That was scary

PRE66 6TART · Jun 30, 2015

Last night I dropped a tiny cricket in with my new 1.5 inch b. smithi, who showed no signs of premolt that I could tell. This morning I awoke to find him under his hide on his back, and no sign of the cricket. Immediately my stomach dropped and my heart started racing, and I removed the hide, expecting to find a cricket gnawing on a dead spider. Upon doing so he popped out of his molt and flipped upright, and I found the cricket hiding behind the water dish and removed it. Everything appears to be fine, but I had quite a scare. It was my first molt, and I guess I handled it poorly.

Ultum4Spiderz · Jun 30, 2015

Id check abdomen see if its dark on fatter Ts Before feeding ,Yeah You got lucky. Crickets will kill anything that wont fight back.

PRE66 6TART said:
Last night I dropped a tiny cricket in with my new 1.5 inch b. smithi, who showed no signs of premolt that I could tell. This morning I awoke to find him under his hide on his back, and no sign of the cricket. Immediately my stomach dropped and my heart started racing, and I removed the hide, expecting to find a cricket gnawing on a dead spider. Upon doing so he popped out of his molt and flipped upright, and I found the cricket hiding behind the water dish and removed it. Everything appears to be fine, but I had quite a scare. It was my first molt, and I guess I handled it poorly.

TownesVanZandt · Jun 30, 2015

Crickets can injure a molting T, but it is rare I suppose. I keep a lot of OWs and they don´t always show the telltale signs of a molt coming up, so a lot of times I have tossed in a cricket only to notice that the T is molting the day after because the cricket is still wandering around in the enclosure. Luckily I have still never had a cricket injuring a T.

Ultum4Spiderz · Jun 30, 2015

Yeah that's why roaches, are sometimes better. Odds of a Cricket killing a T are still really slim.

PRE66 6TART · Jun 30, 2015

Ultum4Spiderz said:
Id check abdomen see if its dark on fatter Ts Before feeding ,Yeah You got lucky. Crickets will kill anything that wont fight back.

In hindsight I guess the abdomen was fat, and maybe dark, but it didn't have that shiny look that I've seen in premolt pics. And I'm still trying to figure out what a fat vs skinny abdomen looks like. Now at least I have a better idea of what to look for.

GG80 · Jun 30, 2015

Sometimes the signs of premolt are not always visible but are there through the actions of the T. I have a B. boehmei sling that hasn't ever shown the obvious visible signs of premolt like black, shiny abdomen therefore its early molts were a surprise to me.
I now can tell when premolt is coming by the sling's actions. It moves less frequent and reacts much slower when I perform maintainance. Also it's been molting roughly every 3 months so I use the timeframe as a sort of guideline indicator aswell.
When I notice these signs I give the sling pre-killed prey to eliminate any problems should a molt occur.
You'll get to know the signs as you go along and don't beat yourself up about it. You're not the first and you sure as hell won't be the last.

PRE66 6TART · Jun 30, 2015

Not tarantula related, but after that post I discovered the cat chasing the hamster around the house and had to rescue him. Apparently she figured out how to open the hamster cage. So I've had an exciting day, with two tragedies averted.

Blueandbluer · Jun 30, 2015

This is why I also never leave prey in for more than an hour or two. IME, if they're hungry, they'll show interest fast. If they don't, I try again in a couple days.

PRE66 6TART · Jun 30, 2015

Blueandbluer said:
This is why I also never leave prey in for more than an hour or two. IME, if they're hungry, they'll show interest fast. If they don't, I try again in a couple days.

I was having a hard time getting it back out of the enclosure, so I left it. What's the best way to retrieve a cricket if the T doesn't eat it?

Fyrwulf · Jun 30, 2015

Don't starve your crickets and they're not a problem.

Blueandbluer · Jun 30, 2015

I don't know about that, Fyrwulf. I wouldn't trust an overnight cricket even if it had been fed very well up to that point. Those things will et ANYTHING and from what I can tell, are pretty much permanently hungry.

BobGrill · Jun 30, 2015

Blueandbluer said:
I don't know about that, Fyrwulf. I wouldn't trust an overnight cricket even if it had been fed very well up to that point. Those things will et ANYTHING and from what I can tell, are pretty much permanently hungry.

Not much you can do If it's already in there.

Sent from my LG-D801 using Tapatalk

TownesVanZandt · Jul 1, 2015

PRE66 6TART said:
I was having a hard time getting it back out of the enclosure, so I left it. What's the best way to retrieve a cricket if the T doesn't eat it?

It can be a bit tricky to catch crickets with tongs, so you can take a small container and add some food that crickets like, place it in the container and retrieve the whole container with the tongs. I do this with my OBTs to avoid any unnecessary fuss that can lead them to bolt.

PRE66 6TART · Jul 1, 2015

TownesVanZandt said:
It can be a bit tricky to catch crickets with tongs, so you can take a small container and add some food that crickets like, place it in the container and retrieve the whole container with the tongs.

Why didn't I think of that?

Fyrwulf · Jul 1, 2015

Blueandbluer said:
I don't know about that, Fyrwulf. I wouldn't trust an overnight cricket even if it had been fed very well up to that point. Those things will et ANYTHING and from what I can tell, are pretty much permanently hungry.

Dart frog keepers had the same problem until they figured out that they needed to keep something in the cage for the crickets to eat other than the frog's skin.

viper69 · Jul 1, 2015

Blueandbluer said:
I don't know about that, Fyrwulf. I wouldn't trust an overnight cricket even if it had been fed very well up to that point. Those things will et ANYTHING and from what I can tell, are pretty much permanently hungry.

They are not permanently hungry, also many T keepers have left crickets in the Ts container with no issue. During a molt, not recommended of course

That was scary

PRE66 6TART

Arachnopeon

Ultum4Spiderz

Arachnoemperor

TownesVanZandt

Arachnoprince

Ultum4Spiderz

Arachnoemperor

PRE66 6TART

Arachnopeon

GG80

Arachnoknight

PRE66 6TART

Arachnopeon

Blueandbluer

Arachnobaron

PRE66 6TART

Arachnopeon

Fyrwulf

Arachnosquire

Blueandbluer

Arachnobaron

BobGrill

Arachnoprince

TownesVanZandt

Arachnoprince

PRE66 6TART

Arachnopeon

Fyrwulf

Arachnosquire

viper69

ArachnoGod