Can I train my Ts to like Dubia?

[Jeff23]

I think tong feeding is fun. For someone like me who generally doesn't do any handling, I find it to be a neat interaction to have with my Ts. Same goes for my lizards. My monitor has been tong fed since he was a wee lad no thicker than my thumb. And now he's a hefty 3.5 feet and still attacking the tongs, and it really gives me a chance to interact with him in an always exciting way. I guess I just grew up hand feeding animals, and have always enjoyed it. And for animals that are too risky to hand feed, the tongs are the next best thing

I wish I could find tongs with a silicone tip because tong feeding for tarantulas would be convenient for certain situations. I tried the liquid plastic from home depot, but it only works well as a tool handle coating or insulator. It isn't thick enough to form a tip. I have tried the process of grabbing a cricket by the antenna where the body is well below the metal but even that scares me too much.

 

[MetalMan2004]

Crush the heads, always. As has been said, they play dead for a very long time. On top of that, they immediately burrow. Adult male dubia are the only exception - they don't burrow and they don't play dead for very long. Very skittish little things, they don't last long in a hungry tarantula's enclosure.

Yes I've experienced allof that multiple times trying to feed dubias...

At what stage are the tarantulas? Slings, juveniles or adults?
Slings will take practically any prey of appropriate size, only exception, IME, H. sp. columbia/klein. Viciously takes prey twice their body size, absolutely a fearless species. I start mixing roach/crickets to all species of my slings, as they grow they show no rejection to either.
Juveniles, specifically terrestrial and OBs, will still scavenge even without prey movement. No experience doing this with arboreals, all mine were at sling stage when acquired, but should work. Placement of prey might be a factor, idk.
Adults, if raised on crickets only, is different, especially the species. Grammostola and Brachypelma immediately come to mind, will go months refusing food of any type. IMO, starving until it eats a different prey is nothing more than "cruelty".
Monthly, I go thru 2-3K crickets and an even higher roach count. I have both, lateralis & dubia colonies, "variety is the spice of life". The odor from the cricket bins is minimal, I have 3, until the vented tops are removed, but not to a nauseating degree.
Absolutely nothing wrong using crickets as primary food source, given the occasional larvae as treats or bulking up post molt, they'll do fine. Keeper's in Florida will attest to this, ask @Poec54, keeping, breeding and raising a hundred or so species. He hasn't posted for quite some time, hopefully just busy, and all is well with him and the family.
The above are just my opinions and experiences, nothing more.

The one in question is a 3.5" gbb. I also have a 1" versicolor that I haven't tried dubia with yet. I got 3 gbbs in the mail yesterday that are 1.5" each. I'll try dubia with them this week and see what happens.

Regarding the cricket smell... we don't have a ton of room so there is no dedicated area for the crickets to go and the Ts are on my desk. I got a particularly noisy batch of crickets this go round so they have dpent their time in the bathroom so they don't keep us up at night. Also the smell quickly gets out of hand when there is no good place to put them away from the daily living areas. My hopes are that dubia can change that for me!

 

[MetalMan2004]

I'll grab the males by the wings and hold it within range of the specimen and when I notice a sign of interest or feeding response I'll drop the dubias and let the T do the rest, I use this specifically for my pokies

Hand feeding pokies. You got guts!

 

[awiec]

I think tong feeding is fun. For someone like me who generally doesn't do any handling, I find it to be a neat interaction to have with my Ts. Same goes for my lizards. My monitor has been tong fed since he was a wee lad no thicker than my thumb. And now he's a hefty 3.5 feet and still attacking the tongs, and it really gives me a chance to interact with him in an always exciting way. I guess I just grew up hand feeding animals, and have always enjoyed it. And for animals that are too risky to hand feed, the tongs are the next best thing

You're way braver than me, I only tong feed my snake as it is very unlikly that it will rush up the tongs and bite my arm repeatedly (I mean it could but a baby sand boa isn't going to do much to me).

 

[Haksilence]

Hand feeding pokies. You got guts!

Not necessarily hand feeding, just offering the prey item in site range of the specimen and checking interest before I drop a roach in. If they aren't interested, the last thing I want to do is root through substrate chasing a roach with a pissed off pokie looming over.

Honestly I find pokies reputation to be quite exaggerated. I find them to be quite predictable from specimen to specimen. And I only use the above mentioned for my more food crazy specimens (Metallica, hanumavillasamica) for my more high strung, or ones prone to cycling their enclosure they just get a few crickets thrown in and call it a day.

