H. lividum (cobalt blue) feeding tips.

miserykills

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 30, 2014
Messages
71
A month or two ago I posted about an H. lividum sling/juvie that was obviously dehydrated. Now it is doing great in its proper set up. It has tons of dirt and it has somehow dug all the way to the bottom and now I dont know how to feed it lol. I fed it a medium cricket a week or two ago by adding a little water to its burrow and it came to the top and ate but now its burrow is much, much deeper. It is against the corner of the tank thankfully so i can see it but now it looks like its digging across now that its hit the bottom. once it goes sideways i dont think the water trick will work so how do i make sure it eats? im sure its ok for now since it ate so recently but i dont want to risk anything since its been unhealthy in the past. thanks for any tips and advice!
 

pyro fiend

Arachnoprince
Joined
Dec 29, 2013
Messages
1,216
Agreed buddy has a lividum whos dug big ol tunnels looking like a root network.. only other thing we do is crush a roach head and drop it in the top..(shes an AF) she always eats :)
 

ArachnoFreak666

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 13, 2014
Messages
19
believe it or not, but they will tend to wonder out of there burrows at night (most likely when your sleeping). if it is hungry it will wonder out and find the cricket. one thing I do with my B. vagans that has dug a tunnel down to the bottom and around the edges of its enclosure, is drop a cricket in the hole and it will wonder around in the tunnel until inevitably eaten.
 

pyro fiend

Arachnoprince
Joined
Dec 29, 2013
Messages
1,216
believe it or not, but they will tend to wonder out of there burrows at night (most likely when your sleeping). if it is hungry it will wonder out and find the cricket. one thing I do with my B. vagans that has dug a tunnel down to the bottom and around the edges of its enclosure, is drop a cricket in the hole and it will wonder around in the tunnel until inevitably eaten.
This is what i do with roaches for Ts of all sizes.. from my 1/2-1" biehmei to my buddies full grown lividum and M. Robustom.. but being as i use dubias i crush heads so they dont run off and dig but pretty fun to drop grasshoppers n horn worms in 6" females burrows and watch them walk/attempt to walk around untell.. WWWWHHHHOP.. xD
 

ArachnoFreak666

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 13, 2014
Messages
19
This is what i do with roaches for Ts of all sizes.. from my 1/2-1" biehmei to my buddies full grown lividum and M. Robustom.. but being as i use dubias i crush heads so they dont run off and dig but pretty fun to drop grasshoppers n horn worms in 6" females burrows and watch them walk/attempt to walk around untell.. WWWWHHHHOP.. xD
lol that the best part about it. ive even dropped crickets in the container and they voluntarily walked down into the burrow, then I just lift up the container and watch the show... last time the vagans was in the very back of the burrow and ran all the way to the front, grabed the cricket and ran back before I could even realize what just happened lol
 

pyro fiend

Arachnoprince
Joined
Dec 29, 2013
Messages
1,216
lol that the best part about it. ive even dropped crickets in the container and they voluntarily walked down into the burrow, then I just lift up the container and watch the show... last time the vagans was in the very back of the burrow and ran all the way to the front, grabed the cricket and ran back before I could even realize what just happened lol
haha my ~1" boehmei thinks hes part trapdoor spider.. he waits at the top of the hole when hungry. And ill drop a dubia in.. hell grab it n slowly shimmy down to the chamber.. then just for kicks ill add another dubia on top of hole. He will feel silk move.. whoosh up the 4" tunnel in a flash. Grabs it. N slooowly shimis back down to his loft xD hard to believe a brachy moves THAT fast and befor this new habbit i thought my psalms where the only sp i personally kept who could teleport.. apparently so can hungry brachys because all i seen was an orange flash and then he was slowluy shimiing down haha...id love some real fossorials now xD
 

ArachnoFreak666

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 13, 2014
Messages
19
haha my ~1" boehmei thinks hes part trapdoor spider.. he waits at the top of the hole when hungry. And ill drop a dubia in.. hell grab it n slowly shimmy down to the chamber.. then just for kicks ill add another dubia on top of hole. He will feel silk move.. whoosh up the 4" tunnel in a flash. Grabs it. N slooowly shimis back down to his loft xD hard to believe a brachy moves THAT fast and befor this new habbit i thought my psalms where the only sp i personally kept who could teleport.. apparently so can hungry brachys because all i seen was an orange flash and then he was slowluy shimiing down haha...id love some real fossorials now xD
lol that's the exact reason I refuse to believe that brachys are slow when people say that. before I sold my male boehmei, every time I would feed him, he would literally jump at the tongs and hang onto them with the cricket in his mouth! and the best part about it is he would have to make complete 180s to do that and did all of it before I could even get the tongs close to the ground! the only true slow moving T i own is my G. porteri, damn thing hasn't even eatin in months!
 

freedumbdclxvi

Arachnoprince
Joined
May 28, 2012
Messages
1,426
lol that's the exact reason I refuse to believe that brachys are slow when people say that.
We call Brachys "slow" compared to other spider species. Most experienced keepers would not mean "slow" as in snail's pace. All spiders can move quicker than the eye.
 

Mina

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 4, 2005
Messages
2,136
To the op. Yes. Just drop them in, if your colbolt wants to eat, she will find food. I don't think brachys are slow, but I do have a close to 6 in male boehmei that always has to be afraid of his food before he eats it. He always runs from the crickets when I first put them in his house.
 

Methal

Arachnosquire
Joined
Nov 5, 2014
Messages
61
Wait, let me get a pen and paper. Okay, now what do you do?
Ok now that the cricket is in, squat down a bit till your thighs feel like they are on fire, and wait till the spider eats.

If the spider doesn't eat by the time your legs give out, there is something wrong and you need to panic.

mebby give the spider a good misting. Or poke it with something, your finger will work best.

/sarcasm =)
 

ArachnoFreak666

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 13, 2014
Messages
19
We call Brachys "slow" compared to other spider species. Most experienced keepers would not mean "slow" as in snail's pace. All spiders can move quicker than the eye.
exactly, they all "move quicker than the eye"... even if they are slower than another species, they are still fast, which is why I wont say a species of tarantula is slow, just because another species is faster... either way they are both really fast.
 

cold blood

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
Messages
13,216
One of my favorite things about feeding a burrowed t that I can see is dropping a cricket in and watching the t as the cricket walks around upstairs. So often the t will follow beneath it. There is no question in my mind that they know when there is a cricket upstairs when they're actively hunting.
 
Top