Feeding a closed off pet hole

[pizzathehut]

I have a B Hamorii sling that dug a den in his hide hole and put up some lovely dirt curtains. As I'm new to the hobby still, I'm not sure how to go about feeding. I've had him since December 20th, 2019. He's been closed off since December 23rd. I know he molted shortly after that, I'm just not sure exactly as to when. I had to redo his enclosure (long story) and I noticed he definitely got bigger since I first got him. But I've only fed three times because I was told not to while he's closed off. But someone else told me to drop a cricket in and leave it for 24hrs then take it out if untouched. I did that and of course ended up removing the cricket. Someone else had told me to remove some of the dirt curtain and put the cricket near it. So I did that and the cricket goes missing so I'm assuming he ate it. So my question is, what's the proper way to go about feeding my pet hole?

 

[Poonjab]

Just leave it be. It will not starve itself to death so I wouldn’t worry to much about it, especially if it’s still burrowed off. When it’s ready to come out and eat, it will reveal itself. This is normal behavior.

 

[Arachnophoric]

Pics of the T and its enclosure? Offhand it sounds like you honestly may be housing it in "too large" of a setup. Slings in oversized enclosures tend towards burrowing, which makes it frustrating to keep an eye on them and their condition.

If a T has blocked off its burrow but I know it's molted recently, granted that enough time has passed that the T's new exoskeleton should have fully hardened, I prefer to leave prekilled prey near the entrance. If the T is hungry it'll likely come out and take the prekilled prey. I'd use prekilled over live after a molt when I can't visually confirm the T ate it, because if T isn't hungry and won't eat the live cricket, the cricket may decide to crawl into the burrow and nibble on the T. We just had a user post about how a cricket ate their sling, and I myself have admittedly lost a young female Chilobrachys dyscolus after leaving a cricket in with her overnight and coming home to find it ate a massive hole into her abdomen.

Nowadays, when I leave live prey in with a T that isn't at least a decently sized juvenile, it gets removed within a few hours at most if uneaten.

 

[Thekla]

Never open up a sealed burrow and release a live cricket into it. Worst case scenario, it'll feed on a moulting sling. A closed-off burrow is a clear "Do Not Disturb" sign!

You can always leave a pre-killed feeder in front of the burrow and remove it after 24 hours if it hasn't been eaten. Slings will happily scavenge on pre-killed items.

Edit: @Arachnophoric was faster, as usual.

 

[viper69]

I have a B Hamorii sling that dug a den in his hide hole and put up some lovely dirt curtains. As I'm new to the hobby still, I'm not sure how to go about feeding. I've had him since December 20th, 2019. He's been closed off since December 23rd. I know he molted shortly after that, I'm just not sure exactly as to when. I had to redo his enclosure (long story) and I noticed he definitely got bigger since I first got him. But I've only fed three times because I was told not to while he's closed off. But someone else told me to drop a cricket in and leave it for 24hrs then take it out if untouched. I did that and of course ended up removing the cricket. Someone else had told me to remove some of the dirt curtain and put the cricket near it. So I did that and the cricket goes missing so I'm assuming he ate it. So my question is, what's the proper way to go about feeding my pet hole?

Normal leave it alone!

 

[Goopyguy56]

I have left prekilled crickets in from of burrows in the past. Sometimes they get eaten sometimes they don't at least you don't have to worry about the food picking on the poor spider if it's prekilled. We usually feed my mother-in-law live food. I don't care if she's in premolt.

 

[cold blood]

Offhand it sounds like you honestly may be housing it in "too large" of a setup. Slings in oversized enclosures tend towards burrowing, which makes it frustrating to keep an eye on them and their condition.

my sentiments exactly