Where's Waldo? (only with crickets)

mikeymo

Arachnoknight
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Jan 14, 2007
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176
Hello everyone,

After searching around the message board for a bit I was unable to find any discussion threads which dealt with my problem; so I’m posting it here:

I recently bought a juvenile Brachypelma Smithi (Mexican Redknee) who is eating 2-4 medium sized crickets a week. I see him catch and suck the juices out of the crickets but unfortunately I have no idea where they disappear to after he's done his meal.

I've heard that the cricket corpses should be removed to avoid mites and other unwanted pests but I cant' seem to find the remains. I’m using a fine “Jungle Mix” terrain in his tank which doesn’t make things easier.

Does anyone have any tips on what I can do? What EXACTLY do the remains look like? Thanks in advance for any help!
 

eight leg goth

Arachnosquire
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Aug 2, 2006
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normally youll see what look like balls of substrate on the fllor of its tank. these should contain bits of criket. i cant always find the remains. i just wait till i do thyen get it.
 

mikeymo

Arachnoknight
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first and foremost, thanks for the speedy response.

Would these little balls but white by any chance?
 

ShadowBlade

Planeswalker
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Whatever's left may be very small, or nothing at all. (That you could actually remove.

The remains look more like the substrate then white, to me. It could look white I guess.

-Sean
 

C_Strike

Arachnobaron
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Jun 8, 2005
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most likely the colour of the exoskeleton of the crickets.
They would be quite small, and maybe tucked into the corner of the tank?
You can experiment and put some sow bugs *Woodlice* into the enclosure, i have done and they clean up such waste
 

mikeymo

Arachnoknight
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thanks everyone!
now that i know what i'm looking for, i'm off to do some proper searching
 

cacoseraph

ArachnoGod
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since you are live feeding and crickets are disgusting horrible creatures it is possible the live crickets are eating any bolus your spider is leaving.

i've seen bolus ranging from whitish to very dark... and i've also seen bolus get splashed with tarantula poop when the tarantula has a garbage/restroom corner in their cage
 

eight leg goth

Arachnosquire
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i wonder if the live crix are eating my ts bolas' at the moment coz i put 3 crix in one after the other had been eaten the first two got taken straight away but the third escaped so it could be using them as food. i'm not worried tho coz my t will evict any rubbish left in its hide in a couple of days. it always does.
 

rYe

Arachnosquire
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Dec 30, 2006
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i wonder if the live crix are eating my ts bolas' at the moment coz i put 3 crix in one after the other had been eaten the first two got taken straight away but the third escaped so it could be using them as food. i'm not worried tho coz my t will evict any rubbish left in its hide in a couple of days. it always does.
I only put 1 cricket in at a time.
 

Ando55

Arachnobaron
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Sep 15, 2006
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Good topic! Earlier i was worrying about the same concerning cricket parts, I realized shells are so hard to find in the substrate, the uneaten parts should still show white as I saw when my rosie sling left a leg. As for trying to cleanup and looking for cricket shells I think it's very hard. My new problem now might be if the T took the cricket/crickets into the burrow, how can I clean that area without disturbing the T as my rosea made a spiral burrow and took the crick all the way down, if their is any remains i don't know how to get it without disturbing it..:? same goes for my other T. Don't sweat too much about cricket shell cleanup if you can't find the shells, uneaten parts is another story.
 

darkness_falls8

Arachnosquire
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When my rosie would take crickets into her burrow.. she would later come out of the burrow when she was done with her meal and drop the remains in a corner and then return to her her burrow. Maybe I just got lucky and got a tidy rosie. My P.Murinus does the same thing.

Sometimes it's not hard to find the balled up shells.. you can take a low wattage light, I use a 7 watt and shine it into the tank and I can pick out the remains because they are somewhat shiney. This doesn't always work but it does help.(I prefer doing this when the T is hiding.)
 
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Taceas

Arachnolord
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May 12, 2006
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All of the food boluses I've seen have been whitish balls with bits of exoskeleton in them.
 

spid142

Arachnobaron
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Apr 9, 2006
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bolus removal

Seems to vary with Ts, some will place them outside the hide, in a pile, some will tie them to a web with silk, some just leave them nearby. If its down in a burrow, you would problably be best just waiting for her to bring the bolus out.
 

Ando55

Arachnobaron
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Thanks for the help, I'll remember these tips for cleanup for sure, I hope my aureostriata and rosea will do that, atleast bring it out or up so the tweezers can get it, if not I'll have to excavate myself..lol
 

Transylvania

Gondorian
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Dec 26, 2006
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I'm having a similar problem with my juvenile B. smithi, except that the crickets lost in there are still live, but pretty darn good at hiding from me. I hate crickets to no end. :mad:
 

Ando55

Arachnobaron
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I'm having a similar problem with my juvenile B. smithi, except that the crickets lost in there are still live, but pretty darn good at hiding from me. I hate crickets to no end. :mad:
Be sure to find them and remove them once you see them, you don't want them around when your beautiful smithi is at molt time..
 

Transylvania

Gondorian
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Be sure to find them and remove them once you see them, you don't want them around when your beautiful smithi is at molt time..
Yeah, I'm trying really hard to find em. They'll most likely die by the time she molts though, cause her abdomen is pretty pale.
 

Arachno~Raver

Arachnopeon
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Dec 21, 2006
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43
all the cricket remains i find are only really from the large black crickets where ill find a small black ball but from the lighter silent crickets you can get my T's seem to eat every last bit so maybe they only leave parts of certain crickets or it could just be a hunger thing?
 

mikeymo

Arachnoknight
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Jan 14, 2007
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176
i think that makes a lot of sense. When i watch my T eat the medium crickets he seems to get every last drop out of them (what's left of the cricket is only really a tiny shriveled thing). Perhaps i'm not finding the shells easily because there's nothing there to find?

By the way, thanks to everyone who responded to this thread!
 
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