I'm more vile than a cricket...:(

[Gillian]

Hi all,
Well, I feel like the biggest piece of....you know. I just finished feeding my t's. In an effort to get them to eat (the tiny ones), I *shudder* took a razor blade to a couple crickets. I chopped their heads off, first. I guess I was expecting instant death. Yeah, right.
Instead of dying, they were in death throes, from what I could tell. They were kicking and twitching. So, with the sounds of the crunching, from me decapitating them, still ringing in my ears, I now had to try and slice them open. It appeared to me that they were still fighting for life. To make matters worse, I started crying.
You know, its said that everything we do, impacts us in a later life. Well, I think by tonight's actions, I just cursed my soul for whatever was in store for me. Perhaps I'm far too tender-hearted to have pets in the first place. This is going to be a very long night.

Gillian

 

[JacenBeers]

Wow. First person I have encountered with sympathy for the crickets. Make sure you never get a live anole or a pinkie. That would be disastrous.

 

[Mojo Jojo]

Listen, don't feel bad. You care for your babies and so you feed them. I don't know if these creatures feel pain or not, or if they recoginize it the same way that we do. But if they do, i'm sure that the razor blade is better than venom.

Big Dragonfly

 

[Code Monkey]

Originally posted by Gillian
You know, its said that everything we do, impacts us in a later life. Well, I think by tonight's actions, I just cursed my soul for whatever was in store for me. Perhaps I'm far too tender-hearted to have pets in the first place. This is going to be a very long night.

If that cursed your soul then I can't even imagine what I've done to mine I dismember crickets without even a thought, you at least felt sympathy for them as you did what needed to be done. Whether you do the deed, or your pets do the deed, something has to die so the tarantulas can live and I guarantee what you did was more humane than what happens many times with Ts.

 

[Raveness]

I have sympathy for all living things

 

[King_Looey]

I have no sympathy for prey. Its all part of life, the weak feed the strong.

 

[Rookie]

Well, I feel like the biggest piece of....you know. I just finished feeding my t's. In an effort to get them to eat (the tiny ones), I *shudder* took a razor blade to a couple crickets. I chopped their heads off, first. I guess I was expecting instant death. Yeah, right.

Gillian,
If I ever need crickets to be cut up, I ask one of my Biology student friends to do it. They usually actually enjoy it.
Paul

 

[Lycanthrope]

You know, its said that everything we do, impacts us in a later life. Well, I think by tonight's actions, I just cursed my soul for whatever was in store for me. Perhaps I'm far too tender-hearted to have pets in the first place. This is going to be a very long night.

if cutting up crix curses your soul, im in for a whole world of hurt after that mouse T.blondi experiment. i wont even get into the pinkies that get fed to the Pandinus imperators.... you'll be quite alright Gillian, just burdened with an overactive conscience is all.

 

[atavuss]

Originally posted by Gillian
Hi all,
Well, I feel like the biggest piece of....you know. I just finished feeding my t's. In an effort to get them to eat (the tiny ones), I *shudder* took a razor blade to a couple crickets. I chopped their heads off, first. I guess I was expecting instant death. Yeah, right.
Instead of dying, they were in death throes, from what I could tell. They were kicking and twitching. So, with the sounds of the crunching, from me decapitating them, still ringing in my ears, I now had to try and slice them open. It appeared to me that they were still fighting for life. To make matters worse, I started crying.
You know, its said that everything we do, impacts us in a later life. Well, I think by tonight's actions, I just cursed my soul for whatever was in store for me. Perhaps I'm far too tender-hearted to have pets in the first place. This is going to be a very long night.

Gillian

Gillian, not to downplay your feelings, but it is "the circle of life" as they say in "lion king".

Ed

 

[Gail]

Freezing, I think, is a rather painless death for them - then you can take them out and cut them up into what ever portions you need, guilt free.
The truth is though, that your T's need crickets for food. As others have said, you are only doing what needs to be done. It would be more of a cruelty if you put a live cricket in with a sling and it attacked the sling.
Another point to make, which should help you to feel a bit better about it, is a line from the remake of the fly "In the insect world there are no politics". Watch your crickets some time and you will see that they are more vicious and cruel than ever you are. I have seen a cricket that was shedding get grabbed by the head and eaten alive by another cricket more than once, even though there is plenty of food in there for them all. The crickets don't think twice about it, neither should you. It's just the circle of life, it may be hard, but it's the way it is.

Gail

 

[Lost_Tarantula]

Nah don't worry about the crickets. I've done much worse than you have to crickets, and without guilt. If your soul is marked for that, well then we can spend eternity together raising crickets, or whatever cruel afterlife is in store for us.

 

[Rookie]

Sounds like quite the date. ;P

 

[Nikos]

ME KILL CRIX

ME GIVE T CRIX

OUG!

 

[Gillian]

Hi all,
Thank you for the encouraging replies. Yes, the weak feed the strong, but that will never dull what I feel for those being eaten. I do believe I'll freezenServe, from now on....


Peace,
Gillian

 

[AlbinoDragon829]

Re: Re: I'm more vile than a cricket...

Originally posted by Code Monkey
I dismember crickets without even a thought

Yeah, same here. I just wish they'd die sooner instead of twitching. One cricket yesterday still hopped around after it lost it's head.

 

[AlbinoDragon829]

Originally posted by King_Looey
I have no sympathy for prey. Its all part of life, the weak feed the strong.

My thoughts exactly. I can imagine things 100X worse than that hapenning in the wild.

 

[Tarantula Lover]

hey

i do even worse!!
first i take 3 clothes pins, and put the cricket on a paper plate, then i stick the clothespins in the cricket, and wait for 15 minutes, kinda like a slow death, next i take scissors and snip it piece by piece!!=D :}

James

 

[galeogirl]

Maybe I'm jaded by years of reptile keeping because it doesn't really bother me, but I do try to minimize suffering among feeder animals where I can. I've found that crickets and other insect feeders die more quickly when you crush their heads. They don't wiggle nearly as long as when you cut them up.

If it really bothers you, most ts will take chunks of heart or other organ meats in lieu of live prey.

 

[Mojo Jojo]

Re: hey

Originally posted by Tarantula Lover
i do even worse!!
first i take 3 clothes pins, and put the cricket on a paper plate, then i stick the clothespins in the cricket, and wait for 15 minutes, kinda like a slow death, next i take scissors and snip it piece by piece!!=D :}

James

Why do you do that?

 

[Gillian]

Hi all,
Will tarantulas and scorps take dead prey?

Peace,
Gillian