My 0.1 striata for example is by far my most high strung and will often do that typical pokie mad scramble cyclone. She basically always just gets crickets or maybe a pinkie if I have a spare

 

[cold blood]

When they are hungry enough they will eat. That being said I don't bother with dubias for most of my arboreal specimens since dubias (besides males) will just scuttle around the ground level or shuffle under the substrate and remain for an indefinite amount of time. If I have to cull down the colony by feeding off to arboreals I save the males for them and pretty much ting feed them. I'll grab the males by the wings and hold it within range of the specimen and when I notice a sign of interest or feeding response I'll drop the dubias and let the T do the rest, I use this specifically for my pokies.

But generally speaking dubias are a pain for arboreals in my opinion and I just stick to the lame smelly crickets

That hasn't been my experiences at all. In the event that an arboreal doesn't take right away, more often than not, I find the dubia chilling pretty high up on the wood...eventually they get munched.

I use that same technique with lots of feeders, hold till it gets interest, then drop...its a high percentage way to feed.

I think tong feeding is fun. For someone like me who generally doesn't do any handling, I find it to be a neat interaction to have with my Ts. Same goes for my lizards. My monitor has been tong fed since he was a wee lad no thicker than my thumb. And now he's a hefty 3.5 feet and still attacking the tongs, and it really gives me a chance to interact with him in an always exciting way. I guess I just grew up hand feeding animals, and have always enjoyed it. And for animals that are too risky to hand feed, the tongs are the next best thing

Now I am gong to agree with you, because I do my share of tong feedings to certain specimens, but I always try to minimize it as there are real concerns as fangs can be broken on tongs and ts can run right up them...had a versi do this last week....not a huge deal with an avic, but if that were an LV it would have been pretty intense. I find avics and poecs are the ones I generally tong feed and its generally because of an awkward position the t chose and because I find them to be more on the predictable side.

Although I do tong feed occasionally, its also not something I encourage others to do, especially not those newer to the hobby.

Regarding the cricket smell... we don't have a ton of room so there is no dedicated area for the crickets to go and the Ts are on my desk. I got a particularly noisy batch of crickets this go round so they have dpent their time in the bathroom so they don't keep us up at night. Also the smell quickly gets out of hand when there is no good place to put them away from the daily living areas. My hopes are that dubia can change that for me!

I would suggest you make a concerted effort to switch to banded crickets...they're much much hardier, as in hard to kill...their chirp is more subdued and far less annoying and they don't smell like standard domestic crickets. They're faster and very athletic, and like to climb, so they're ideal for arboreals.

Hand feeding pokies. You got guts!

I hand feed pokies all the time....although I do it by feeding though drilled ventilation holes, so I am completely safe from the reach of a fang. (pictured is a super I handed to this MM regalis)

Honestly I find pokies reputation to be quite exaggerated. I find them to be quite predictable from specimen to specimen. And I only use the above mentioned for my more food crazy specimens (Metallica, hanumavillasamica) for my more high strung, or ones prone to cycling their enclosure they just get a few crickets thrown in and call it a day.

My 0.1 striata for example is by far my most high strung and will often do that typical pokie mad scramble cyclone. She basically always just gets crickets or maybe a pinkie if I have a spare

My experiences as well, even down to the striata being my most high strung...although mine just scrambles to hide and doesn't do what I call, the "H. mac tornado".

 

[Abyss]

View attachment 230025

That hasn't been my experiences at all. In the event that an arboreal doesn't take right away, more often than not, I find the dubia chilling pretty high up on the wood...eventually they get munched.

I use that same technique with lots of feeders, hold till it gets interest, then drop...its a high percentage way to feed.



Now I am gong to agree with you, because I do my share of tong feedings to certain specimens, but I always try to minimize it as there are real concerns as fangs can be broken on tongs and ts can run right up them...had a versi do this last week....not a huge deal with an avic, but if that were an LV it would have been pretty intense. I find avics and poecs are the ones I generally tong feed and its generally because of an awkward position the t chose and because I find them to be more on the predictable side.

Although I do tong feed occasionally, its also not something I encourage others to do, especially not those newer to the hobby.

I would suggest you make a concerted effort to switch to banded crickets...they're much much hardier, as in hard to kill...their chirp is more subdued and far less annoying and they don't smell like standard domestic crickets. They're faster and very athletic, and like to climb, so they're ideal for arboreals.



I hand feed pokies all the time....although I do it by feeding though drilled ventilation holes, so I am completely safe from the reach of a fang. (pictured is a super I handed to this MM regalis)



My experiences as well, even down to the striata being my most high strung...although mine just scrambles to hide and doesn't do what I call, the "H. mac tornado".

