Curazai
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2016
- Messages
- 22
Well, here it is. I'm a longtime reptile veteran who has steered countless newbies through the "oh god its not eating it's going to die" panic, now I'm the one panicking!
I recently acquired a little Brachypelma smithi sling as my very first Tarantula. I've been wanting to get into T's, because I do educational outreaches and everyone always asks about spiders. I've met a few B. smithi's in the past who were very sweet, and after some research I decided that was the species for me.
Now here comes the panic. This T has not eaten in since I got it, 10/31/16. I'm always worried about non-eating in young animals, as I've done my fair share of force feeding skinny ball python hatchlings and it's never a walk in the park. I've offered it small pinhead crickets, as small as I could find them (I was told to feed roughly the size of the abdomen), but it refuses and runs away every time. I wait for an hour, then remove the cricket.
It's being raised at 80F, spritzed on one side of the tube every 3 days, and has a little hide made out of a plastic leaf from a larger plant.
What can I do to get it to eat? Can someone tell me if this is just newbie panic or if I'm doing something wrong? I don't want to lose this cute little beast!!
Here's a picture of it:
I recently acquired a little Brachypelma smithi sling as my very first Tarantula. I've been wanting to get into T's, because I do educational outreaches and everyone always asks about spiders. I've met a few B. smithi's in the past who were very sweet, and after some research I decided that was the species for me.
Now here comes the panic. This T has not eaten in since I got it, 10/31/16. I'm always worried about non-eating in young animals, as I've done my fair share of force feeding skinny ball python hatchlings and it's never a walk in the park. I've offered it small pinhead crickets, as small as I could find them (I was told to feed roughly the size of the abdomen), but it refuses and runs away every time. I wait for an hour, then remove the cricket.
It's being raised at 80F, spritzed on one side of the tube every 3 days, and has a little hide made out of a plastic leaf from a larger plant.
What can I do to get it to eat? Can someone tell me if this is just newbie panic or if I'm doing something wrong? I don't want to lose this cute little beast!!
Here's a picture of it:
Last edited: