Tarantula eating a cricket's molt?

Sixsixsarah

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I got a juvenile pink toe (avic. Avic.) tarantula about a month and a half ago, it is my second time owning a tarantula and tonight I had just discovered my T eating a crickets molt? The cricket I had fed to it not even a day ago had molted before my t got ahold of it and now it's eating the crickets molted skin. I have never seen this before is this okay? The picture isn't related to what's going on just a photo of the tarantula.
 

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Toxoderidae

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A photo of just the spider can't help, we'd need a picture of whats going on. It's probably just extracting fluid from the molt.
 

Sixsixsarah

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It was nearly done eating the molt when I discovered it and it's too dark to get a good enough picture with my camera otherwise I would have. The t ate the entire cricket molt and I'm not sure why or if that is okay for the t to do.
 

shining

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It's fine. Your cricket is just well adept in the replacement jutsu.
 

Venom1080

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It was nearly done eating the molt when I discovered it and it's too dark to get a good enough picture with my camera otherwise I would have. The t ate the entire cricket molt and I'm not sure why or if that is okay for the t to do.
i cant think of any reason that it would harm the T.
 

EulersK

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Tarantulas can't eat solid foods - that's why a bolus is left behind after feeding. It's made up of any exoskeleton that the spider couldn't eat.

So, your tarantula wasn't eating the exuvia. As was brought up, it may have been after any residual fluid, but my opinion is that your avic was simply moving the exuvia elsewhere. Perhaps it tore it up along the way, but either way, it didn't eat the exuvia.
 

Ceymann

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I have seen T's "eat" their own moults before, so not terribly surprising. I agree with EulersK though, probably just salvaging moisture from it, or trying to at least.
 

Sixsixsarah

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Thanks for your responses guys. It was for sure took in all the molted skin of the cricket as there are no remains to be seen anymore. though definitely one of the weirdest things I have seen a T do.
 
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cold blood

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I have seen T's "eat" their own moults before, so not terribly surprising. I agree with EulersK though, probably just salvaging moisture from it, or trying to at least.
They don't eat them, tear them up, manipulate them, yes, but there's nothing there that a t could consume...as @EulersK mentioned.
 

Ceymann

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They don't eat them, tear them up, manipulate them, yes, but there's nothing there that a t could consume...as @EulersK mentioned.
Hence why I put "eat" in quotations in my original post, I know they are incapable of actually consuming a shed.
vvvvvvvvvThe OP you are referring to, read it a bit more carefully vvvvvvvvvvvv
I have seen T's "eat" their own moults before, so not terribly surprising. I agree with EulersK though, probably just salvaging moisture from it, or trying to at least.
 
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Sixsixsarah

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I understand what you guys mean but the molt went in the tarantula same way as it always eats and I thought that was strange is why I asked about it.
 

EulersK

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I understand what you guys mean but the molt went in the tarantula same way as it always eats and I thought that was strange is why I asked about it.
It's the same as a dog picking up a toy with its mouth. Sure, they eat with their mouth, but they're not eating the toy.

They're physically incapable of eating solid foods, as they only have a sucking stomach. No mandibles. It would be like you climbing glass - you simply don't have the capability.
 

cold blood

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Hence why I put "eat" in quotations in my original post, I know they are incapable of actually consuming a shed.
vvvvvvvvvThe OP you are referring to, read it a bit more carefully vvvvvvvvvvvv
Same thing applies to either a t molt or a cricket molt.
 

Ceymann

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I have seen T's "eat" their own moults before, so not terribly surprising. I agree with EulersK though, probably just salvaging moisture from it, or trying to at least.
Same thing applies to either a t molt or a cricket molt.
I agree with you there as well, not possible for a T to consume chitin based exoskeletons of inverts, including their own. Just saying I have witnessed them "eat" AKA chew on them, predictably to drink residual moisture from them. I think we have been on the same page the whole time , maybe you were just misunderstanding me
 

Sixsixsarah

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Then possibly it was grounded up into little bits or came out other end in a ball because the molt is non existent after the t was done with it.
 

shining

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Then possibly it was grounded up into little bits or came out other end in a ball because the molt is non existent after the t was done with it.
Your tarantula shoved it into the event horizon of the black hole it created with it's forbidden dark pedipalp jutsu.
 

AphonopelmaTX

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I'm so lost on the reasoning and logic in the replies here so I will reply generally instead of quoting everything. Although it is true spiders can only consume liquid, they are more than capable of consuming solid food by the regurgitation of the digestive fluid onto prey by the sucking stomach which breaks it down into a liquid. Tarantulas grind up their prey by mashing its food up against the cheliceral teeth on the underside of the chelicerae with their fangs. This mastication, or chewing if you will, combined with the digestive fluid regurgitated onto the prey allows it to break down the tough chitinous cuticle. Of course tarantulas can't digest every part of its prey. Mostly this is the hard sceloritized bits of the exocuticle and makes up what the bolus is. Depending on what a tarantula eats, the bolus can be quite large. If a tarantula consumes a scorpion or beetle for instance, the amount of undigestible matter would be greater than soft bodied crickets where their is less sceloritized cuticle.

A tarantula is perfectly capable of consuming the molt of a cricket. As to why it would I don't know, but it certainly wouldn't be harmful.
 
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