Feeding Off Dead/Dying Crickets

Poec54

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I feed dead and dying crickets to my spiders, as long as the underside of the cricket's abdomen is still light-colored and hasn't begun to darken. I was doing this last weekend to some of my spiders and dropped a large freshly-dead adult female cricket on the front legs of an AF Augacephalus ezendami. Unlike the other spiders that day (including other ezendami), she didn't grab it. Instead, after a few seconds she carefully and methodically rolled it with her palps and front legs (didn't pick it up) and pushed it over to the side of the cage, as part of her house cleaning. Tidied up the place a bit. I picked up that same cricket (with forceps) and dropped it on the front legs of a juvenile B smithi, who immediately grabbed it with her fangs, thrilled with her good fortune.

Then I went back a tossed a live cricket to the ezendami female, and she quickly pounced on it.
 

Pociemon

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If one just could feed with crickets. i am allowed to have my hot snakes and many asian T´s, but crickets will the wife not accept because of the noise, and we live in a house! But no harm done, there are many other feeder animals to choose from here.
But your story shows that some T´s eat prekilled(or almost). I use mealworm to slings sometimes, just cut their head off, many poecs takes them when they are very small.
 

Poec54

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The crickets I feed off like this weren't pre-killed. They're one's that died in the cricket boxes. I hate to waste them if they're still fresh.
 

Pociemon

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The crickets I feed off like this weren't pre-killed. They're one's that died in the cricket boxes. I hate to waste them if they're still fresh.
I guess dead or pre-killed is the same thing, but need to be freshly so!
I use blaptica dubia as my main foodsource, but they do need to be alive and kicking, if dead they dont take them. Are crickets your only food source?
 

G. pulchra

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No, but they're my main food source. Nothing else is as plentiful and cheap.
Get a colony of Dubia, your costs will be much cheaper in the long run and you never have to run to the pet store for food.
 

pyro fiend

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Get a colony of Dubia, your costs will be much cheaper in the long run and you never have to run to the pet store for food.
He buys them from the mail so he already dont get out ;p


But poec i think this just goes to show not all Ts will accept pray who isnt kicking.. iv had slings and juvies like this, usually its slings too scared to eat a kicking roach, but my prekilled cricks have also been ignored and pushed away by a few specific Ts.

I think it proves all Ts have a prefferance on food no matter what we want to think, i had a juvie who only ate grubs, mealies, pheonix, waxies. And woudlnt touch anything elese for the longest time.. did she not like the taste/smell? Ill never know because im not a T. But i know im not crazy, and others have had picky Ts.. i think once a T gets older not all accept prekilled/dead food as they feel they need to kill not scavenge as well as food prefference. Just like other exotics. Afterall its not offen a dead cricket or roach falls on/by a T in nature ^.^
 
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Sana

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My T's look at me like I'm out of my mind if I hand them a dead/pre-killed cricket and walk away.
 

Poec54

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Get a colony of Dubia, your costs will be much cheaper in the long run and you never have to run to the pet store for food.
You're thinking small scale. I've long since passed that point. I go thru 4,000-5,000 adult crickets a month (at 17.50/thousand), plus small crickets. To feed my collection roaches, I'd need to take out a bank loan.

---------- Post added 11-22-2014 at 04:10 PM ----------

My T's look at me like I'm out of my mind if I hand them a dead/pre-killed cricket and walk away.
There's an art to it, son. Some will eat a dead cricket they happen to find in their cage, but most of mine need the cricket to be dropped on their front legs, or held with forceps and to be gently touched by it. Many T's will eat dead prey if presented like that.
 

Pociemon

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I breed B dubia, and they are easy to breed, no noise, smell, just alot of babies. I sell some of them from time to time. So 75% of my food for the T´s are free of charge.
 

ArachnoFreak666

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You're thinking small scale. I've long since passed that point. I go thru 4,000-5,000 adult crickets a month (at 17.50/thousand), plus small crickets. To feed my collection roaches, I'd need to take out a bank loan.

---------- Post added 11-22-2014 at 04:10 PM ----------



There's an art to it, son. Some will eat a dead cricket they happen to find in their cage, but most of mine need the cricket to be dropped on their front legs, or held with forceps and to be gently touched by it. Many T's will eat dead prey if presented like that.
ive tried that "art" plenty of times with all m Ts. still never works for me. the only one that will eat a freshly dead cricket is my new B. vagans sling. and it wont if i try to present it to him/her, i just drop it in the deli cup and it will be gone the next day.
 

cold blood

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I feed dead and dying crickets to my spiders, as long as the underside of the cricket's abdomen is still light-colored and hasn't begun to darken.
I do the same thing, in fact just before I read this thread I had just fed a few t's. Fed out one just because it looked like it was on the way out to G. pulchripes. The other that looked like it was walking like it had its legs bitten by the other crix was dropped to a P. irminia. Went to feed a prekill to a small N. chromatus I found one that had just died. Had its good color and was nice and soft, I hate to see em wasted, too...fed that even though it was a little larger than I was searching for. Its eating it now. The pulchripes nailed hers instantly. The irminia has had a foot just in front of it for like 10 minutes now. I know if that cricket were moving it would be over.

