First feeding of my slings. Question.

[nickn]

Hey hows it going guys. I got my slings a lil bit ago and tommarow I get off work early and plan to feed them. I will be using frozen, small petco crickets.

Just have a quick question since these are avic versicolors, and have not webbed up the top yet. Should I just place the crickets on the ground and hope they find them? I also have a P. cambridgei but for the most part hes staying on the ground.

I just heard that crickets mold on the damp floor overnight, how long should I leave these in for?

Thanks

 

[jcornish86]

the versi will come down to the ground, i dont know if they come down to hunt or just to drink, i caught mine the other day with a giant chunk of moss in his mouth just drinking away. I bet by the time you get off work tomarrow he will have some form of a tube web being formed, from my experince ( witch is not alot). It took mine about 2 days or so to have a really nice thick web going. But ya pre-kill leave in web over night check in the morning if its still there remove it.

I dont know if this is common or not but the last 2 crickets i have pre-killed and stuck in his or her web i actualy witnessed it throwing/kicking the dead cricket out of its web, on the next feeding i will try to record this so people can let me know what they think.

 

[scottyk]

You can carefully place the frozen crickets up in the tube webs, or lay them on the floor if that's too hard.

Assuming that the enclosures are not gigantic, the slings will find them if they are hungry, dead or alive.

I usually feed in the evening and take anything uneaten out and mist the next evening, but don't be surprised if the sling is on it within an hour...

 

[scottyk]

I dont know if this is common or not but the last 2 crickets i have pre-killed and stuck in his or her web i actualy witnessed it throwing/kicking the dead cricket out of its web, on the next feeding i will try to record this so people can let me know what they think.

That is common. All arboreals will toss anything they are not actively interested in out of thier webs. I've seen them do this, then be down feeding on it an hour later. Go figure

 

[nickn]

Awesome thanks guys. I will try this out then. They dont have any webbing going on yet at all. Kinda weird, The P. cambridgei just sits there huddled in the cornor behind a leaf. Ill leave in the food overnight.

 

[jcornish86]

Cool thanks for the info, also is it abornomal for them to drag moss back to there web and hang it? To possibly drink from later?

 

[killy]

Try offering the cricks from forceps - you may find that the versis rush up and grab them right out of the tongs before your consciousness can process what just happened - (that's what mine did right of the bat -or off the tongs, as it were - I named him Speedy ... he just molted again, by the way, but that's for another thread) - also you can try mini-meal worms - and have lots of fun watching your versis capture and dine on those .... :drool:

p.s. careful that your versi doesn't run up the forceps, onto your arm, down to your elbow, and finish with a flying leap into the recesses of the creases and crevasses of your household - that's what Speedy did - gave me a scare, but I got him back ...

 

[scottyk]

Cool thanks for the info, also is it abornomal for them to drag moss back to there web and hang it? To possibly drink from later?

Decorating is totally normal too, especially with moss

 

[nickn]

Oh yeah I forgot to ask scotty you said no need to thaw the crickets?

 

[jcornish86]

ya i have forcep fed before, exactly had you discribed he/she was on it so fast it took me 2-3 seconds once he grabed it to figure out what was happening, i could actualy feel it pulling the cricket from the forceps.

i will post a picture of my setup in 1 sec, web is geting really awsome, he/she has the tunnel web going down the side of the cage and a nice little hammock that he/she loves to lay down on.

 

[scottyk]

Awesome thanks guys. I will try this out then. They dont have any webbing going on yet at all. Kinda weird, The P. cambridgei just sits there huddled in the cornor behind a leaf. Ill leave in the food overnight.

Psalmos start out very terrestrial, and may even burrow a bit. It will eventually start webbing up the leaf. Even my adult female has the base of her tube at the bottom of her cage...

 

[scottyk]

Oh yeah I forgot to ask scotty you said no need to thaw the crickets?

I don't bother as it keeps them a little more durable while I'm manipulating them. They are so small that they thaw quickly...

 

[nickn]

Sounds good, I went ahead and left one in there for all of them. Ill check em before bed and morning and see if there munching on them. Fingers crossed.

If they dont eat , or I dont see them eat, give it a day or two before I try again? I dont wanna waste crickets if I dont have to. Im not really trying to powerfeed this small, I just wanna keep them healthy.

 

[jcornish86]

When i 1st got mine, i wasent sure if it was hungrey or not, but it ate 3 decent size crickets 3 days in a row, abdomin propably doubled in size within 1st 3 days i had it, she/hasent accepted food for about a week now has no real intrest and her abdomen is still very large, she drinks alot of water from the bottum of her cage.

 

[binky]

bolus hunter

Hey guys - I have an A. versi sling and I fed him last night but can't see the bolus at all. The other night when I fed him I found the bolus easily as it was at the bottom of the vial. Any idea if he might hang on to it in the web or something?

I don't want to root around in the vial and disturb him (possibly have him jump out of the vial), but I don't want to get mites either! suggestions for investigation?

jcornish86: I'm definitely not an expert - maybe your sling is going into pre-molt?

 

[jcornish86]

def a possibility, it has grown atleast 1/4 inch in 2 weeks that i have had it. His blue color and stripes on abdomen are fading to a cream color.

 

[curiousme]

def a possibility, it has grown atleast 1/4 inch in 2 weeks that i have had it. His blue color and stripes on abdomen are fading to a cream color.

Ts only grow in a molt. Their abdomen is the only place that can stretch, everything else is hardened cuticle made of chitin and can't. Therefore, it is impossible to grow without a molt.

 

[nickn]

Still no luck getting them to eat, either there not hungry or still spooked from shipping. I tryed to "hand" them a piece of cutup mealworm but none would take it.

Sigh, kinda frustrating.

I dont think they will eat live crickets as big as themselves. Guess I will try it if they dont eat in a few days. Id leave the mealworm at the bottom but couldnt it burrow or bite them?

 

[curiousme]

We had great luck with our Avicularias and drumsticks from large crickets.

Don't let it worry you

, they will eat when they are hungry. Have they built any web at all?

 

[nickn]

No, I tryed a drumstick in the most actives tank, its still hanging on the side from the one little bit of web it laid. Prettymuch no webbing by either avics. The active one did a little the first day but then I guess it ruined it and its gone and no active webbing.

The P. cambridgei has laid some in the cornor and also is pulling up some substrate to mix with it to make the "dirt wall" I have heard of. It wont take any food either.

I just tryed very small mealworms , none wanted anything to do with them.

I dont think they are recently molted, there fangs dont look clear and they look normal, just no eating. With no webbing in the avics tanks Im not sure where I should lay the drumsticks, one avic always stays at the top, the other is always on the ground. Weird.