How to remove uneaten food?

[khaos]

I recently acquired a female 5" L. violaceopes. I offered her a cricket, but she hasn't eaten it. She has stayed in her cork hide since I got her (it is up against the glass, so I can see where she is). What is the best way to remove the uneaten prey item? I haven't really seen her move, but I know they are very fast, and I want to be as careful as possible, for my safety and her comfort. I searched the forums and couldn't find any information on this. If someone can link to it, that would be great. Any advice is welcome. Thanks.
ps. forgot to say, the cricket has been in for about a day and a half, thinking that she might eat it overnight.

 

[catfishrod69]

Go on ebay, buy a pair of 16" curved forceps. Then grab that cricket. Thats what i use sometimes. Most the time, i use a pair of 6" tweezers. Just grab the cricket hard and fast. Dont worry about hurting it, its food anyways.

 

[khaos]

Thank you! I just tried using my little 6" tweezers and she didn't even move. I will definitely get some of the longer type as I intend to have more of the speedy type t's.

 

[catfishrod69]

Very welcome. I usually use my 6" tweezers for pretty much everything. Except feeding my boa and python. But just have to be careful using short tongs with tarantulas that can be blurring fast. Complacency will eventually catch up.

 

[Zeph]

I ordered a 12" pair of feeding tongs/tweezers from kenthebugguy.com when I purchased my first spiderlings. I think they were only $8 and the perfect length since I have no aggressive species. My tiny tarantulas panic if I try to reach in with short tweezers because my hands looms too closely I think.

 

[khaos]

I'm pretty sure she is not threatened by the size of my hand, since she is bigger LOL

 

[edgeofthefreak]

I'm not too agile with tongs, especially 12" long. Every accidental slight tap on the glass bothers me. So I give my crickets something they like. Either a piece egg carton or toilet tube will work. As long little cricket can "hide", then I can easily remove that instead of trying to scramble after a moving target.

 

[Anonymity82]

I ordered a 12" pair of feeding tongs/tweezers from kenthebugguy.com when I purchased my first spiderlings. I think they were only $8 and the perfect length since I have no aggressive species. My tiny tarantulas panic if I try to reach in with short tweezers because my hands looms too closely I think.

My G. rosea is more freaked out by the tweezers than my hand lol.

So far, if my BW doesn't eat the cricket I just leave it in there. I had a cricket in there for 4 days. I checked every chance I could and I even tried to grab it with tongs but she's fast and doesn't like to be bothered. So I just kept checking in on her and then I finally saw some drop lines. What a beautiful sight. The next time I checked (about an hour later) she had her prize and was wrapping it up.

 

[poisoned]

I'm not too agile with tongs, especially 12" long. Every accidental slight tap on the glass bothers me. So I give my crickets something they like. Either a piece egg carton or toilet tube will work. As long little cricket can "hide", then I can easily remove that instead of trying to scramble after a moving target.

Maybe try with hemostat. My hands are very shaky and I have more control with hemostat. It's 7 or 8 inch (not sure), one of the cheapest from ebay