Agreed as well, my P. met is really chill an predictable so far. I dont tong feed but surely could if ned be

 

[REEFSPIDER]

I hand feed through the door of my exoterras. Or under the plexiglass lids. I only do this with larger spiders to prevent any inadvertent squeeze escapes. Usually only do it when they are out on the door and it is faily easy to hand feed this way. I donot recomend this to anyone not comfortable doing this.
For clarification the door or lids are only opened about 3-5mm just big enough for a super to fit. I have just fed a t like this today and like i said i dont recomend this, as i was doing it i could feel the stupidity in what i was doing.

 

[Haksilence]

View attachment 230025

That hasn't been my experiences at all. In the event that an arboreal doesn't take right away, more often than not, I find the dubia chilling pretty high up on the wood...eventually they get munched.

I use that same technique with lots of feeders, hold till it gets interest, then drop...its a high percentage way to feed.



Now I am gong to agree with you, because I do my share of tong feedings to certain specimens, but I always try to minimize it as there are real concerns as fangs can be broken on tongs and ts can run right up them...had a versi do this last week....not a huge deal with an avic, but if that were an LV it would have been pretty intense. I find avics and poecs are the ones I generally tong feed and its generally because of an awkward position the t chose and because I find them to be more on the predictable side.

Although I do tong feed occasionally, its also not something I encourage others to do, especially not those newer to the hobby.

I would suggest you make a concerted effort to switch to banded crickets...they're much much hardier, as in hard to kill...their chirp is more subdued and far less annoying and they don't smell like standard domestic crickets. They're faster and very athletic, and like to climb, so they're ideal for arboreals.



I hand feed pokies all the time....although I do it by feeding though drilled ventilation holes, so I am completely safe from the reach of a fang. (pictured is a super I handed to this MM regalis)



My experiences as well, even down to the striata being my most high strung...although mine just scrambles to hide and doesn't do what I call, the "H. mac tornado".

Yeah she's not too prone to tornado, but sometimes I think she forgets where her tube is and goes crazy looking for it

 

[Paiige]

I fed exclusively crickets for years - just started feeding dubias about a month ago. I like them about a thousand times better but can't really tell with my Ts yet as half of them are fasting and/or in premolt. The rest seem to have no problem with switching from crickets. I'm pretty sure my G pulchra prefers roaches, as he was a voracious eater before but he's taken on a new level of gusto with them now.

I live in an open-floor plan space so my Ts and feeders don't have a dedicated room - listening to crickets chirping at night was great and almost calming for the first couple years of having one T (who until now had always lived in my bedroom while I was sharing apartments with arachnophobic roommates) - but I have many more Ts now so need way more crickets, and listening to an army chirping away all day and night drives me bonkers.

 

[REEFSPIDER]

I fed exclusively crickets for years - just started feeding dubias about a month ago. I like them about a thousand times better but can't really tell with my Ts yet as half of them are fasting and/or in premolt. The rest seem to have no problem with switching from crickets. I'm pretty sure my G pulchra prefers roaches, as he was a voracious eater before but he's taken on a new level of gusto with them now.

I live in an open-floor plan space so my Ts and feeders don't have a dedicated room - listening to crickets chirping at night was great and almost calming for the first couple years of having one T (who until now had always lived in my bedroom while I was sharing apartments with arachnophobic roommates) - but I have many more Ts now so need way more crickets, and listening to an army chirping away all day and night drives me bonkers.

I cant for the life of me keep crickets alive. It is almost certainly because i do not like them. I used to rear them and the turnover rate was huuuuge. I think i lose roughly 1 dubia a month to casualties. As oposed to 20-30 crickets a week.

 

[Anoplogaster]

I fed exclusively crickets for years - just started feeding dubias about a month ago. I like them about a thousand times better but can't really tell with my Ts yet as half of them are fasting and/or in premolt. The rest seem to have no problem with switching from crickets. I'm pretty sure my G pulchra prefers roaches, as he was a voracious eater before but he's taken on a new level of gusto with them now.

I live in an open-floor plan space so my Ts and feeders don't have a dedicated room - listening to crickets chirping at night was great and almost calming for the first couple years of having one T (who until now had always lived in my bedroom while I was sharing apartments with arachnophobic roommates) - but I have many more Ts now so need way more crickets, and listening to an army chirping away all day and night drives me bonkers.

Yup! I guess I should've also pointed out that I've been living in studio apartments for years. I hear, see, and smell everything from ALL of my animals ALL the time.... lol!

And I certainly agree with pokies having that reputation. Yes, they are quick, but a predictable quick, as mentioned. Besides, most other Ts are capable of moving just as fast. The strong venom of pokies is what puts people on high alert. But I definitely fear a scramble from my H. mac more than any pokie I own! When I first got him, he escaped and took me 3 hours to gain control of him. That's when I thought "So THIS is what our relationship is gonna be like, huh?" Fricken devil spider!

