Can I train my Ts to like Dubia?

MetalMan2004

Arachnodemon
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Oct 14, 2016
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676
So far the only thing my Ts will eat are crickets. I've tried dubias and superworms and the Ts couldn't have cared less. My collection is expanding and I'd like a better option than crickets. So is there a way to get my Ts to like dubias or something else?
 

Rittdk01

Arachnoknight
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Oct 4, 2016
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258
Yep. Wait till they r hungry and they'll eat anything lol. The superworms can b a bit tricky. I smash 50% of the head and throw them in. If I smash the whole head, they end up laying there not moving and r ignored by the tarantula. if u don't smash them they will immediately burrow. I smash Dubia heads and toss them in upside down.
 

Ghost56

Arachnobaron
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Aug 28, 2016
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Biggest thing with dubia that I quickly figured out when I got my colony, is you basically HAVE to crush their heads. Otherwise they will stay completely still for dumb amounts of time, and a T has zero interest in still food. Some people drop them from a few inches, and the T will hit it before the dubia has a chance to stay still. That doesn't really work for me though.
 

WeightedAbyss75

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Feb 22, 2014
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Just wait and eventually they will get hungry enough. What size T's are you looking at feeding? If you can feed adult males, that is a great option. Very active and a great meal for bigger T's. Otherwise, just give it time and they will eat almost anything :D
 

MetalMan2004

Arachnodemon
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Oct 14, 2016
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Yeah I guess starving them out would work. I tried giving a dubia to my gbb after it molted figuring it would be plenty hungry, but no interest. Next day I tried a cricket and it took it quickly. Every time I've tried dubia with no luck he he has no problem eating a cricket instead...
 

viper69

ArachnoGod
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So far the only thing my Ts will eat are crickets. I've tried dubias and superworms and the Ts couldn't have cared less. My collection is expanding and I'd like a better option than crickets. So is there a way to get my Ts to like dubias or something else?
No there isn't. Some Ts won't eat roaches, I've tried, including "starving" them out.

But could work for you, they are individuals, not clones ;)
 

Jeff23

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Jul 27, 2016
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I haven't been able to succeed with dubia roaches. My T's love crickets. I don't have to crush the head of my crickets for live feeds.
 

EulersK

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With the exception of slings, I've found that starving them works just fine. I've had a few slings literally starve themselves to near death before I caved and bought crickets, but anything larger than 2" can be waited out. They'll eventually get hungry enough. In my collection, they eat dubia or they don't eat. Simple as that. The good news is that once they've taken down their first dubia, they never really have a problem with it again.

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.
 

Chris LXXIX

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I've never saw one hungry Theraphosidae (no matter which, if NW, OW, or else) refuse a cricket in 25 years of arachnids keeping. I've saw, on the other hand, hungry T's refuse B.dubia (and just for clarify a Captain Obvious thing, all of those were hungry & healthy spiders, and the prey roaches perfectly sized for them).

Last was my 0.1 C.cyaneopubescens, I've just removed a B.dubia from her enclosure after 24H, that wasn't even considered at all (the 'GBB' walked on the roach like nothing, even) replaced that with a cricket... guess what happened u_u

I can say without doubts that crickets are the best options for arachnids, no matter the hate/dislike that some keepers feel (for different reasons) for those annoying & smelly def. 100% singing dastards :-s

I remember a couple of 'Pokies' of a friend of waay back then, especially a P.metallica... she was choosy like hell with roaches. With that said, I breed my B.dubia and I offer those mostly to my chubby & bulky NW T's (G.pulchripes, A.geniculata, M.robustum and all of that lazy NW itchy fat bandwagon since they will eat even the Devil).

Crickets are of best, I always said that :-s
 

Red Eunice

Arachnodemon
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Mar 2, 2014
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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. ;)
 

Jeff23

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Jul 27, 2016
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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. ;)
You can give pre-kill to arboreal T's as well. I have found it convenient for times when I must travel for job.
 

Trenor

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Jan 28, 2016
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I don't know about training them to eat dubias but if they are hungry enough I really doubt a T will starve to the point of death with good food right in front of them.

Everything I have from slings the size of ticks to full grown adults all eat dubias. I've not hit one yet that wouldn't. I've never really had to work to make it happen. The only T I have that hasn't ate a dubia (yet) for me yet is the E. sp. yellow female but she is plump and it's doubtful she'll eat anything atm. I always crush the heads. Sometimes for smaller slings (if I cut up their food) or if I'm worried about it getting into a premolt-Ts burrow I'll de-leg it.

If you've seen my photos you know my Ts are plump. :D

They have worked great as a feeder for me and I've got no plans to change anything up in the food department.
 

Trenor

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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.
I have a lot of arboreal Ts NW and OW and I just drop the roach on the substrate at the entrance to the enclosure (usually near the water dish). They find and eat them no problem.

I've needed no special placement to get them eating so far.
 

Anoplogaster

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Jan 15, 2017
Messages
675
I have not had an issue with feeding dubias either. All my Ts take them instantly, fully alive. Never even had a need to crush the heads because I tong feed my adults and subadults. If you blink, you'll miss it! And my slings grab them as soon as they hit the sub. Great thing about having a colony is you get to pick literally any size. And yeah, I'm one of those cricket haters. I've dealt with them when I had Leopard Geckos..... they chirp all night and smell like cat piss. For Ts, you can just buy a batch of crickets when you need them, and try to feed them all out to avoid having to store them for too long.
 

Jeff23

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Jul 27, 2016
Messages
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I have not had an issue with feeding dubias either. All my Ts take them instantly, fully alive. Never even had a need to crush the heads because I tong feed my adults and subadults. If you blink, you'll miss it! And my slings grab them as soon as they hit the sub. Great thing about having a colony is you get to pick literally any size. And yeah, I'm one of those cricket haters. I've dealt with them when I had Leopard Geckos..... they chirp all night and smell like cat piss. For Ts, you can just buy a batch of crickets when you need them, and try to feed them all out to avoid having to store them for too long.
The cricket chirping is way overrated. I've had over 500 crickets in my large tub at once with no chirping. They only chirp at some point after they get their wings. It is easy to identify and pick those out first to be fed to the T's. I agree on the smell, but have found it disappears if maintenance is done regularly to remove dead crickets and excrement (change to fresh hides).
 

Arachnidscanada

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jan 23, 2017
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0
So far the only thing my Ts will eat are crickets. I've tried dubias and superworms and the Ts couldn't have cared less. My collection is expanding and I'd like a better option than crickets. So is there a way to get my Ts to like dubias or something else?
Wait till there hungry and drop a lively Dubai in there and they'll eat it up.
 

cold blood

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Jan 19, 2014
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I havent found any issues with dubia...in fact ive been almost exclusively dubia for a month....colony just got too big and had to cull it down. But its not been an issue for any t at any size....i just crush heads and lay them on their backs to wiggle.
 

REEFSPIDER

Arachnobaron
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May 6, 2016
Messages
412
I have purchased alot of my collection from a local brick and mortar who almost exclusively feeds crickets to every t they have. Except for a few individuals who get a pinky once in a while, they only feed crickets. Alot of the specimens i have gotten from them weren't too keen on switching to dubia, but it can be done. I exclusively feed dubia or various worms. All of my Ts eat dubia now. It just takes time to get them to come around.
 

Haksilence

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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
 

Anoplogaster

Arachnodemon
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Jan 15, 2017
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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:)
 
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