Tips for removing live feed

Kate24

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jun 25, 2020
Messages
13
Hi all, I'm looking for some help.

I fed my B. Emilia a cricket yesterday morning and she hasn't shown any interest in eating it. Im not concerned about this as she is looking lovely and plump and I imagine she will be molting soon. My problem is how to remove the cricket from her enclosure as it has set up camp deep in my T's tunnel/burrow area. My T has been hanging out midway down the tunnel, so I need to somehow reach down past the T (who has never been handled or poked around much at all so I'm not sure how she will react to this) and remove the cricket without disrupting the T or her tunnel too much. I will try to attach a picture to show how everything is positioned (red dot shows entrance to tunnel, yellow dot shows where T is, blue dot is cricket - sorry for rubbish quality pic, everything in my living room is too reflective!)

I also don't have any long feeding tongs anymore and just flick the food in, which means that I am very ill-equipped for this scenario. The cricket has now been in there for around 32 hours so I am keen to get it out soon as I am aware it is risky to leave them for very long.

What would you do? Any tips welcome as she has never refused food before so this is new. (I have only had her for 1 year) Thank you!
 

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vicareux

A. geniculata worship cult member
Joined
Mar 14, 2020
Messages
496
You have a few options there,which might not hurt to try.
1: Place a piece of food that the cricket loves to eat on the surface and hope it will be drawn to it and appear out.
2: Laser pointer. This usually works flawlessly with stubborn dubias,but it might work with a crix. Shine a laser pointer in its eye to get it moving,and hope it will start escaping in the direction of the exit of the burrow.
3: Get the spider out,get the cricket out (And probably destroy burrow in the process). If the spider decides to molt,cricket's presence can be fatal. You don't have much options sadly

Next time avoid tossing the feeder into the burrow. This is the way i do it to see if a burrowing/web tunnel spider has any food interest:
I use a long string of dried grass/long soft paintbrush and gently brush the opening of the burrow/tunnel to simulate a prey movement. If the spider chases after it and shows interest,it's good to feed. If it shows no interest in it,i will not risk having a feeder in its enclosure.
Hope it works out for you. Cheers!
 

Kate24

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jun 25, 2020
Messages
13
You have a few options there,which might not hurt to try.
1: Place a piece of food that the cricket loves to eat on the surface and hope it will be drawn to it and appear out.
2: Laser pointer. This usually works flawlessly with stubborn dubias,but it might work with a crix. Shine a laser pointer in its eye to get it moving,and hope it will start escaping in the direction of the exit of the burrow.
3: Get the spider out,get the cricket out (And probably destroy burrow in the process). If the spider decides to molt,cricket's presence can be fatal. You don't have much options sadly

Next time avoid tossing the feeder into the burrow. This is the way i do it to see if a burrowing/web tunnel spider has any food interest:
I use a long string of dried grass/long soft paintbrush and gently brush the opening of the burrow/tunnel to simulate a prey movement. If the spider chases after it and shows interest,it's good to feed. If it shows no interest in it,i will not risk having a feeder in its enclosure.
Hope it works out for you. Cheers!
Thank you, this is really helpful and much appreciated. I will try all of those options.
I flicked the cricket onto the top surface of the substrate when I put it in but it made its way down into the tunnel unfortunately 😩
Thanks for the paintbrush tip - thats really handy and will try it in future.
Thanks again 😊
 

Kate24

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jun 25, 2020
Messages
13
this is why you should crush the heads of the crickets. GL removing it.
I have heard of people doing this but I thought there were benefits to the T catching their own live food? It is definitely something I will consider in future though, depending on how traumatic this removal is! 😩

Can I ask-a few questions about it - where do you crush them? - in the feed container, or once they are in the T's enclosure, or on some other kind of surface? And is it gory and disgusting? And what implement do you use for crushing?
 

Edan bandoot

Arachnoprince
Joined
Sep 5, 2019
Messages
1,602
I have heard of people doing this but I thought there were benefits to the T catching their own live food? It is definitely something I will consider in future though, depending on how traumatic this removal is! 😩

Can I ask-a few questions about it - where do you crush them? - in the feed container, or once they are in the T's enclosure, or on some other kind of surface? And is it gory and disgusting? And what implement do you use for crushing?
when i grab them with the tweezer i try to grab the head, if i miss i just mush their head against the side of the container. There should be no blood or guts when you do this. I've found that the crickets nervous system is more in the "neck" of the cricket instead of the head.

if you only crush the mandibles/head and keep some of the nervous system the cricket will move/twitch (depending how you do it) and the spider will still get to "hunt" and feed on live prey.
 

