Tricky Feeding

[veronyka]

Does anyone have any feeding tricks or ideas for a.versicolor? Mine's a .75" sling and she is FAST! I have resorted to putting her, container and all, into a ziplock bag (with holes punched for air) and then opening it. That's the only way I can feed her so far, because the second I take the lid off her container, she's outta there! So I have to carefully put her back into the container, close the lid, then remove the sandwich bag. I hate doing this, tho, since I don't think my babies need to be inside sandwich bags, but if anyone can offer me some other ideas.. I would really appreciate it. (Not to mention it's more tricky when you consider the stubbornness of the cricket, and getting it in there with the sling )

 

[Phillip]

feeding answer...

Veronyka
Try when you crack the lid don't take it off but gently blow in it on the sling. Usually you can get them to run towards the bottom of the container to escape the wind then you can gently take off the lid and drop in a cricket. Aslo when you mist mist the side away from the sling and it wont be as prone to bolt away. This works real good with pokes as well. hope that helps ya some.
Phil

 

[veronyka]

Hmmm.. well I have never tried blowing on the sling..but when I open the cover, she makes the rounds and runs all over the sides, and even though I open the side opposite her, she runs to the side that I open. I'm still not sure I could keep the lid open long enough for her not to get out.
But... I do what you said for water, except I use a dropper to get some drops on the sides, opposite where she is. I don't want to get her wet but I don't want to lose her either :}

 

[Kenny]

Feeding..)

Hi..)

I have a 3/4' Versicolor in a the second smallest size of the Pet pal containers and it's kinda "big" for the s'ling , but it's been feeding well and has molted once.

What I have done is to put a peice of driftwood towards one of the corners of the cage and my s'ling Versicolor has built/webbed 2 openings,,one straight up and one 90 degrees to the right of the wood so the only thing I really do is to "drop" the cricket into the top openeing of her web and if she want to eat she goes for it directly , if not,, there is a cricket in the morning a live..)

S/he once even took the cricket right even before I dropped in there.

Her molt was even more strange, she went from 1/2' to 3/4': S/he started to refuse food and after 2 weeks of none eating there was suddenly a peice of "second" versicolor on the ground below the her web. That's how I discovered her molt.

Now s'/es "happy" and sitting there with her front legs showing in the top opening of the web.... waiting,,feeding time???..)

I think you can get your versicolor to feed pretty easy.

Kenny

 

[Kenny]

Sorry for my wrong smileys

Hi..

Sorry for my wrong expression smileys,,I tried to do really smileys but something went wrong...

Kenny

 

[veronyka]

Hmmm.. a pet pal would be easier but at this point I'm just afraid she will bolt for it. She's tiny right now and I think the openings are just too big. Right now she's in the jar I bought her in. It's plenty big enough and has holes punched in the top. The problem is, she's always ON the lid. I want to change her container and find one with a door but the problem is finding one with holes that arent too big.
She's tiny and FAST.

 

[Wade]

A couple things you could try...

Add some structure (small bits of cork bark, a section of fake plant, etc) in the bottom half of the jar. this might encourage the sling to start building a shelter there, and not hang out on the top so much.

Also, you could create an "upside down" cage using a container with a deep lid...some people use those clear plastic "beanie baby" display boxes to do this. You can turn it upside down, put substrate in the lid. If the spider runs to the top, it won't matter because that's not where you open it.

Annother method is to use 2 deli cups, one of which you cut the bottom off. This cup nests in the other cup. Ventilate through the lid of the top cup, but don't remove the lid when the spider is in there. The bottom cup has no lid (the other cup will be the lid), but it will hold substrate. To open for feeding, lift the top (botomless) cup from the other and drop in a cricket, and then replace. This has worked well for me for many fast spiders including huntsmen that make avics look like snails! I also use it for mantids.

I hope my descriptions here can be understood. The cocepts are simple, but describing them in words makes them sound more complicated than they are!

Wade

 

[Gail]

I had a similar problem with one of my versicolors (appropriately named Racer). The little devil also would not use any of the cage furniture that I gave it to build it's tube web - no matter how many times I tore it up it still built at the top of the container. So in exasperation I finally took a piece of that crafters plastic canvas, cut it into a half circle and hot glued it to the top of the plastic container, just under where the lid snapped on. In essence I now had a container where only 1/2 of the lid was open even when I opened it, yet the holes in the plastic canvas still allowed for plenty of venilation. The 1" sling immediately started to build a tube web where the canvas and container side met. Now when I open it the spiderling is happily hidden in it's web and never makes a run for it. The idea worked so well that I did it for all of my other aboreals that wanted to spin webs near the top.

Gail

 

[veronyka]

Hmmm... Gail and Wade, I like both of your ideas. I think I'm going to try first Gails idea, since she is in a tube. Then if not, I'll move her to the deli cup. I should call her racer, she's just itching to get outta that tube she's in. It's plenty big enough but she lives on the underside of the lid nonetheless. I'll let ya know if it works