T won't eat mouse

[Reaganomics]

My Rosie won't eat my pinky mouse, so i took the mouse out and I put crickets in the cage, they didn't get eaten so do you think my T is in pre-molt? It hasn't eaten in three days including today.

[Mushroom Spore]

It hasn't eaten in three days including today

Here we go again. Thinking a T not eating for three days means something is like thinking a human not eating for ten minutes means something. If you feed more than once every week or two, you're feeding too much - and Ts can go without eating MUCH longer than that with no real effect whatsoever.

No, it doesn't always mean premolt. Especially if you feed too much, the T may just be full.

[DavidD]

Mushroom spore again why so rude. I mean your rose hair my not want mice. It may prefer crickets or roaches

[gvfarns]

Here we go again. Thinking a T not eating for three days means something is like thinking a human not eating for ten minutes means something. If you feed more than once every week or two, you're feeding too much - and Ts can go without eating MUCH longer than that with no real effect whatsoever.

No, it doesn't always mean premolt. Especially if you feed too much, the T may just be full.

Ditto.....

[gvfarns]

Mushroom spore again why so rude. I mean your rose hair my not want mice. It may prefer crickets or roaches

usually I'm with the poster on this kind of issue, but I think she didn't cross the line.

BTW your opinion that the T may prefer crickets and roaches contradicts the OP's statement that the T has refused crickets for a whole three days now.

[Mushroom Spore]

Mushroom spore again why so rude.

...excuse me? I answered the question, I'm not sure what you have a problem with. If I'm being rude to somebody, trust me, you'll know it.

[Kacey Jennings]

IF ever you think a T may be getting close to molting, I would avoid feeding it a mouse. The jolt of calcium can cause molt problems. IMO feeding mammals to a T is unnecessary and dangerous to the T. I stick to inverts, so as to have little possibility for injury or associated problems for my T's.

[scar is my t]

from what i have heard rosies are psycho and unpreditible

[Aurelia]

from what i have heard rosies are psycho and unpreditible

I think this is more of a case of "rosies can go on fasts for months at a time for no apparent reason." The psycho and unpredictable thing goes along more with their attitude, not their appetite.

[Robert Jordan]

Sounds like perfectly healthy spider to me. I do recommend you not feed it so much though. Once or twice a week is plenty. But hey, it's your spider.

[blackcadillac70]

i agree with spore it every other day theres a post my spider won't eat.

[Mina]

Its nothing to worry about. Rose hairs don't need mice at all. They aren't that big a spider. Feed your rosie 1 to 2 full size crickets a week and that is more than enough food. They aren't active enough to need more than that.
Don't worry if your rosie doesn't want to eat, they are famous for long fasts and will be fine as long as you keep them supplied with fresh water.
The longest rose hair fast I ever heard of was 2 years!! So its okay.

[Pikaia]

My Rosie won't eat my pinky mouse, so i took the mouse out and I put crickets in the cage, they didn't get eaten so do you think my T is in pre-molt? It hasn't eaten in three days including today.

Visit www.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/roses.html.

[Pikaia]

Kacey -

...The jolt of calcium can cause molt problems...

Indeed? This is completely new to me. Where did you get this? Has anyone published (paper or Internet) any research or even anecdotal experience to support this? Can you supply references or Internet links?

I'm a bit skeptical because in nature many tarantulas routinely eat vertebrates. For example, I think that either Sam Marshall or Rick C. West reported that Theraphosa blondi, the goliath birdeater, makes a practice of eating forest floor dwelling frogs. And, the literature is replete with photos of wild tarantulas eating all manner of amphibians, reptiles and mammals.

And, some enthusiasts, especially those who keep the giant tarantulas, feed them little else but young mice. Few if any report molting problems.

Lastly, spiders in general and tarantulas in particular use little or no calcium in their exoskeletons (as opposed to crustaceans, for instance), so there's little or no direct link between the two.

If you have any further information I need to see it. Now you have me worried because if what you say is true, I need to rewrite a chapter in the Guide.

[gvfarns]

There have been a lot of threads, typically involving T blondi, which talk of bad molts and number of them blame feeding vertebrates.

Tough to establish causality because blondi is a T that people frequently feed verts to and it's also a T that has lots of problems in captivity, if these threads are any indicator.

I think jumping to the conclusion that calicum is the mechanism by which these events are linked, if indeed they are causally linked, is not super well-founded. But perhaps someone with more biology/chemistry experience can chime in on this one and enlighten us.

Certainly there have been a lot of statements like this made. Over time we all just begin to accept it as given, or at least we become suspicious.