What is your strategy for offering live prey items to slings in dram vials?

0viWan

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Hello!

So I have 4 A. Chalchodes slings and yes, according to the breader these slings are 2 years old but still teeny tiny (~ 1/2''). I keep those slings in dram vials. Last time I went to my petstore they actually had microcrickets in stock, small enough to feed alive. Did that once and all of the slings took theirs down. Still I am hesistant to offer live prey in this case since I wouldn't quite know how to deal with live feeders in dram vials in case they are not eaten, so I proceed to offer the microcrickets prekilled.

What are your guys thoughts on offering live prey items to slings in dram vials?

Thx
 

Olan

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Prekilled works great if you are not confident.
But I can get small crickets out with little tweezers if necessary. Not sure how experienced you are with the cricket wrangling…
 

0viWan

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Personally I would rather feed live prey but all 4 slings dug tunnels so getting crickets out of there would be a nightmare.
 

Ratmosphere

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Are you opposed to putting them in small deli cups? Way easier for maintenance and more shallow than drams.
 

0viWan

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Are you opposed to putting them in small deli cups? Way easier for maintenance and more shallow than drams.
Not at all. I was going to move them after the next molt anyways since by then they will definitely have outgrown the dram vials. Interestingly enough it seemed like all of them were needing quite some time to properly settle in. Like a few weeks.
 

IntermittentSygnal

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Personally I would rather feed live prey but all 4 slings dug tunnels so getting crickets out of there would be a nightmare.
From my limited experience, if crickets run for the hide, they do come back out to explore, especially if you turn the lights low. If they run to the hide when the T is there, they run out real quick.
 

Wolfram1

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i don't, i catch the prey with small pointed tweezers, deliberatly injuring them, and then drop the heavily injured roaches in, if the spider seems frightened still, i crush it again to properly prekill it, but most of the time thats not necessary
 

Smotzer

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I do the above as well. And if it doesn’t get taken by the end of the day I take it out.

Alternatively just cut up small pieces of mealworm/wax worm and leave it at the entrance of the burrow, unless the entrances are closed off and in that case don’t attempt to feed!
 

Tentacle Toast

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i don't, i catch the prey with small pointed tweezers, deliberatly injuring them, and then drop the heavily injured roaches in, if the spider seems frightened still, i crush it again to properly prekill it, but most of the time thats not necessary
This guy does what I do..."attenuated" foodstuffs has worked well for me, even with slightly larger prey items than would be ideal. I know they're low-level cognizant beings, but I'd swear they like em' still metabolizin' on SOME level, LoL
 

0viWan

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Thank you guys for the input. I did feed prekilled up to this point but some of the A. Chalchodes seem to be quite finnicky eaters and live prey seems to be getting better food responses. Also, as discussed in other threads, at that size it is hard to tell if they actually had a bite of the prekilled food items :rolleyes:
 

Ultum4Spiderz

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Hello!

So I have 4 A. Chalchodes slings and yes, according to the breader these slings are 2 years old but still teeny tiny (~ 1/2''). I keep those slings in dram vials. Last time I went to my petstore they actually had microcrickets in stock, small enough to feed alive. Did that once and all of the slings took theirs down. Still I am hesistant to offer live prey in this case since I wouldn't quite know how to deal with live feeders in dram vials in case they are not eaten, so I proceed to offer the microcrickets prekilled.

What are your guys thoughts on offering live prey items to slings in dram vials?

Thx
Crickets are a pain to catch but live prey I prefer. I recal only feeding dead prey if it was cut up mealworms. It’s rare to refuse crickets but I suppose with giant tweezers eventually you’d catch them, might be a pain.
 

Tbone192

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You could try feeding them black soldier fly larvae. They are small, juicy, and easy to remove.

Bonus: if any achieve imago, you can feed them to smaller arboreals.
 

sparticus

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You could try feeding them black soldier fly larvae. They are small, juicy, and easy to remove.
Careful with these. The adult flies are harmless, but the larvae have some crazy saw-like mouthparts that can kill a small spider. I know of someone who lost a jumping spider to one. I do use them sometimes, but I always crush the heads on larvae.
 
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