When feeding…

[BoyFromLA]

When feeding, thorough feeding process is very necessary. Then what is thorough feeding process? It is as simple as just four easy steps.

1. Open the enclosure
2. Drop a desired feeder insect
3. Watch it gets eaten / retrieve if it gets uneaten
4. Close the enclosure

Step number three is very very important, especially, if you are feeding your tarantulas, superworms.

Otherwise you will find yourself in very threatening situation as below:



Do you see it?



Do you see it now?

When feeding, DO watch if feeder insects gets eaten, and DO retrieve if it gets uneaten. Do not let them roam around in the enclosure.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

excellent post, it might sound basic but it’s very very important. Leave feeders roaming is a huge mistake, I won’t trust anything.
I had an escaped super become a beetle and I purposely rehoused my lp a few times because of escaped worms. I found one of these beetles hiding under my Ts bark waiting for a moment when it molts and to attack. For supers/mealworms Crush their heads don’t make my mistake luckily my t wasn’t hurt. And when feeding orange head roaches crush their heads they burrow.
One of my 3 Ts rehoused over escaped superworms.

5-vs 10 gal for mystery t enclosure?

Let me think. I'm going to try to list off the top of my head what my mum is currently keeping. I live with her when I'm in her area, so I suppose the Ts there are my homies too... M. balfouri, More LPs than I'll ever be comfortable with (mum collects these), I. mira, A trio of H. villosella...

arachnoboards.com

 

[Charliemum]

Try putting some carrot in the corner, my worms and the beatles seem to love it hopefully then you can remove them while they are distracted.
I had a similar thing happen recently but with black field cricket baby's hatching the same night my t moulted. Carrot in the corner and a full sub change once the t had hardened enough was luckily enough to stop them eating my freshly moulted t.
Gl hopefully they were easy to remove

 

[Nastynickynack89]

Team head crush

 

[TheHound]

I've found crushing superworms' heads to not be enough to incapacitate them. They are really tough buggers. A few times I've crushed a head with considerable pressure, and still it's tried to burrow and I had to pull it out with tongs. In one case, prior to those others (and what made me become very watchful afterwards when feeding superworms as per OP's advice) it was successful and ended up metamorphosing into a beetle. So now I tend to cut off the head when feeding a superworm. It's much safer, although the lack of twitching means it's less likely to elicit a feeding response from the T.

 

[mack1855]

@BoyFromLA …good post.Especially step #3.

Everyone should reread #3.A couple of times.

 

[Introvertebrate]

@BoyFromLA …good post.Especially step #3.

Everyone should reread #3.A couple of times.

Yeah, about that. I ain't goin' back in after a roach in my Stromatopelma calceatum enclosure. If you want to come over and fish it back out, be my guest.

 

[mack1855]

So,the T didn’t eat that roach,so next week I will put another one in,and try again.
Now I have 2 roaches in instead of one.

It didn’t eat that one either.So,next week I’ll try a 3rd roach.Now I have 3 roaches in my T,s enclosure.

That’s so much easier to deal with.But your making a great roach enclosure for sure.

 

[Introvertebrate]

So, the T didn’t eat that roach, so next week I will put another one in, and try again.
Now I have 2 roaches in instead of one.

It didn’t eat that one either. So, next week I’ll try a 3rd roach. Now I have 3 roaches in my T's enclosure.

That’s so much easier to deal with. But your making a great roach enclosure for sure.

I'm sorry. At which point did I say that I'm putting more than one roach in? By the way, I fixed your grammatical mistakes for free. Your welcome.

 

[jbooth]

Glad you got them. #4 is pretty useful too lately from the posts on here.

Just tong feed the S. cal if it has a hard time finding roaches, then if it isn't hungry, hopefully it didn't knock it off the tongs.

 

[TechnoGeek]

This isn't always possible. My B emilia won't eat anything while I'm watching and so I have to leave the insect in there for a few hours and it usually gets eaten. You're 100% correct about superworms though, and my solution is to crush the worm's head before dropping it in the enclosure. This way, even if the T doesn't eat it, it'll just die in a day or 2 and won't pose a threat.

 

[SpookySpooder]

Crush head, wiggle in front of T.

Not interested? Drop in front of hide or on webbing.

Doesn't eat, remove next morning.

Haven't had a single problem with this method

 

[Introvertebrate]

In fairness, my S. calceatum rarely immerges from his hide, so I could probably go in there safely and retrieve the roach. Right now, all I have is a little trap door just big enough to slip a dubia in. I'd have to trim away some hot melt glue in order to take off the whole side of the enclosure. The tarantula was a freebie, so I won't shed too many tears if it gets nibbled on during a molt. Bad attitude? Sorry.

 

[Arachnophobphile]

I've found crushing superworms' heads to not be enough to incapacitate them. They are really tough buggers. A few times I've crushed a head with considerable pressure, and still it's tried to burrow and I had to pull it out with tongs. In one case, prior to those others (and what made me become very watchful afterwards when feeding superworms as per OP's advice) it was successful and ended up metamorphosing into a beetle. So now I tend to cut off the head when feeding a superworm. It's much safer, although the lack of twitching means it's less likely to elicit a feeding response from the T.

You can't just crush the head segment. After crushing the head continue crushing down all the leg segment areas past the head.

Crushing the head only will not do the trick as I found out.

 

[CrazyOrnithoctonineGuy]

This has been a nightmare of mine due to the fact almost all of my Ts are species with powerful feeding responses, so there's been cases where a T would eat in premolt, I would continue to feed it not knowing it was in premolt, and then it would molt with a live feeder in the enclosure (I lost a huahini sling this way).

 

[BoyFromLA]

I lost a huahini sling this way

Oh no!

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

This has been a nightmare of mine due to the fact almost all of my Ts are species with powerful feeding responses, so there's been cases where a T would eat in premolt, I would continue to feed it not knowing it was in premolt, and then it would molt with a live feeder in the enclosure (I lost a huahini sling this way).

Yeah sadly slings are most vulnerable to predation I chop up mealworms to avoid the worm hurting my slings. Unless it’s 2.5”+ I don’t like crushing super worms, so I switched back to roaches as my primary feeder. I’ve been warned my orange roaches might attack a molting t so I only feed those to very hungry large Ts. Plus they burrow.

Oh no!

What a Tragedy slings are already fragile enough. I’ve never had a dubia muncH on my Ts. Those are my go to.

 

[DustyD]

So now I tend to cut off the head when feeding a superworm. It's much safer, although the lack of twitching means it's less likely to elicit a feeding response from the T.

Yup, off with their heads! Snip snip. They do tend to move when touched after, I have found. So you can sometimes still get a feeding response.

 

[CrazyOrnithoctonineGuy]

Oh no!

The crazy thing is that the sling had eaten literally the day before, so I had no idea it was in premolt. Something to watch out for with voracious species....

 

[ladyratri]

#4 is pretty useful too lately from the posts on here.

Signal boost on this one too -- so many "help, my T is missing" posts recently. And that one "my genic staged a literal jailbreak and was halfway down the shelf to the floor" photo.

Definitely double check step 4.