Why's my T catching and Releasing?

[Appreciate Creation]

For some reason my Aphonopelma chalcodes (desert blond tarantula) has been catching and then releasing her crickets in some more recent feedings. On both the main occurances I can recall, she later re-caught and ate the cricket. However I don't think I've observed this behavior in her until recently. I don't recall my other desert blonds doing this either (I've had 3 over the years). Does anyone have an explanation? Is something wrong?

-->To clarify i am not asking about overt meal refusals. In such cases she doesn't try to catch the prey. What I'm asking about is instances where she aggressively captured her prey, but then let it go.<--

The video shows an instance of this wierd behavior. Prior to what you see in the video, she first tapped the cricket with her feet (with the same speed as a strike). But she pulled back and waited. After is crawled a bit then you see her catch and releases in the video.

Any thoughts?

 

[Brewser]

Not Hungry, Remove Prey

 

[Appreciate Creation]

Not Hungry, Remove Prey

But she caught and ate it shortly after (like within minutes). I'm wondering if they are injuring her or if she has some issue going on with her body. Thanks for the feedback! Super appreciate it!

 

[Andrew Clayton]

For some reason my Aphonopelma chalcodes (desert blond tarantula) has been catching and then releasing her crickets in some more recent feedings. On both the main occurances I can recall, she later re-caught and ate the cricket. However I don't think I've observed this behavior in her until recently. I don't recall my other desert blonds doing this either (I've had 3 over the years). Does anyone have an explanation? Is something wrong?

-->To clarify i am not asking about overt meal refusals. In such cases she doesn't try to catch the prey. What I'm asking about is instances where she aggressively captured her prey, but then let it go.<--

The video shows an instance of this wierd behavior. Prior to what you see in the video, she first tapped the cricket with her feet (with the same speed as a strike). But she pulled back and waited. After is crawled a bit then you see her catch and releases in the video.

Any thoughts?

Just looks to me like she's not made proper contact in the initial bite and the cricket got free, it then looks to be sitting still (the cricket) and the video cuts off, then the next video it is eating it, so I can only assume it moved (the cricket) and the spider did get good contact that time.

 

[Mustafa67]

For some reason my Aphonopelma chalcodes (desert blond tarantula) has been catching and then releasing her crickets in some more recent feedings. On both the main occurances I can recall, she later re-caught and ate the cricket. However I don't think I've observed this behavior in her until recently. I don't recall my other desert blonds doing this either (I've had 3 over the years). Does anyone have an explanation? Is something wrong?

-->To clarify i am not asking about overt meal refusals. In such cases she doesn't try to catch the prey. What I'm asking about is instances where she aggressively captured her prey, but then let it go.<--

The video shows an instance of this wierd behavior. Prior to what you see in the video, she first tapped the cricket with her feet (with the same speed as a strike). But she pulled back and waited. After is crawled a bit then you see her catch and releases in the video.

Any thoughts?

Videos don’t work for me neither

From what you say, I’ve had some Ts jump at prey and inject them with venom initially then wait and eat them later. Like how a cat plays with its prey as its dying.

 

[jennywallace]

Yeah I've had this before too, the T strikes, injects with venom, then release, only to take the prey a few minutes later.

 

[Appreciate Creation]

Okay sounds like this is normal behavior. Thanks everyone!

 

[Andrew Clayton]

Okay sounds like this is normal behavior. Thanks everyone!

From the videos it's definitely nothing to worry about. I'd maybe change the setup though, just by giving it more substrate, it looks quite shallow, though that's just my opinion. You don't want a terrestrial species to have much vertical climbing space, ideally 1.5x there DLS (diagonal leg span)

 

[goofyGoober99]

Videos don’t work for me neither

From what you say, I’ve had some Ts jump at prey and inject them with venom initially then wait and eat them later. Like how a cat plays with its prey as its dying.

Yeah I've had this before too, the T strikes, injects with venom, then release, only to take the prey a few minutes later.

Same! One of my C elegans does this pretty much every time she eats.