Tong feeding :)

[Arthroverts]

This seems to becoming another circular argument, where neither side will be swayed as @Arachnid Addicted put it. I think, if tong feeding truly is as dangerous as it is said to be, we will be hearing about a broken fang from @Venom1080 or Arachnid Addicted (or someone else who tong feeds). If it isn't however, we won't hear anything more about it. Both are competent keepers, and so if a fang is broken by careful, methodical tong feeding, we will know that tong feeding isn't a good idea (as by golly I'm sure there are people who have tong fed who shouldn't have, and ended up with a broken fang by doing something they shouldn't have).

Time will tell. Wait and see.

Thanks,

Arthroverts

 

[Venom1080]

If someone tells you dont drink and drive....that's not enough? The person telling you has to have DWIs and accidents to have an opinion?

This sites general consensus is smart enough to never START with bad habits

Most good owners here have enough substrate in their tanks....and not because they lost a T to a fall. Because they know better from hearing about all the problems it can cause not to.

Same with sharp/heavy objects.

Same with way too large tanks for slings.

Same with feeding way oversized prey.

And the list goes on...

I dont think thats a fair comparison at all. Theres tons of evidence for drinking and driving being a stupid thing to do. Not so with tong feeding. Essentially all im seeing is the majority of this site is against it because of being stuck in the traditions passed down by the more experienced. Not because of actual evidence. In other words, its a bad habit because X and Y said so, not because theyve (majority of keepers here) have actually done it and gotten experienced with it.

 

[Venom1080]

How to:

 

[corydalis]

Well, I used to see some tong lurking around, but honestly, I've never dared to feed them.

 

[MBArachnids]

I dont think thats a fair comparison at all. Theres tons of evidence for drinking and driving being a stupid thing to do. Not so with tong feeding. Essentially all im seeing is the majority of this site is against it because of being stuck in the traditions passed down by the more experienced. Not because of actual evidence. In other words, its a bad habit because X and Y said so, not because theyve (majority of keepers here) have actually done it and gotten experienced with it.

Because the boards are a popularity contest and not conforming to everyone's ideas will make you a bad keeper

 

[Arthroverts]

Because the boards are a popularity contest and not conforming to everyone's ideas will make you a bad keeper

Arachnoboards conspiracy theory alert! Awooga, Awooga!

That said...are you being serious or...?

Thanks,

Arthroverts

 

[EpicEpic]

Arachnoboards conspiracy theory alert! Awooga, Awooga!

That said...are you being serious or...?

Thanks,

Arthroverts

Who makes a POLL....gets incredibly disproportionate #'s.....just to disregard them?

 

[MBArachnids]

Arachnoboards conspiracy theory alert! Awooga, Awooga!

That said...are you being serious or...?

Thanks,

Arthroverts

Hahahaha nope it was merely a joke

That being said, you do get people who just blindly believe whatever a person with a tag like old timer or arachnolord or w/e says.

Who makes a POLL....gets incredibly disproportionate #'s.....just to disregard them?

16 to 32 is incredibly disproportionate?

I didn't make the poll but I can tell that most people disregarded his situation and just polled no.

Anyways I have full confidence in @Venom1080 and like was said this is going nowhere.

Happy keeping

 

[EpicEpic]

Hahahaha nope it was merely a joke

That being said, you do get people who just blindly believe whatever a person with a tag like old timer or arachnolord or w/e says.



16 to 32 is incredibly disproportionate?

I didn't make the poll but I can tell that most people disregarded his situation and just polled no.

Anyways I have full confidence in @Venom1080 and like was said this is going nowhere.

Happy keeping

2 to 1? Yes. A landslide.

You can tell that most people disregarded his situation and just polled NO? first off you mean YES, and 2nd of all what are you a mindreader?!

That's like me saying everyone who voted NO is just another person with the same bad habit. But I am no mindreader like you.

This thread went plenty far. It proved that the best arachno site in the planet thinks tong feeding is a bad habit. The POINT of the poll.

Go on Facebook. Youll get more first hand broken fang stories then your little heart can handle. People are just way too smart/experienced on here!

 

[MBArachnids]

2 to 1? Yes. A landslide.

You can tell that most people disregarded his situation and just polled NO? first off you mean YES, and 2nd of all what are you a mindreader?!

That's like me saying everyone who voted NO is just another person with the same bad habit. But I am no mindreader like you.

This thread went plenty far. It proved that the best arachno site in the planet thinks tong feeding is a bad habit. The POINT of the poll.

