A. Versicolor refusing food

Dear members!

I own an Avicularia Versicolor that is about 5-6 months old. I obtained it about 2 months ago and do not know what gender it is. At first, it was eating just fine (I'm feeding it small Blabtica Dubia roaches). After a couple of weeks it stopped eating and about one week after that it molted. Everything went as well as it possibly could have with the molt, but after molting (this was on June 11th) it has not eaten a single roach.

It's drinking water, webbing, grooming and going about business as usual except for the eating part. It's abdomen looks thin to me, it's not at all full and round (as of course would be expected from a newly molted spider, perhaps), but I'm worried because it hasn't eaten in so long. I don't want to stress it either so I only try to feed it every three days or so. I tried to Google how common it was for my species to refuse food, since I know it's quite common for the Rosea to refuse food for long periods of time, but couldn't find anything, so now I'm asking you guys for advice!

Is there any reason for me to be worried? Should I try another food source (I like the roaches because they're so easy to keep) and if so - what should I try: crickets, worms?

Thank you guys!

Avics are normally good eaters, especially versicolor. My guess would be the cage is too moist/stuffy, and that needs to be fixed ASAP before you lose the spider. When the substrate is too moist, and/or there's not enough ventilation, they'll often be fat and look healthy, then just die the next day, no warning. I keep mine on dry substrate with plenty of airholes for cross-ventilation.

what size is the T?
what size roaches are you feeding?
are they live or pre-killed?
how are you feeding (tongs, leaving alive in the enclosure, or placing in the web)?

without knowing the answers to those questions it's a guessing game. my first idea would be to try crickets. leave a cricket in there overnight, see if it takes it. you can leave the cricket without worrying about it burrowing like a roach might. you could also try placing a pre-killed item in its web where it is likely to come across it and see if it eats that.

Poec54: The humidity in the terrarium is around 60% at the moment. I also moved it in there about nine days or so after it molted. I was thinking maybe it's new home is too big for it and it doesn't want to eat because of that? I keep the substrate moist (since it's a rain forest species), but not wet (I use coconut fibers) and mist the walls with water every now and then.

Timisimaginary: It is about 6cm in size and the I haven't measured the roaches, but they're small, maybe 1cm or so? I feed it using tongs, since the kind of roach I keep are the burrowing kind. Before I moved it into it's new terrarium, it had built a tunnel web (it resided in a deli cup before, the one I got it in when I bought it), and it would take them from the tong.

Today it's been staying close to ground level (up till today it's always been hanging out in one of the top corners, webbing there) and started building a new web very close to the substrate. It also seems a little more skittish, moving about when the light goes on or when I open the enclosure. Sometimes when I try to feed it, it looks as it's about to take the prey, but then runs off in the other direction. :S

---------- Post added 07-11-2014 at 12:44 AM ----------

Timisimaginary: Oh, and I forgot to answer one of your questions. The roaches I feed it are live roaches.

You don't need moist sub (and misting is over-rated), especially at that size, a water dish is all you need, you're over-thinking the humidity thing. Good ventilation is far more important, and it must be well ventilated, not like a standard terrestrial. An avic on the ground is generally a bad sign. Dry sub and a dish is all it needs, a happy avic should be making a new webbing fairly quickly and will stay off the ground. My versi's only venture to the ground to snatch crickets.

Cold blood: It was never actually on the ground, even though it was on the glass just above the ground. Today it's back up on "high" ground again. Gonna go get me some crickets and put in there overnight to see if it takes them.