And yeah, I often do wonder about whether or not they could damage their fangs on tongs, but that's never happened to me personally. Has it actually happened to anyone here? I always figure that it's the same situation if a prey item happened to be sitting on a hard surface like a rock or water dish, the same could easily occur.

 

[Anoplogaster]

I cant for the life of me keep crickets alive. It is almost certainly because i do not like them. I used to rear them and the turnover rate was huuuuge. I think i lose roughly 1 dubia a month to casualties. As oposed to 20-30 crickets a week.

I've heard the ammonia build up is what kills crickets. I've been able to keep them alive longer if I add some cross ventilation. But agreed, not nearly as hardy as dubias.

 

[Paiige]

I cant for the life of me keep crickets alive. It is almost certainly because i do not like them.

It's also likely that it's due to them being cannibalistic. I didn't believe it at first, and then figured it was only in the case of an improper diet, but nope, several times I have seen a gang of smaller crickets eating a dead fatty when I open their enclosure lid. I fed and cared for my crickets very well (which was difficult because I hate them) and it certainly wasn't due to neglect.

I also absolutely hate losing crickets in my apartment, too. Nothing like waking up in the middle of the night to a rogue cricket chirping away on the opposite side of the space in which I keep them, having a heart attack thinking my cat knocked them all over and they all got out, and then scrambling wildly around to try and find the little thing.

 

[cold blood]

Yes, there have been several posts over the years about broken fangs on tongs.

 

[cold blood]

Again people, buy banded crickets....they stay alive for months....i forgot some once for a month...when i found them they were all still alive and well....its crazy how much hardier they are....theyre practically roach durable.

Theyre also much more resistant to disease and pests.

 

[nicodimus22]

I also absolutely hate losing crickets in my apartment, too. Nothing like waking up in the middle of the night to a rogue cricket chirping away on the opposite side of the space in which I keep them, having a heart attack thinking my cat knocked them all over and they all got out, and then scrambling wildly around to try and find the little thing.

Oh god, I hate that. They usually get in behind the radiators where nothing can reach. So annoying.

 

[Crone Returns]

Crickets. Love them crixs -- that's what I'm told by my 8 legged brood.
Even my baby G. pulcripes, who molted and came out 3Xs bigger
loves her gut loaded crics!
Lost a few, but have a few house spiders who love crics, too.

 

[MetalMan2004]

Again people, buy banded crickets....they stay alive for months....i forgot some once for a month...when i found them they were all still alive and well....its crazy how much hardier they are....theyre practically roach durable.

Theyre also much more resistant to disease and pests.

Perhaps I'll give it a try. I buy whatever the heck the pet shop sells. I have no idea what species of cricket it is. With the space I'm dealing with, zero chirp and zero smell is ideal. Perhaps I'm expecting too much though.

 

[Trenor]

I wish I could find tongs with a silicone tip because tong feeding for tarantulas would be convenient for certain situations.

I've never needed to do this with any of my Ts. They find the food if they need it. I will say every time I hear someone say they had a T run up their tongs and on their arm I picture tong feeding or prodding to be what they were doing right before that happened. Even with my pokes a crushed head roach place by the water dish in a front opening enclosure and it's gone the next morning.

Not necessarily hand feeding, just offering the prey item in site range of the specimen and checking interest before I drop a roach in. If they aren't interested, the last thing I want to do is root through substrate chasing a roach with a pissed off pokie looming over.

Crush the head and there isn't a need to chase. They just flop around till the are eaten. If they don't by the next morning I take it our with the long tongs while the pokie is in its hide. I have so many dubias that if one or two isn't eaten after I crush the head then I don't care

Honestly I find pokies reputation to be quite exaggerated. I find them to be quite predictable from specimen to specimen.

I've found this to be the case with all of my pokies so far as well. While they are fast, I really think my definition of teleportation is much different than most people on the board.

My experiences as well, even down to the striata being my most high strung...although mine just scrambles to hide and doesn't do what I call, the "H. mac tornado".

My P.met will scramble but it's usually when I first cut on the light then it settles on a spot to hide. I think it helps I have it in a square enclosure so he can't Evel Knievel loop to build up speed.

Yes, there have been several posts over the years about broken fangs on tongs.

I always wondered if that happened while they were feeding or if they were herding the T with the tongs and it struck that way. Either way the end result is the same. When I move my Ts I put a drinking straw on the tong tips and use it to work with the T. It can bite that straw all it wants.