WC Feeders

Amelia

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 3, 2007
Messages
198
I have a dilema. I wrecked my truck last week, and am now at the mercy of my parents and their gas-guzzling dually to get me to and from work.

I have five little .5-.75" A. avics.

The "small" crickets at the only pet shop near enough to convince my parents to take me to are way too big for my little Avics. I cannot get to the place I get my tiny crickets from because it is 'too far'. None of my roaches are small enough either.

Would they be alright if I fed them some prey I collected outside? What are the risks? We use no pesticides, herbicides or any other poison on our yard or in or fields. It feels like a bad idea to me, but I am running out of options while waiting on a new vehicle.
 

popcangenie

Arachnosquire
Joined
Aug 6, 2010
Messages
135
:eek::eek:
:eek::eek:
:eek::eek:
NEVER get feeders from out side think about how far then can go in a life time and most of them are gonna have some kinda chemical on them :? u should just get the big ones and kill them cut them and half and stick them in there i do that for my 1 inch's because they never eat a full medium cricket
they will find them at night most of the times


good luck :D
 

Hobo

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Staff member
Joined
Jul 27, 2009
Messages
2,208
Buy the big ones, and pinch off their back, "jumping" legs. They're typically called cricket drumsticks by many keepers. They'll take them, even arboreal species. Just leave em in there before bed, remove any remains in the morning.

DON'T feed WC prey, you'll never know for sure where they've been, what they're carrying, or what they've been exposed to.
 

esotericman

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 15, 2004
Messages
298
Get a mealworm colony going. You can drop the tiny larvae onto the webbing near the animals and they'll usually eat them. This will take you a while to get going, but is cheap and easy to pull off.

WC insects can carry perfectly harmless organisms or viruses which do not harm those animals, but will kill your pets right quick. Think "smallpox".

Good luck. Also, as Warpig (who's Mr. Avic) can attest too, those slings only need to be kept moist with air flow, they do not HAVE to be fed weekly.
 

NikiP

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 16, 2006
Messages
539
I wouldn't even worry about tossing them legs, just toss them a whole or half of a prekilled cricket. My A. hentzi is about 1" & gets whole dead crickets. If just fills up & I remove the left overs.
 

Salamanderhead

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 30, 2009
Messages
410
Just prekill crickets or roaches. They'll scavenge it at that size.
I use to freeze a bag of crickets and just cut peices off for my slings.
 

Terry D

Arachnodemon
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 21, 2009
Messages
733
Prekilled partials or.....................................

Amelia, First off, I don't have any experience with genus Avicularia but that shouldn't make much difference with the problem at hand. I'd try the prekilled/pieces first. If that doesn't work, THEN ONLY IF if you live in an area where pesticides haven't been sprayed, you might try wildcaught tiny grasshoppers or field crickets, etc. I'd research it a little more deeply, though, as some insects are naturally toxic. I do not know if those would be poisonous to the t's. Good luck and hope you find a way to get to your feeder source. :)

Terry
 

ArachnoYak

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 12, 2007
Messages
224
I've used wild caught feeders for years to supplement their diet in the summertime. Never had a problem. How many of us actually know what the big cricket farms feed their crickets anyway? And then what they are fed at the pet store before we get them. Who knows what kind of chemicals they were exposed to during their journey? Diversity of food items = a healthier tarantula. Wild feeders have no equal.


Btw I've got slings that are in those size ranges and you'd be surprised how big of a cricket they will attack. Try leaving your porch lights on for a few hours at night and collect moths. Arboreal Ts love moths and there are plenty of small lepidopterid species that make a great meal for slings.
 

malevolentrobot

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 21, 2010
Messages
310
all of my smaller Ts will eat prekilled/mangled crickets, i'd be surprised that yours don't eventually scavenge the parts you offer. also, if you have other Ts and feel it would be worthwhile maybe you could mail order for some roaches? i was shocked to learn all of my slings will eat appropriate sized dubia nymphs after just offering them one day. granted this was months after getting a gravid female dubia unexpectingly pop out nymphs in my feeder box.

people have also posted about finding WC feeders, and breeding them down a couple generations. i think it was talked about inside of this thread:

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=185810&highlight=feeders
 

cacoseraph

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 5, 2005
Messages
8,325
if you do use frozen feeders you need to watch out for how fast they go bad. freezing causes ice crystals to form and slice up the cells of animals. this lets them rot unbelievably fast. i'm talking they go from normal color to black in 4-6h sometimes!
 

taraction

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
May 18, 2010
Messages
70
don't mean to hijack the thread but i'm wondering if there a way to safely "detox" wc feeders? like a special diet to feed them to get whatever chemicals and junk out of their systems? because there's plenty of grasshoppers near where i live and i would love to treat my t's to them.
 

groovyspider

Arachnoknight
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Messages
255
yep i agree just go get some crickets from you lps mutilate them a little{D and what i would do if you Ts dont seem to find them maybe grab the crickets with some tongs and kinda dangle it in front of the T :drool:
hope i helped -anthony
 

Merfolk

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 13, 2005
Messages
1,323
I have 5 years old Ts that were grownon WC, including frogs and moth. No problem. But I wouldn't feed it to an avic sling, the odds are pretty high that your spider reacts negatively. An adult LP on the other hand... but I 've been lucky
 

Amelia

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 3, 2007
Messages
198
Thank you all so much for the info!

I will refrain from using WC feeders. We use no chemicals of any kind on our farm, the exception being various wormers and vaccinations we give our horses at certain times of the year, but those are few. My parents are very reluctant to spray anything in the house because of my "babies", too, so that helps. But who knows about the neighbors. *shrug* I think I shall heed the advice and mutilate some crickets if I get desparate. I am pretty sure my little ones will survive this time, though. One has even molted. With luck, I will be getting a new truck soon, and will be able to expand my range for feeders.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know what the average range of a cricket would be? Surely they don't travel THAT far.
 

poppaJT

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 10, 2010
Messages
47
I worry about parasites when it comes to wild bugs. But I used to do it... My G. rosea has eaten a lot of WC crickets, a huge grasshopper, and a spider cricket.
 

seanbond

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 14, 2007
Messages
2,061
my collect has eaten many wild caught frogs, beetles, locusts etc and are as healthy as can b!
 
Top