Go on Facebook. Youll get more first hand broken fang stories then your little heart can handle. People are just way too smart/experienced on here!

Oh apologies that I mistakenly used No instead of Yes, but clearly you making fun of the fact that I made a typo and pointing it out to that degree shows you are clearly a person who gets really offended when people challenge your ideas and opinions.

Luckily that doesn't upset me too much because English is my 3rd language, typos happen to me a lot

To your point, no I am not a mind reader*. I read the replies and the people who answered negatively used examples that had no relevance to his situation, some people are trying to put themselves in his shoes but obviously there are those who are just outright against it.

Would be really cool to see who voted what, since I know at least 5 really high ranking people on here voted No. Would be quite funny if peons voted Yes more so than peons voting No, but I guess the quality and experience of voters can't be taken into account. You will just assume the best and the brightest of the boards voted Yes

 

[EpicEpic]

Oh apologies that I mistakenly used No instead of Yes, but clearly you making fun of the fact that I made a typo and pointing it out to that degree shows you are clearly a person who gets really offended when people challenge your ideas and opinions.

Luckily that doesn't upset me too much because English is my 3rd language, typos happen to me a lot

To your point, no I am not a mind reader*. I read the replies and the people who answered negatively used examples that had no relevance to his situation, some people are trying to put themselves in his shoes but obviously there are those who are just outright against it.

Would be really cool to see who voted what, since I know at least 5 really high ranking people on here voted No. Would be quite funny if peons voted Yes more so than peons voting No, but I guess the quality and experience of voters can't be taken into account. You will just assume the best and the brightest of the boards voted Yes

@moricollins
@viper69
@DaveM (A brilliant scientist)

Quite possibly the most respected and helpful owners on this site nevermind this thread.

ALL voted YES and/or fully explained WHY its a bad idea.

Who the heck are YOU comparing to THEM?!

 

[TheDarkFinder]

That being said, you do get people who just blindly believe whatever a person with a tag like old timer or arachnolord or w/e says.

Advice. Us Oldtimers have seen enough and done enough to know know better.

I used to tong feed. Then one morning opened a P. regalis cage, tong fed her a cricket. She teleported up the tongs, onto my arm, to my shoulder and onto my eye, where she then did a perfect poke pose in the cup of my eye with her fangs right above my eye. I got lucky. !.) She was a sweet as the day is long. 2.) My wife was home. My wife simply pushed her into a cup and replaced her back into her home. I got lucky.

As for tong feeding, it is not necessary.

If you are worried about feeders in the cage, get a bowl. There are a ton of escape proof bowls. I honestly don't think a tarantula would bite down on metal hard enough to break a fang. And as I wrote it, I also know that any argument from incredulity is flawed. Just because something has not happen and I think could not happen, does not mean it will not happen.

So, reasons to tong feed.

1.) It can get the old blood pressure up.

Reasons not to tong feed.
1.) Get a bowl.
2.)Can harm animal
3.) Makes it harder to clean cage.
4.) Creates a system in which any distraction might end up going wrong. Very wrong. You become complacent.

 

[EpicEpic]

Advice. Us Oldtimers have seen enough and done enough to know know better.

I used to tong feed. Then one morning opened a P. regalis cage, tong fed her a cricket. She teleported up the tongs, onto my arm, to my shoulder and onto my eye, where she then did a perfect poke pose in the cup of my eye with her fangs right above my eye. I got lucky. !.) She was a sweet as the day is long. 2.) My wife was home. My wife simply pushed her into a cup and replaced her back into her home. I got lucky.

As for tong feeding, it is not necessary.

If you are worried about feeders in the cage, get a bowl. There are a ton of escape proof bowls. I honestly don't think a tarantula would bite down on metal hard enough to break a fang. And as I wrote it, I also know that any argument from incredulity is flawed. Just because something has not happen and I think could not happen, does not mean it will not happen.

So, reasons to tong feed.

1.) It can get the old blood pressure up.

Reasons not to tong feed.
1.) Get a bowl.
2.)Can harm animal
3.) Makes it harder to clean cage.
4.) Creates a system in which any distraction might end up going wrong. Very wrong. You become complacent.

Thank you @TheDarkFinder You have joined the long list of most experienced keepers who not only agree its a horrible habit but have gave in depth info on why.

Something the people voting NO--have not really done!

Actually--they CAN'T do...your points are indisputable.

 

[MBArachnids]

Advice. Us Oldtimers have seen enough and done enough to know know better.

