Discussion on Feeding after Rehouse

[johnny quango]

I feed mine the same day as I do with new tarantulas and maybe this is just me and mine but I find they tend to settle quicker.
We all know that no 2 spiders behave in exactly the ways so why would anyone expect them to feed in the same way? Some will eat some won't, same goes for each and every keeper on here just because 1 member says I never feed the same day does that make them right? Or is the member that says feed on the same day right? We are as individual as our collections and our methods will differ from each other and if the methods you use work why change

 

[Poec54]

If a spider has a small abdomen, even a high strung species, I hate to make it wait for a settle-in period. It's driven to find food and water and isn't likely to pass either up because the situation isn't ideal. In the wild, storms can cause major disruptions and even dislocate tarantulas (things like branches falling or trees going over), also earthquakes. Those events likewise impact tarantulas prey, and a spider may suddenly find that commotion has resulted in an easily available meal. Do they pass it up, or take advantage of it?

 

[Formerphobe]

A lot of fair and experienced comments here.

I think the general rule of thumb of waiting to feed after a rehouse is to ensure to give the T ample time to settle in and set up a good hide. Some people might just throw in half a dozen or so crickets into a small deli cup after rehousing their new sling and wake up in the morning to find nothing but crickets in a deli cup...

As often as possible I will feed a newly rehoused T in the evening of the day I rehoused. Taking life cycle, molt cycle and how the T reacted to the rehouse(@EulersK & @Poec54 made points about defensive/skittish Ts) into account.

I don't think it is a "rule of thumb". I think it is someone's made up "rule" and a lot of people decided to run with it.

Personally, I never throw multiple feeders into an enclosure unless there are multiple spiders in it. (M balfouri)
I generally practice One Per Customer. The exception to that would be if all I have are small feeders and a larger, thinner specimen. Even then, they get one, if they take that, I'll offer a second.

Unless an incoming animal is in obvious premolt, I've always fed immediately. 98% of the time they eat immediately. With the 2% that doesn't, I pull the feeder within a few hours.

 

[Sarkhan42]

I've never had an issue feeding the day of a rehouse, but I can absolutely see waiting for more high strung species to settle in before messing with them. What I tend to do for many of those is feed them the morning of the rehouse, and then do the rehousing in the afternoon/night. If I'm picking them up brand new, I do wait for many of the flightier species as many a time the vendor has fed them recently, and they don't need immediate feeding, especially buying at expos, as they like to show off fat and healthy looking Ts in most cases.

 

[TicklyT]

well this thread is perfect for me as I recently just got a b.albopilosum sling this morning and I will offer it a cricket this evening and update you.

 

[EulersK]

I don't think it is a "rule of thumb". I think it is someone's made up "rule" and a lot of people decided to run with it.

Personally, I never throw multiple feeders into an enclosure unless there are multiple spiders in it. (M balfouri)
I generally practice One Per Customer. The exception to that would be if all I have are small feeders and a larger, thinner specimen. Even then, they get one, if they take that, I'll offer a second.

Unless an incoming animal is in obvious premolt, I've always fed immediately. 98% of the time they eat immediately. With the 2% that doesn't, I pull the feeder within a few hours.

Slightly off topic, but I like the point you made - one per customer. We see new hobbyists throwing in several crickets at the same time, and I've seen large spiders with typically aggressive feeding responses freak out at that. They feel overwhelmed, and they then refuse to eat at all for that session. Now, as a hobbyist, you have to catch several jumping crickets while avoiding a potentially defensive spider that you have cornered. Not a good time.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

I don't think there's a general rule. Everything depends by a lot of factors. Had T's like C.cyaneopubescens, that ate not even after two hours from "unpacking & travel", others, like the hardcore OB ones, that ate after a week (my choice... without a new burrow i'd prefer to give those time).

 

[Blackout14]

Yea I guese it does depend as well. I have 2 b Emilia slings that I've had for 3 weeks and still haven't eaten burrowed all the way down and closed off one just molted I'm expecting the other soon. Vrs my g pulchra came home when into a cage and wolfed down a large cricket seconds later lol

 

[Red Eunice]

Interesting question, quite a variety of answers were given. Immediately, a day, 2 days and 5-7 days, plus the added pre molt/post molt factor along with it being OW/NW species. All I would consider as correct answers.
I rehouse in the early AM, they seem to be a bit more co-operative after a night of activity. Tossing in prey later in the evening, by morning the majority have eaten. For newly acquired Ts, OW and NW, I give them 24 hours to explore their new home, then offer prey. Thats my answer to the question.

