new attack method

[jr47]

i have 7 g. rosea slings. all but 2 are 1.5 inch's and 2 are just a little bigger than the rest. one of them has for the last 4 feedings, as soon as he grab's the cricket he flips himself over on his back and wraps around the cricket. a soon as it stops moving he will right himself and eat.
just wondered if anyone has seen this before. none of mine have ever done it. i also just started giving them crickets about equal to them in size. could they be to big and throwing him when they try to jump. none of the others seem to have any problems with them. dont want them injured but have not been able to get smaller crickets. so you think maybe they are to big or this one sling is just strange.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

Never seen it, never heard of it as a regular thing. I have seen parahybanas and some GGBs flipping during a catch, but they righted themselves emediatly. A thing that might be happening is that the T gets disoriented. When they don't touch anything with their feet they seem almost to freeze not knowing what to do ("Need more input!" springs to mind ). Maybe it's that. I had my vagans drop from the glass once. She was just a tiny bit above the substrate when she lost grip from the side and she ended off with the legs stretched out in belly direction, but because of it laying on the side. The feet didn't touch anything. Looked totally weird and she stayed in that position for over 30min without twiching.

 

[jr47]

i think i will remove the back legs on the next few and see if it still does it. just dont want the spider being injured. raised it from eggsake. so ive got a little time invested and i tend to worry over stupid stuff sometimes.

 

[Inverted]

I have seen many of the Poecilotheria grab prey and flip over at the same time. If the cricket is pretty good size they will do this to immobilize the prey's ability to try and run away or get the upper hand by getting in a bite or two until they are comfortable that the prey has been dispatched properly.

 

[jr47]

I have seen many of the Poecilotheria grab prey and flip over at the same time. If the cricket is pretty good size they will do this to immobilize the prey's ability to try and run away or get the upper hand by getting in a bite or two until they are comfortable that the prey has been dispatched properly.

well then i guess i wont worry to much. he is very healthy and usually has the cricket about the time it hits the dirt. im probably concerned over nothing. thanks

 

[DrAce]

I have seen many of the Poecilotheria grab prey and flip over at the same time. If the cricket is pretty good size they will do this to immobilize the prey's ability to try and run away or get the upper hand by getting in a bite or two until they are comfortable that the prey has been dispatched properly.

I know they stilt for this, but I haven't heard of them flipping for that reason. How would being on your back prevent them from running away? The cricket could still get a foothold on the spider's belly.

Perhaps it is to get all the available feet onto the cricket to help immbilise it?

 

[Talkenlate04]

Oh I have seen that with my rose hair slings as well, and all my brachy slings. Ill toss a baby roach in with its head crushed and as soon as it touches the ground they launch themselves at the roach and tuck and roll. They stay wrapped around the prey till it stops moving and eventually stand upright and feed. Its pretty normal I think.

 

[138]

\one of them has for the last 4 feedings, as soon as he grab's the cricket he flips himself over on his back and wraps around the cricket. a soon as it stops moving he will right himself and eat.

my T. plumipes and T. truculentus slings do this occasionally.

 

[reptist]

imobilize

I have seen many slings do this and I believe it is simply a means of imobilizing the prey,the strongest parts of a cricket are the legs and after being bucked off numerous times I think they learned that by taking the buisness parts of the cricket away they dont have as much of a fight to endure for the meal, Just my opinion and a little bit of experience but I'd bet I'm pretty close, PEACE B.

 

[Arachnobrian]

I have to agree with "Inverted", it's a way to imobilize larger prey.

I have seen many of my smaller slings perform this snatch and flip technique.