I used to tong feed. Then one morning opened a P. regalis cage, tong fed her a cricket. She teleported up the tongs, onto my arm, to my shoulder and onto my eye, where she then did a perfect poke pose in the cup of my eye with her fangs right above my eye. I got lucky. !.) She was a sweet as the day is long. 2.) My wife was home. My wife simply pushed her into a cup and replaced her back into her home. I got lucky.

As for tong feeding, it is not necessary.

If you are worried about feeders in the cage, get a bowl. There are a ton of escape proof bowls. I honestly don't think a tarantula would bite down on metal hard enough to break a fang. And as I wrote it, I also know that any argument from incredulity is flawed. Just because something has not happen and I think could not happen, does not mean it will not happen.

So, reasons to tong feed.

1.) It can get the old blood pressure up.

Reasons not to tong feed.
1.) Get a bowl.
2.)Can harm animal
3.) Makes it harder to clean cage.
4.) Creates a system in which any distraction might end up going wrong. Very wrong. You become complacent.

This is more helpful than 2 pages of arguing.

I did not even think of using an escape proof bowl nor have I ever seen anybody using one but it sounds like the solution to the entire debate to be honest.

Could you maybe post a picture of the bowl you are using? Do you glue it to the top of the enclosure for arboreals?

Thank you @TheDarkFinder You have joined the long list of most experienced keepers who not only agree its a horrible habit but have gave in depth info on why.

Something the people voting NO--have not really done!

Exactly, came on here with a solution instead of just saying : "It's bad."

I should start a new thread on maintenance and if tongs are bad there as well

 

[EpicEpic]

Exactly, came on here with a solution instead of just saying : "It's bad."

So did the 3 brilliant members I named earlier.

The only people coming here without good reasoning are those voting "No".....read @viper69 @moricollins @DaveM comments. They all gave great indisputable reasons very early in this thread on why its bad! It should have ended there.

If you don't trust scientists and people in the hobby longer than you've been alive (and possibly the 3 most respected people on this board)...i don't have anything else to tell you.

 

[MBArachnids]

So did the 3 brilliant members I named earlier.

The only people coming here without good reasoning are those voting "No".....read @viper69 @moricollins @DaveM comments. They all gave great indisputable reasons very early in this thread on why its bad! It should have ended there.

So they had the solution of using escape proof bowls or any other solution for the scenario @Venom1080 found himself in and didn't just clarify why they thought it was bad?

Anyways as always you are right Enjoy the day bud

 

[Arachnid Addicted]

I dont think thats a fair comparison at all. Theres tons of evidence for drinking and driving being a stupid thing to do. Not so with tong feeding. Essentially all im seeing is the majority of this site is against it because of being stuck in the traditions passed down by the more experienced. Not because of actual evidence. In other words, its

Advice. Us Oldtimers have seen enough and done enough to know know better.

I used to tong feed. Then one morning opened a P. regalis cage, tong fed her a cricket. She teleported up the tongs, onto my arm, to my shoulder and onto my eye, where she then did a perfect poke pose in the cup of my eye with her fangs right above my eye. I got lucky. !.) She was a sweet as the day is long. 2.) My wife was home. My wife simply pushed her into a cup and replaced her back into her home. I got lucky.

As for tong feeding, it is not necessary.

If you are worried about feeders in the cage, get a bowl. There are a ton of escape proof bowls. I honestly don't think a tarantula would bite down on metal hard enough to break a fang. And as I wrote it, I also know that any argument from incredulity is flawed. Just because something has not happen and I think could not happen, does not mean it will not happen.

So, reasons to tong feed.

1.) It can get the old blood pressure up.

Reasons not to tong feed.
1.) Get a bowl.
2.)Can harm animal
3.) Makes it harder to clean cage.
4.) Creates a system in which any distraction might end up going wrong. Very wrong. You become complacent.

Got your points, truly understood your reasons, but respectfully disagree.

I believe one has to be very careless to harm a tarantula with "unshaped" tongs.

What happened to you was really unfortunately and yes, you got lucky, but really, I've seen worse with a couple of guys who weren't tong feeding so, it can happen in other situations too but I understand you were pointing out the issue in here.

Again, one has to be very careless to become complacent.

I think in some cases here, what separate old timers is just a "label ranking", like you said "us oldtimers". For that matter, when or if, someday, I get the old timer ranking plus the ages I've already been in this hobby, then it will give me credit to also say "us oldtimers passed through a lot, and never had an accident tong feeding". You know what I mean?