Kate24

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jun 25, 2020
Messages
13
when i grab them with the tweezer i try to grab the head, if i miss i just mush their head against the side of the container. There should be no blood or guts when you do this. I've found that the crickets nervous system is more in the "neck" of the cricket instead of the head.

if you only crush the mandibles/head and keep some of the nervous system the cricket will move/twitch (depending how you do it) and the spider will still get to "hunt" and feed on live prey.
Thank you for this. Im going to give it a go from now on , to be honest i probably did this to some extent when I was using tweezers, I need to invest in a new pair.
Thanks again 😊
 

Edan bandoot

Arachnoprince
Joined
Sep 5, 2019
Messages
1,602
Thank you for this. Im going to give it a go from now on , to be honest i probably did this to some extent when I was using tweezers, I need to invest in a new pair.
Thanks again 😊
with this method you still might get crickets in the burrow, but you wont have to remove them since they wont have working mouthparts.
good luck with ya spida
 

Kate24

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jun 25, 2020
Messages
13
Update:
I tried putting in half a grape to lyre the cricket out but this just fell down into the tunnel too 🤦‍♀️
My T decided to move up to the surface so i took the opportunity to use a pencil to scoop out the cricket and grape from the corner opposite the tunnel entrance. Caused some damage to the tunnel but most importantly no damage or obvious stress to the T. Hopefully she just rebuilds the tunnel and isn't too bothered about this.

Thanks for all of your help and tips 😊
 

xXTristinaXx

Arachnobaron
Joined
May 21, 2019
Messages
376
I have heard of people doing this but I thought there were benefits to the T catching their own live food? It is definitely something I will consider in future though, depending on how traumatic this removal is! 😩

Can I ask-a few questions about it - where do you crush them? - in the feed container, or once they are in the T's enclosure, or on some other kind of surface? And is it gory and disgusting? And what implement do you use for crushing?
It doesn't completely stop moving, I do this with dubias and sometimes hours on end it still moves and twitches. Also, you can just use tweezers and hold onto the prey
 

Almadabes

Arachnoknight
Joined
Sep 20, 2020
Messages
163
I have heard of people doing this but I thought there were benefits to the T catching their own live food? It is definitely something I will consider in future though, depending on how traumatic this removal is! 😩
The only benefit i can think of would be simulating their natural environment where the prey has a chance of getting away.
As they are ambush predators, "hunting" is pretty much 1 leap, maybe a chase if they're really hungry.

If I drop a bug that has had its head crushed, the T will jump on it just the same.
Its not gonna know or care that its head has been crushed.

I only crush heads when I'm uncertain about their appetite or if I'm feeding dubia roaches.

If I know its hungry, and I have crickets - I'll just dump em in.

but by doing it when your uncertain - you save yourself a big headache.

If he eats it, he gets another meal.
If he doesn't, well at least he is not in any danger!
 

CommanderBacon

Arachnobaron
Joined
May 21, 2018
Messages
498
I hope you get some long tongs for next time. I'm glad it worked out, though!

When I'm feeding live prey and I'm not certain if the T will eat, or it's a bit on the fat side, I will watch them until they eat. If they encounter the prey item and don't immediately eat it, I will pull it out.

Prekilling is NBD. Spiders will scavenge, especially slings. It's more important to me to keep slings safe than to pretend that I'm stimulating their prey drive by feeding them live. They've survived millions of years knowing how to eat whatever they come across. I'm not going to undo that by giving them a cricket with a squished head.
 

viper69

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 8, 2006
Messages
17,851
Hi all, I'm looking for some help.

I fed my B. Emilia a cricket yesterday morning and she hasn't shown any interest in eating it. Im not concerned about this as she is looking lovely and plump and I imagine she will be molting soon. My problem is how to remove the cricket from her enclosure as it has set up camp deep in my T's tunnel/burrow area. My T has been hanging out midway down the tunnel, so I need to somehow reach down past the T (who has never been handled or poked around much at all so I'm not sure how she will react to this) and remove the cricket without disrupting the T or her tunnel too much. I will try to attach a picture to show how everything is positioned (red dot shows entrance to tunnel, yellow dot shows where T is, blue dot is cricket - sorry for rubbish quality pic, everything in my living room is too reflective!)

I also don't have any long feeding tongs anymore and just flick the food in, which means that I am very ill-equipped for this scenario. The cricket has now been in there for around 32 hours so I am keen to get it out soon as I am aware it is risky to leave them for very long.

What would you do? Any tips welcome as she has never refused food before so this is new. (I have only had her for 1 year) Thank you!
For now I wouldn't worry unless it goes to molt. Otherwise your T will kill it if it feels threatened. I've left crix in for 2 weeks or more with several species of Ts of many sizes.

Also, you can just use tweezers and hold onto the prey
This is a dumb idea, it's risky for the T.
 

The Grym Reaper

Arachnoreaper
Joined
Jul 19, 2016
Messages
4,835
Also, you can just use tweezers and hold onto the prey
As a few other people have said, don't do this. Not only is there the risk of the tarantula breaking a fang on the tweezers (pretty rare but it happens) but they can quite easily run up the tweezers and onto you (much more common, also speaking from personal experience).
 
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