prey so verosiously like she is definitely hungry? I'm providing her with small prey?

There wouldn't be anything to indicate age. This is something one would need to ask, ie manager.

I don't know the size of your Avic's abdomen, nor have time to search for it in your previous posts.

If prey is too small, then likely that is why she's still hungry, just like humans. Feed them too little, they remain hungry

 

[viper69]

Yes that could do it. The "large" crickets sold at Petco/local pet stores in my area are about 3/4"-1" and I feed them to my subadults/adults with no problems.

3 "large" crickets from Petco and any other big box store by me equal 1 full adult sized cricket from my LPS. The first pet store in a while by me that has adult size crickets. Saves a lot of money!

 

[AmberDawnDays]

@Paiige @viper69

Not sure of you can really tell by this pic, but this shows the size of the large crickets in relationship to a dime.

This one just shows her after catching a cricket. You can only see the crickets head, so probably not that helpful.

 

[viper69]

Very helpful!!!! Finally... depending on gender (IME) and how hungry, I could see an Avic eating 1 of those every few days, or even 3 in one sitting. Your T is large enough (though maybe not mentally wanting) to eat a full size adult cricket. What I mean is some Ts despite their size don't always want large or similar sized prey items compared to other Ts its size. I can't tell you why, but it's something I've noticed.

 

[darkness975]

@AmberDawnDays
I have no feeding schedule for my tarantulas or scorpions. I feed them whenever I remember to.
Of course I am aware of their body sizes and any that appear to be on the thinner side get an extra serving or two.

 

[Ratmosphere]

I feed my 1" Avicularia versicolor slings once a day. Although one just molted and got bigger, it still won't take down a cricket that's smaller than it. I couldn't let my sling starve so I started offering it house flies. Don't worry, these are captive bred and haven't come in contact with any pesticides. I think I fed my sling about 13 flies so far and it isn't that fat yet. My smaller of the two slings takes down big crickets completely fine.

 

[Paiige]

I have yet to have a sling care about the size of the prey. Obviously I'm not feeding them with anything bigger than they are (except my GBB who was a monster as a sling and would take down anything) - but every T is different. You can feel it out and watch their feeding responses and go from there. Some slings are ruthless and will tackle anything they can and some will shy away from prey that intimidates them.

 

[Andrea82]

I feed my 1" Avicularia versicolor slings once a day. Although one just molted and got bigger, it still won't take down a cricket that's smaller than it. I couldn't let my sling starve so I started offering it house flies. Don't worry, these are captive bred and haven't come in contact with any pesticides. I think I fed my sling about 13 flies so far and it isn't that fat yet. My smaller of the two slings takes down big crickets completely fine.

Good call on the flies. I buy maggots from the lps for fishing, hatch some, and feed them to my mantids. But Avics, even the bigger ones go crazy for flies. Or buy waxworms and hatch those to get moths, same story.