No cricket feeding?

[rusted180]

Hey guys!

I dont take this guy's videos too seriously... i just watch him here and there for entertainment purposes... but was wondering what u guys think avout his theory that the crickets he got were causing sickness in some of his T's.

Hate to be gullible... but cant help but look at my crickets w/ skepticism..

 

[Poonjab]

My theory? Dudes dumb.

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

At the start of the video he says he was feeding pre killed crickets, but I'm not sure if he was saying all it ate was pre killed crickets or if it was eating live crickets and switched to pre killed when it got sick. If one feeds dead insects to a tarantula, it would stand to reason the risk of a bacterial infection would be higher than with live food since the gut bacteria in the dead insect would multiply like crazy at room temperature. But since tarantulas scavenge, it's hard to say what kind of bacteria and in what quantity will make them sick. Tarantulas obviously have the means to digest or handle bacteria with their immune system.

If live crickets were being fed then it got sick, then one would have to examine the conditions that the crickets were being kept in. I think most people underestimate how clean and dry you have to keep your crickets for the best health. My guess is that yes, that tarantula got sick from some kind of bacterial infection from the crickets; either from feeding dead crickets or by not keeping live crickets clean before feeding. That being said, crickets have been used for decades with tarantulas with no ill effects so it wouldn't be the crickets in themselves that caused a problem.

Within the past year, I had an adult female Theraphosa apophysis fall ill suddenly which exhibited the exact same symptoms the tarantula in this video did. Mine eventually died after a year of not eating, but I'm not sure if it actually died from its illness or from starvation. Because it was so inactive for that year, it never lost too much weight. If you saw it, you would not have know it didn't eat for a year. In the case of my T. apophysis, one week it was a voracious eater and the next it fell weak, legs were drawn up to the body, and stopped eating or responding to touch. Just like the one in the video. The clues I used to guess that it was a fungal or bacterial infection came from examining its enclosure after the tarantula was removed. The wooden half-log hide was being used as a garbage dump by the tarantula and was full of mold and just looked nasty. The wooden log hide itself was so rotted and full of fungi it practically fell apart in my hand. From the outside where there was bark, it looked in good shape. I also found a dead and decaying cricket underneath the water dish I couldn't see from the outside of the enclosure.

 

[rusted180]

Thank u so much! Good advice about the crickets well being. It makes a whole lotta sense. Thank u again!