T only eats dead prey?

[PoopMonkey]

After 3 months of not eating anything I have offered her, my Aphonopelma seemanni ate 2 dead crickets 2 nights in a row! Whaaaaaatt?? How "normal" is this?

I have only had her for about 3 months. She's approx 2" and I was told she's about a year old. I have offered her crickets, superworms and wax worms. I have tried tong feeding while she's active at night and I have tried just leaving something in her enclosure over night. I saw a video where a guy had to dangle and nudge food in front of his T for what seemed like a long time before the T would finally take it, so I tried that too. I combed through threads here and followed the most common advice given when asked "why won't my T eat?" - Make sure she has clean water and be patient. She must not be hungry. So I tried not to harass her and only offered food once a week. A couple days ago I bought a new bag of crickets and one of them was on it's back but still wiggling a little, so I dropped that one in just to see if she likes "easy prey". I dropped it right in front of her and instead of taking it, she just crawled forward a few steps so she was standing over it. Like, sitting on it. Then she moved on and left the dead cricket behind her. I didn't remove it though and the next morning it was gone. I searched everywhere for the carcass and found nothing. It just so happened that my cats attacked the little critter keeper that the crickets were in - knocking it to the floor and batting it around - so there was another freshly dead cricket! I dropped that in her enclosure (a 10gal glass tank with a secure lid that my cats cannot get into). This morning, it's gone.

I'm more than a little confused. I know she is a shy/skiddish species and didn't expect her to be an aggressive feeder. But a scavenger?? Is she maybe just younger than I was told? Is this behavior a symptom of something I should be aware of? To my newbie eyes, she seems otherwise fine. She comes out of her burrow every night to explore. She visits her water dish nightly. I have been able to watch her grooming a couple times. But she would just never eat. Even as I type this I'm wondering if she actually ate the dead crickets or if she maybe just buried them or something.

Anyone have thoughts on this? Thanks in advance!

OH!! And I do love this T! Her stripes are so pretty and my kids really enjoy watching her when she's active. I just want to make sure she is ok and that I'm taking good care of her so she can stay with us for years and years.

 

[Andrew Clayton]

My Grammostola Pulchripes will only eat dead mealworm and seems to be coming along fine maybe when it's bigger it might be interested in taking down some prey

 

[antinous]

Some of my smaller tarantulas will do this, interestingly enough, my 2" Phormictopus cancerides is just like this. They'll take live prey when they gain some size, some will take them faster than others. It also could be the prey item is too big.

 

[Frodo240203]

After 3 months of not eating anything I have offered her, my Aphonopelma seemanni ate 2 dead crickets 2 nights in a row! Whaaaaaatt?? How "normal" is this?

I have only had her for about 3 months. She's approx 2" and I was told she's about a year old. I have offered her crickets, superworms and wax worms. I have tried tong feeding while she's active at night and I have tried just leaving something in her enclosure over night. I saw a video where a guy had to dangle and nudge food in front of his T for what seemed like a long time before the T would finally take it, so I tried that too. I combed through threads here and followed the most common advice given when asked "why won't my T eat?" - Make sure she has clean water and be patient. She must not be hungry. So I tried not to harass her and only offered food once a week. A couple days ago I bought a new bag of crickets and one of them was on it's back but still wiggling a little, so I dropped that one in just to see if she likes "easy prey". I dropped it right in front of her and instead of taking it, she just crawled forward a few steps so she was standing over it. Like, sitting on it. Then she moved on and left the dead cricket behind her. I didn't remove it though and the next morning it was gone. I searched everywhere for the carcass and found nothing. It just so happened that my cats attacked the little critter keeper that the crickets were in - knocking it to the floor and batting it around - so there was another freshly dead cricket! I dropped that in her enclosure (a 10gal glass tank with a secure lid that my cats cannot get into). This morning, it's gone.

I'm more than a little confused. I know she is a shy/skiddish species and didn't expect her to be an aggressive feeder. But a scavenger?? Is she maybe just younger than I was told? Is this behavior a symptom of something I should be aware of? To my newbie eyes, she seems otherwise fine. She comes out of her burrow every night to explore. She visits her water dish nightly. I have been able to watch her grooming a couple times. But she would just never eat. Even as I type this I'm wondering if she actually ate the dead crickets or if she maybe just buried them or something.

Anyone have thoughts on this? Thanks in advance!

OH!! And I do love this T! Her stripes are so pretty and my kids really enjoy watching her when she's active. I just want to make sure she is ok and that I'm taking good care of her so she can stay with us for years and years.

The exact same thing has been happening with my A.seemani for a couple months now! No cause for concern as she is still eating after all.

 

[PoopMonkey]

Thank you all!! I’m relieved to hear it isn’t as strange as I thought.

 

[Andrew Clayton]

Thank you all!! I’m relieved to hear it isn’t as strange as I thought.

You will find yourself coming on and asking stuff just out of worry, it just shows you care for, what's best for the T better to look for help than ignore it

 

[EDED]

most ts will eat non moving or dead prey or piece of meat, slings to adults.
i keep lateralis and dubia, i wish lateralis can get as large as dubia lol, i offer dubia to bigger ts and i usually crush the thorax and offer the roach that way. i leave it by burrow entrance or hide entrance, Dubia can dig into substrate or just stop moving and T will ignore. for some odd reason, if the dead roach is placed nearby with its legs up, it gets eaten better than roach placed dorsal side up
some hobbyists use raw lean chicken or lean pork, ive used chicken and thawed raw shrimp. <<< problem with those items are that the leftover bolus smells terrible and you want to remove it asap.

 

[korg]

It's not unusual or any kind of indication of anything being wrong.

My adult tarantulas eat prekilled prey all the time. Some say theirs don't do this readily, but in my experience there's not really any correlation between size/age and inclination toward live prey only. If the spider is hungry it's going to eat what's there.

 

[dragonfire1577]

I've found small live crickets can often coax a feeding response out of picky smaller spiders. But if that fails nothing wrong with feeding only prekilled and that is honestly safer anyway. This species is decently slow growing too so as long as her abdomen is plump don't worry. My juvenile female Brachypelma emilia has gone crazy amounts of time without meals before a molt with no issues since it was quite small and is doing just fine.

 

[Beggottenson]

My OBT would eat crickets regularly until O rehoused it and started feeding it dead feeders, now it won’t take live feeders only dead ones lol

 

[Tenebrarius]

slings will scavenge, but if they are a fatty like my avic they will munch on anything. if they are anorexic like my P met they have a greater interest in training for the olympics than eating.