 

[TicklyT]

Well I offered the B.albopilosum a cricket and she refused but it I think it is because she is in premolt just as I looked at her closely I noticed the dark abdomen. I have fed my B.Bohmei though they day it arrived and it took down a small roach for me. So it's really up to how well the T settles in and the owner in my opinion.

 

[Poec54]

Personally, I never throw multiple feeders into an enclosure unless there are multiple spiders in it.
I generally practice One Per Customer.

Don't you have large spiders? I give most of my adult T's 4 to 6 adult crickets at a time, which they quickly scoop up, and 10 or 12 for big stirmi. If I fed my spiders one cricket at a time, I'd have to quit my job.

 

[EulersK]

Don't you have large spiders? I give most of my adult T's 4 to 6 adult crickets at a time, which they quickly scoop up, and 10 or 12 for big stirmi. If I fed my spiders one cricket at a time, I'd have to quit my job.

With your number of spiders, it's beyond me as to why you don't maintain a roach colony...

 

[Formerphobe]

Don't you have large spiders? I give most of my adult T's 4 to 6 adult crickets at a time, which they quickly scoop up, and 10 or 12 for big stirmi. If I fed my spiders one cricket at a time, I'd have to quit my job.

I do have a roach colony. Most of my spiders won't eat roaches, just cohab with them. Depending on the individual spider, the equivalent of one or two crickets once every one to twelve weeks is plenty to keep them from getting too fat. Even at that, I've been accused of over feeding due to the bodacious behinds on some of them. Those that will take dubia or hissers get fed less frequently than the once a month feedings that most of my adults average. I also keep superworms and lateralis, which some prefer and others refuse.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

That roaches myth, when anytime, every hungry Spid (no matter) will hunt and take down a cricket it's beyond me. A lot of T's are choosy with roaches, saw no one, hungry, choosy with a crick ;-)

 

[EulersK]

That roaches myth, when anytime, every hungry Spid (no matter) will hunt and take down a cricket it's beyond me. A lot of T's are choosy with roaches, saw no one, hungry, choosy with a crick ;-)

An animal won't starve itself. Offer only roaches for long enough, and they'll cave in eventually My A. avicularia refused roaches until it went almost two months without food... it got the picture, and now it happily takes them down.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

An animal won't starve itself. Offer only roaches for long enough, and they'll cave in eventually My A. avicularia refused roaches until it went almost two months without food... it got the picture, and now it happily takes them down.

Oh, i love roaches, especially B.dubia, don't get me wrong my man. But more, i love the native, WC, roaches i spot when i turn "on" the light (btw light in Italian sounds like AIDS) on some dark, closed rooms of my house... it's like to have, in your house, in 2016 "The Beatles" at Liverpool. But at the end of the day, i've noticed in all of those wasted years, a lot of T's choosy about roaches, while never, never, never one with annoying, smelly, singing plague crickets.

Oh oh u_u oh well...

 

[Formerphobe]

An animal won't starve itself. Offer only roaches for long enough, and they'll cave in eventually My A. avicularia refused roaches until it went almost two months without food... it got the picture, and now it happily takes them down.

I have a geriatric Aphonopelma eutylenum and G porteri that only get fed four times a year. And don't always eat the cricket that is offered. The porteri cohabbed with a dubia until it died of old age. I fed that damn roach more frequently than I did his roommate. Some of them will hold out until the prey of choice happens along.
Bad as the crickets smell, the roaches are worse, IMO.

 

[EulersK]

I have a geriatric Aphonopelma eutylenum and G porteri that only get fed four times a year. And don't always eat the cricket that is offered. The porteri cohabbed with a dubia until it died of old age. I fed that damn roach more frequently than I did his roommate. Some of them will hold out until the prey of choice happens along.
Bad as the crickets smell, the roaches are worse, IMO.

Your dubias smell? Really? They absolutely stink up the room when they die, but what animal doesn't? When they're alive and well, they have almost no odor at all for me. I can stick my head in their colony and hardly pick up a scent other than the pig feed they're eating.

 

[Poec54]

With your number of spiders, it's beyond me as to why you don't maintain a roach colony...

I'm in Florida, there are things regulated or banned here. Besides, roaches don't reproduce in the numbers that crickets do. I go thru several thousand adult crickets a month, plus small crickets. I don't have the space to devote to cranking out that many roaches, or even crickets.

 

[EulersK]

Ah, I forgot about you being in Florida. Yeah, very true. Breed palmetto bugs, then! An added benefit would be saving money on car insurance - just ride those to work.