Use of Tongs

basin79

basin79

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I never use tongs/forceps/tweezers to feed. If the T is hungry it'll find the prey item.
 
Rob1985

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I've had it happen before. To prevent this in cases of feeding, I drop the prey instead of dangling it over the T.

I had a juvy pokie to this do me years ago, really caught me off guard. Before I knew it she was on my opposite shoulder. Luckily she calmed down after that and I was able to to get her to jump off my shoulder to a catch cup. Still nerve-racking!
 
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Andrea82

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@Jeff23 , my P.pulchers are ~10cm DLS, so also juvies. Maybe I was just lucky that they chose to burrow slightly and extending the webbing all around. But I keep them larger than necessary to avoid your situation, especially since one of them hates my guts for even breathing wrong :D
@KezyGLA how do you get the feeders in the enclosure if not with tongs? There's no way I am throwing S.lateralis or locusts in with bare hands :eek:
 
KezyGLA

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Andrea82 said:
@Jeff23 , my P.pulchers are ~10cm DLS, so also juvies. Maybe I was just lucky that they chose to burrow slightly and extending the webbing all around. But I keep them larger than necessary to avoid your situation, especially since one of them hates my guts for even breathing wrong :D
@KezyGLA how do you get the feeders in the enclosure if not with tongs? There's no way I am throwing S.lateralis or locusts in with bare hands :eek:
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Ah. I should have been a more clear. I use tongs for all but no tong feeding on most.
 
Andrea82

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KezyGLA said:
Ah. I should have been a more clear. I use tongs for all but no tong feeding on most.
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That's a relief :p
Got me worried for a second, lol. Especially with S.lateralis excreting a foul smelling liquid when grabbed. Locusts as well, black goo from their mouthparts, yuk!
 
Jeff23

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The ones I have fed my pulchers with the tongs are pre-kill because a live cricket will make the antenna break in the struggle.

I am planning to rehouse all of my pulcher's on their next molt. So my problem for them will go away soon. But I also have an ongoing situation with a couple Avic's that are on endless premolts where I am wondering if temptation would be beneficial.
 
Andrea82

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Jeff23 said:
The ones I have fed my pulchers with the tongs are pre-kill because a live cricket will make the antenna break in the struggle.

I am planning to rehouse all of my pulcher's on their next molt. So my problem for them will go away soon. But I also have an ongoing situation with a couple Avic's that are on endless premolts where I am wondering if temptation would be beneficial.
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My Avics are fussy eaters as well, though that seems to get better as they grow bigger. Big houseflies or moths work very well and is very entertaining to watch. It also reminds me that even though they are cute and fuzzy, they remain skillful predators with fangs.
Mealworm or said B.lateralis work well here as well, but not as much as flying prey.
 
Trenor

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Jeff23 said:
How often does this occur? The T ran up the tongs past the prey. This appears to be NW instead of OW, but still....


It looks like there was some premature ejection of the prey.:eek: I am now wondering about my plan to make safer tongs. That didn't look safe for the T or user (regardless of whether the T doesn't bite the tongs).

Video is on Dave Scott432's channel.
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IMO that video was just keeper fail. You don't have to drop prey right beside the T for it to eat. It's the same with maintenance. If you need to remove a bolus near where the T is then is then use something else to move the T and then clean. Or better yet come back and in most cases the T will have moved on it's own. If I need to move the T elsewhere I use a straw on a stick (really hard from most Ts to move up) and only do minimum interaction I needed to get the job done. I've never needed to put tongs anywhere near one of my Ts unless I'm moving out enclosure decor during a rehouse. Usually I use extra long forceps for that.

Venom1080 said:
i use long tongs with tips at the end when i tong feed. i tong feed my A avic and rarely my Poecilotheria. tong feeding terrestrials is just silly.
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I feel the same about arboreal Ts and Ts in general. I don't put food in their web, much less tong feed, and they all still easily find prey. They don't have us tong feeding them in the wild and they do fine.

Devin B said:
I use a pair of bamboo tongs because I figure it would be safer for the T it it accidentally bit into it. Alsi i try to drop the prey in to distance the tongs from my T's. Thats my 2 cents on the matter
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They would do better on a bite with bamboo then harder metal but biting into anything can still cause injury. It's best just to place prey where the T isn't able to strike the tongs the start with.


I kinda view tong feeding like I do handling. It's more an excuse for the keeper to play then for any real need. People like to see their Ts jump on the food they just dropped on top of them. To me that's really unnatural. It doesn't seem very often that a T will be bombed with food in the wild. My P.cam likes to come out and get her food. I used put it near the lip of her hide and on occasion while it was wriggling it would drop down the tube. The way she reacted when if did made it clear she didn't like it. Now I place it away from her hide and she comes out and gets it.

They can find their food. I place all my avics food on the sub by the water dish. I drop my terrestrial Ts food right inside the opening by the water dish. I purposely put my trap door Ts food away from the trap door so I can see it when it jumps out to get it. They all find their food without any help from me. Am I always there to see the big hit when they do? Sometimes but not always. All of them eat just fine though.
 
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Bugmom

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I take my feeder roaches (usually lateralis) and put them in a glass bowl. Then I use a small plastic vial to scoop them out one by one. Rarely do I need to use tongs anymore for feeding, unless I'm trying to remove a roach from an enclosure.
 
Jeff23

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Bugmom said:
I take my feeder roaches (usually lateralis) and put them in a glass bowl. Then I use a small plastic vial to scoop them out one by one. Rarely do I need to use tongs anymore for feeding, unless I'm trying to remove a roach from an enclosure.
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I use the vial method for all of my full size T's. I have found it funny on how a cricket will go crazy jumping everywhere to avoid you catching them in your hand, but they will crawl right into a vial like it is some escape path.
 
Jerry

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Wow that's all I can say is wow


O PS don't feed with tongs
 
Belegnole

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lol....I use tongs plain old metal tongs.....as a starter point....
 
mistertim

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That's just going to be one of the inherent dangers of tong feeding, including the tarantula potentially breaking a fang. Not really any reason to do it other than because you think it looks cool, or you're trying to impress people in a video as in this case. Is it worth it? IMO no. I just drop prey in.
 
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