After a 2 year fast, a little snack.

luther · Aug 9, 2004

My adult, female G.rosea has finally ended her 2 year hunger strike! She molted for the first time in three years last month. I just got back from 2 weeks in Italy and offered her a big, adult roach (about 3.5 inches). She jumped on it, fought an epic battle and then took two days to eat the monster.

It's such a relief that she's come back to her senses. She never lost weight or looked malnourished, but she did become extremely boring. Now I feel like I've got a brand new tarantula.

To top it all my adult, female B.smithi is minutes away from molting.

Happy days!

Here's a pic of the rosea battling the roach.

manville · Aug 9, 2004

hahaha i think mine went on a fast too and recently ate a cricket..very nice picture

Brian S · Aug 9, 2004

That's great Luther, Always good when one finally ends a hunger strike.

mouse · Aug 9, 2004

hmmm...i'm tempted to order some smaller roaches or bugs for my T's and bearded dragon-babies ( crickets every day got to be boring, but i don't know if they can handle anything bigger yet).my rosie is only 4 1/2" and i don't know if she'd go for a big bug...
dianne

cichlidsman · Aug 9, 2004

thats good news. i cant wait tell my rosey eats again.

Greg Wolfe · Aug 9, 2004

Hunger strike...

Two Years? WHOA... I'm glad your T decided to eat again. I had an old Haitan Brown fast for a year once, and then commenced eating again like pig.
I thought a year was long!

ShaunHolder · Aug 9, 2004

Two years without eating - much - right? Theres no way she lived two years without eating.

cichlidsman · Aug 9, 2004

ShaunHolder said:
Two years without eating - much - right? Theres no way she lived two years without eating.

you have much to learn about roseys

ShaunHolder · Aug 9, 2004

Perhaps so. I was told scorpions can often go for an entire year without eating in the wild, I was also told that they where the only arachnid that can go over a year with out eating. I was mis informed if T's can go longer. I was under the impression that T's had a much higer metabloic rate and while could fast, could't last that long without eating.

Archangel · Aug 9, 2004

My G. rosea is also on a record fast to the point that she goes on her tip toes to avoid even touching the crickets. And she'll hold that pose for as long as that cricket is under her. It's making me an old man but she's just staying fat and sassy through it all.

luther · Aug 9, 2004

This rosea didn't eat anything at all for a little over two years. This is unusually long for a rosea to fast, but not unheard of. A year or so is quite common.

Diane.S on this board has a rosea that fasted for about two years as well I believe.

Shultz suggested that this extreme fasting may be due to the fact that many G.rosea are WC imports. They may react badly to the sudden change in seasonal clues, entering a grossly extented "winter". I bought mine as a sub-adult, three years ago. She may well have been WC. She ate well for roughly the first year and then stopped suddenly. Last month was her first molt in my care.

None of my other tarantulas have behaved like this. I have seen the occasional 1 month fast before a molt, but this rosea was in a class of her own.

I worried about her for the first few months of the fast. Since she showed no ill signs or distress I stopped worrying. If she had become malnourished I would have been concerned. Mostly it was just frustrating, having an inactive pet and wondering if I was doing something wrong.

Hopefully she will now adopt a more regular eating pattern.

ShaunHolder · Aug 9, 2004

luther said:
This rosea didn't eat anything at all for a little over two years. This is unusually long for a rosea to fast, but not unheard of. A year or so is quite common.

Diane.S on this board has a rosea that fasted for about two years as well I believe.

Shultz suggested that this extreme fasting may be due to the fact that many G.rosea are WC imports. They may react badly to the sudden change in seasonal clues, entering a grossly extented "winter". I bought mine as a sub-adult, three years ago. She may well have been WC. She ate well for roughly the first year and then stopped suddenly. Last month was her first molt in my care.

None of my other tarantulas have behaved like this. I have seen the occasional 1 month fast before a molt, but this rosea was in a class of her own.

I worried about her for the first few months of the fast. Since she showed no ill signs or distress I stopped worrying. If she had become malnourished I would have been concerned. Mostly it was just frustrating, having an inactive pet and wondering if I was doing something wrong.

Hopefully she will now adopt a more regular eating pattern.

Thanks much for the info. You tought me something new. I hope my Rosea never fasts this long. I'd worry about her every day.

spidergoddess · Aug 9, 2004

Mine ended her fast when I told her she wasn't gonna meet Mr. HotPalps unless she ate her crickets like a good girl. After taking a couple of months to think about it, she decided to choke down a few.

MizM · Aug 9, 2004

Mr. HotPalps

LOL!

One year was the longest for one of my g. rosea. Very common for these guys, they truly enjoy scaring us out of our wits!! They should be renamed: g. sadistica!!

Zombie · Aug 9, 2004

Right there with you.
My G. rosea hasn't eaten in 17 months, 6 days, 4 hours and uh...19 minutes.

Professor T · Aug 9, 2004

My G. pulchra fasted for three months and finally ate this month. My G. rosea commonly fasts for 6-8 months. Now, I won't be worrying if they fast longer.

Mike H. · Aug 9, 2004

I know this thread is about rosies but I have a large female Green Bottle Blue that has eaten one cricket in 3 months ?? I am not really worried about her but was wondering if this is common with these spiders as well, she is wild caught...my smaller captive bred female eats like she has never seen food ??

any thoughts ??

Regards, Mike

Mike H. · Aug 10, 2004

Bump....

Thanks in advance...

Regards, Mike :?

luther · Aug 11, 2004

Mike, seems no one has noticed your GBB question. I don't own one, so I can't help.

As an update, my G.rosea seems to be back with a vengance. I offered her another large roach last night and she took it straight away. Well, actually she "surfed" it round the tank for ten minutes until she could flip it over. That's two large roaches in five days now. She must have been looking forward to this for the last two years.

Here's the action in pictures. Notice that the roach was so shocked she gave birth while being eaten.

VoodooFuneral · Aug 11, 2004

Wow

Rosie-1 / Roach- 0 (Nice Photo!)

As for a 2 year fast, I'm glad to hear about this now, so I don't worry if my rosea ever does that- Thanks!

After a 2 year fast, a little snack.

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