Feeding Mom after she throws a sac?

Is there a waiting period before I can feed mom? Should I feed lightly,or giver her an adult roach? It's a MF GBB that dropped a sac last night.It's my first sac,so I'm not sure quite when I should feed her.

My female wild spiders would take small meals after a sac but I had others who went on a hunger strike and only drank water. Perhaps try a cricket with its jumping legs ripped off and see what she does, something tells me that she won't go for it though.

I feed my baboon spiders with hammock sacs, and they always take the crickets.

Poec54 said:

I feed my baboon spiders with hammock sacs, and they always take the crickets.

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do you feed them as you would if you were trying to get a sac or do you slow down the feed rate after she makes her sac?

I don't feed any females that are on sacs.

advan said:

I don't feed any females that are on sacs.

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can I ask why? I'm going to be pairing my G. rosea/porteri next Friday. I've already been feeding her and will continue to do so until she (hopefully) drops a sac. But I'm unclear as to her nutritional needs after she drops it. In my mind, feeding her while she has a sac would prevent her from eating it?

I'm not trying to be smarty pants or anything, I really am trying to learn this stuff LOL I don't want to make any mistakes.

ratluvr76 said:

can I ask why? I'm going to be pairing my G. rosea/porteri next Friday. I've already been feeding her and will continue to do so until she (hopefully) drops a sac. But I'm unclear as to her nutritional needs after she drops it. In my mind, feeding her while she has a sac would prevent her from eating it?

I'm not trying to be smarty pants or anything, I really am trying to learn this stuff LOL I don't want to make any mistakes.

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There should be no need to feed her if she has been properly prepped to lay. As soon as I find a sac, I leave the spider alone until time to pull. Messing with females with sacs is a possible cause for sac eating. I think majority of the time the female senses something is wrong with it and decides to gain some of the energy back she used to lay it.

ratluvr76 said:

do you feed them as you would if you were trying to get a sac or do you slow down the feed rate after she makes her sac?

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I feed all my paired up females extra so that they'll produce a good-sized sac of healthy slings. I normally don't feed females that are sitting on ball sacs (and I also take away their water bowls after having an ornata dump a sac into her water bowl and drown dozens of 1st instars). But I do feed females on hammock sacs (Ceratogyrus, Augacephalus, and Pterinochilus). I feel sorry for them, they look so skinny, laying across the hammock (I have a soft spot for baboon spiders). I give them one big female cricket at a time, and they always snatch it right up. I may do that once a week.

I should also mention that while I pull ball sacs at 30-40 days, I NEVER pull a hammock sac. The sacs seem to be pretty self-sufficient, and if I was concerned about the female of a rare species destroying it, I'd take the female out and leave the sac intact. My experience with hammock sacs is that paired-up females that make them tend to lay them pretty reliably after mating (as opposed to species that make ball sacs, which in my experience getting sacs aren't as sure-fire a thing). Once a hammock sac is laid, I can just about count on having it go full term, again something that doesn't happen as often with ball sacs. I've hatched out dozens of hammock sacs, and in only one did a female eat her sac. The rest hatched out healthy slings. I wish my success rate with ball sacs was that good.

I think hammock sacs may have evolved because of the relentless predation of tarantulas by mongeese, honey badgers, and baboons. Living nightmares to small animals. If they snatch a female baboon spider holding a ball sac, they get both and there's no next generation. If they snatch a female and leave her hammock sac (which is securely attached to and tangled up in rocks and substrate) there will be a next generation. And for that to happen the eggs/slings can't require maternal care. It seems to make sense: harsh environment, high predation, hammock sacs, and a high survival rate for eggs/slings. I have a book on South African tarantulas (emailed with the author too), and in it he mentioned seeing troops of baboons settling in an area and casually flipping over rocks and snacking on tarantulas. A ritual with them, like the English and tea time. That puts a dent in spider populations and they've had to evolve survival strategies to overcome that, of which defensive behavior and stronger venoms are part of.

lol, you said "ball sac"

She was heavily fed before laying,she still has a decent abdomen,I'm just going to leave her alone.She's in a dimly lit,quiet spider room,so I'm hoping she doesn't eat it.I never bother her,or shine a light in her cage.