Oddly, my A. ezendami seems to prefer pre-killed, even at about 3". I put live stuff in there and it walks around for days, frequently not getting eaten at all. If I kill the prey and leave it at the top of its turret, its gone in no time.
 

Poec54

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Oddly, my A. ezendami seems to prefer pre-killed, even at about 3". I put live stuff in there and it walks around for days, frequently not getting eaten at all. If I kill the prey and leave it at the top of its turret, its gone in no time.
There's individual preferences within a species in prey, what they'll eat and whether it's alive or dead. They tend to take more things post molt, when they're desperate to regain weight, especially true with superworms. Once they've filled out a bit, they may refuse to eat things they did only a few weeks prior.
 

Tongue Flicker

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My Ts will eat dead crickets as well. Just drop them high enough to make some kind of vibration on the substrate that the Ts seem to anticipate as prey. If that doesn't work, a little pokin with a stick usually entices the T :D
 

Sana

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There's individual preferences within a species in prey, what they'll eat and whether it's alive or dead. They tend to take more things post molt, when they're desperate to regain weight, especially true with superworms. Once they've filled out a bit, they may refuse to eat things they did only a few weeks prior.
Thanks for the tidbit. I've been trying to add a little variety to the diets of my picky eaters and have only had limited success. I'll try superworms after the next round of molts, which I'm anticipating sometime in the next month as everyone but the baby GBB is in premolt.
 

Ultum4Spiderz

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Thanks for the tidbit. I've been trying to add a little variety to the diets of my picky eaters and have only had limited success. I'll try superworms after the next round of molts, which I'm anticipating sometime in the next month as everyone but the baby GBB is in premolt.
Yah A lot of my Ts like super-worms more than dubia, I fed them a lot before dubia colony went out of control.
 

Rachelle11

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I feed dead and dying crickets to my spiders, as long as the underside of the cricket's abdomen is still light-colored and hasn't begun to darken. I was doing this last weekend to some of my spiders and dropped a large freshly-dead adult female cricket on the front legs of an AF Augacephalus ezendami. Unlike the other spiders that day (including other ezendami), she didn't grab it. Instead, after a few seconds she carefully and methodically rolled it with her palps and front legs (didn't pick it up) and pushed it over to the side of the cage, as part of her house cleaning. Tidied up the place a bit. I picked up that same cricket (with forceps) and dropped it on the front legs of a juvenile B smithi, who immediately grabbed it with her fangs, thrilled with her good fortune.

Then I went back a tossed a live cricket to the ezendami female, and she quickly pounced on it.

Just wondering why you avoid feeding them once they have begun to darken? I ask because my sling ate a dead cricket at the bottom of her enclosure that I forgot about. It had begun to darken and look a little soft, so I became worried. I honestly wanted to take it from her, but she was already crawling into her web--which I can't get in to without destroying.
 

Vanessa

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Just wondering why you avoid feeding them once they have begun to darken? I ask because my sling ate a dead cricket at the bottom of her enclosure that I forgot about. It had begun to darken and look a little soft, so I became worried. I honestly wanted to take it from her, but she was already crawling into her web--which I can't get in to without destroying.
I would avoid them only because they probably aren't as nutritious anymore. I wouldn't be worried about your spiderling getting a hold of bits that are not that fresh.
 

darkness975

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Just wondering why you avoid feeding them once they have begun to darken? I ask because my sling ate a dead cricket at the bottom of her enclosure that I forgot about. It had begun to darken and look a little soft, so I became worried. I honestly wanted to take it from her, but she was already crawling into her web--which I can't get in to without destroying.
I avoid it due to the risk of issues from decaying matter. When they darken it indicates they are starting to decompose and in nature they do not specialize in scavenging expired organic matter.

I could not tell you what the limit is in the decay process before it could be an issue but not worth the risk.

Reminds me of my venus fly traps (Dionaea muscipula) I would feed crickets to. Even though they were killed live, they decayed and rotted the leaves.

While the same thing wont happen feeding live prey to tarantulas, the threshold for pre-deceased is not something I have experimented with.
 
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