Sorry, I may be speaking only by myself (and maybe some other old timers I know that have been doing it for years too), but I really do believe one has to be very, very, very unaware to cause so many accidents by doing something, theoretically, simple.

Lastly, and to be clear, I'm not saying you were careless and unaware, ok? Hope you dont take this personal cause this is not my intention at all.

 

[EpicEpic]

So they had the solution of using escape proof bowls or any other solution for the scenario @Venom1080 found himself in and didn't just clarify why they thought it was bad?

Anyways as always you are right Enjoy the day bud

Spiders don't need bowls! They are avid hunters! Tong feeding is extremely uneccessary!

Again.

Moderator @Ungoliant Gave his reasons.

Scientist @DaveM Gave his

@moricollins gave his and provides multiple threads

@viper69 Gave his reasoning

In the end, a bunch of different reasons by guys who would easily be voted as top 10 most helpful/experts on this board!

And you think they're ALL wrong?

The reasons they gave can not be disputed.

Case closed. Its not about me being right. Its about the backbone of this website being right.

Better chance an asteroid smashes my home tonight then all 4 of those experts being wrong!

You're from Africa, not exactly a hotbed for tarantula keeping to say the least, and are Very new here. When you realize who said what in this thread and who those people actually are....you'll understand better. Til then.

Also, I dont know why you find the need to reply to almost all my posts. Getting creepy.

 

[MBArachnids]

Spiders don't need bowls! They are avid hunters! Tong feeding is extremely uneccessary!

Again.

Moderator @Ungoliant Gave his reasons.

Scientist @DaveM Gave his

@moricollins gave his and provides multiple threads

@viper69 Gave his reasoning

In the end, a bunch of different reasons by guys who would easily be voted as top 10 most helpful/experts on this board!

And you think they're ALL wrong?

The reasons they gave can not be disputed.

Case closed. Its not about me being right. Its about the backbone of this website being right.

Better chance an asteroid smashes my home tonight then all 4 of those experts being wrong!

You're from Africa, not exactly a hotbed for tarantula keeping to say the least, and are Very new here. When you realize who said what in this thread and who those people actually are....you'll understand better. Til then.

Also, I dont know why you find the need to reply to almost all my posts. Getting creepy.

My very unpopular opinion would be that depending on your enclosure you should tong feed. I would suggest tong feeding with soft rubber tipped tongs. (Mid size tongs, long enough so if the T misses it isn't close to you and short enough that you still have decent control of it)

My reason being...If you are limited to super worms then the chance of you dropping it in there, the worm starts digging and disappears 100% of the time, unless the T is close to the bottom. Now to most of you that might not be a problem dig it out, try again etc. but if you have arboreal enclosures like mine then digging that bugger out is going to be a very very stressful experience. I have cork bark, landscaping at the back and pothos plants in almost all enclosures. I have had 2 instances of the worms digging and I left them thinking the T would dig them up, they were beetles before long and my T did not eat it at all. Upon picking it up you can smell a really pungent odor coming from the beetle that deters the T i presume.

My opinion is purely based on your circumstance as I have the luxury of feeding roaches and locusts.

Maybe the language barrier or something is causing confusion.

I am fully aware who they are, I was following the boards for quite some time and joined before you did actually. I never said they are wrong, nor did I say their reasoning was not sound or their experiences does not count. I merely said for the scenario placed before me at the time I would lean towards what he is currently doing. Again my opinion.

What is your take on maintenance with tongs, since the chances of ALL the above mentioned is present when doing maintenance as well? I would really like to your YOUR opinion on it and not just the seasoned keepers

It's actually not the case that I am replying to all your posts, I just happen to look under new content as do you and I tend to disagree with you..

 

[EpicEpic]

Maybe the language barrier or something is causing confusion.

I am fully aware who they are, I was following the boards for quite some time and joined before you did actually. I never said they are wrong, nor did I say their reasoning was not sound or their experiences does not count. I merely said for the scenario placed before me at the time I would lean towards what he is currently doing. Again my opinion.

What is your take on maintenance with tongs, since the chances of ALL the above mentioned is present when doing maintenance as well? I would really like to your YOUR opinion on it and not just the seasoned keepers

It's actually not the case that I am replying to all your posts, I just happen to look under new content as do you and I tend to disagree with you..Like blasting a 13 year old kid.

Having a wiggling worm and holding it with a piece of metal until a spider attacks it is not going to illcit the same response as cleaning a tank with a tong. Is that a joke?

Spiders dont get tong fed in the wild. They sure as heck don't need to be in a small enclosure.

Case closed.