tarantula's weird habit...

[whazzup101]

okay, so i bought two female t's from joe from oasis inverts a little over a month now and i've been seeing this strange habit from the t's he's sent me.
when i feed them, i throw in about five crickets per t container.
an few hours later, i'll come back and see no crickets except this fairly large dirt ball containing halfway digested crickets and dirt?
it's about the size of a quarter in diameter, if not a little wider.
and it's pretty nasty looking, you can see a cricket leg there and its head and abdomen over there and yeah... it almost seems like if someone just chewed on a few crickets with dirt and spit it back out? the two t's are a a.metallica and a seemani.
could someone tell me what it is?
oh and also, i saw the weirdest thing from my rosie today.
basically, on her cage floor, she/he partially webbed the area and created somewhat a mat? and today after i threw in her crickets, she bit down into the ground and ripped out the mat of webbing and just dropped it? it was an interesting behavior because i've never seen anything like it.

any input/help will be appreciated.
thanks!

 

[Stopdroproll]

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=168653&highlight=cricket

 

[Hobo]

It ain't strange (at least for tarantulas)!

The clod of "dirt" is jsut the hard cricket parts it cannot digest. It's called a "food bolus." If you're lucky, they won't drop em in the water dish!

The web mat is a feeding mat. Typically when tarantulas catch prey, they will go around in circles laying down a mat of webbing, and will sometimes drop the prey item and lay the web over it as well. Then when they pick it up, it looks like they are pulling the whole mat up with it.

So, it's just typical tarantula feeding behavior, but it never gets old!

 

[spiderfield]

Ditto, normal feeding behavior. As a comparison, which, i'm sure some people here can attest to, its like chewing on sugar cane. You take a strip, chew on it, suck on the sweet stuff, and then spit out the undigestable (cellulose) stuff. :}

 

[Jackuul]

when i feed them, i throw in about five crickets per t container.

Red Flag!

That's way too much unless you are power feeding them.

 

[NateTheGreat]

Red Flag!

That's way too much unless you are power feeding them.

Not necessarily. That would depend on the size of the Ts, the size of crickets, and how often he is feeding them, would it not?

 

[Jackuul]

Not necessarily. That would depend on the size of the Ts, the size of crickets, and how often he is feeding them, would it not?

He stated he observed weird behavior from his rosea, and thus I connected the dot that he was feeding rosea.

 

[paul fleming]

My large klugi will take 4 or 5 at a time....and chew them all up together.
It's nuts watching them chase a crix with 3 already in it's mouth/fangs

 

[Ariel]

He stated he observed weird behavior from his rosea, and thus I connected the dot that he was feeding rosea.

He didn't say rosea. He stated he had an A. metallica and an A. semanni

 

[Jackuul]

He didn't say rosea. He stated he had an A. metallica and an A. semanni

He also stated he had a rosea, and thus I explained my disconnect. It's difficult for me to follow a post when it is fragmented and does not have a flow from one line to the next.

 

[Placeboani2]

My A.Avic makes these "Cricket balls" and hangs them from her web haha. My G.Rosea's crickets dissapear completely!?

 

[Dusan1992]

I've fed my L.parahybana with grasshopers and I never found a leg, head, wing. Nothing! But there is a, what you call bolus, from Blatta lateralis. Is there an explanation for this, and is it odd, 'cos I have tarantulas for about a 2 months?