Basic arboreal feeding question

Windchaser

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I did a search and didn't really find an answer to my question. I have lots of experience with terrestrials, but none with arboreals. Anyway, I got my first arboreal (P. regalis) yesterday and was wondering when you feed an arboreal, do you simply place the cricket in their enclosure? I mean, does the T come down to get it or is it necessary to get the prey to the T somehow.

Thanks
 

pandinus

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is there a peice of bark or anything? if so, the crick can just climb up to meet its doom. another alternative source would be to feed it hissing cockroach nymphs. they are arboreal climbers, too so it simplifies things even more. all of my arboreals seem to love them!


John
 

Immortal_sin

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I feed my arboreals from my roach colony, and it's never an issue, since the roaches will climb around and attract attention to themselves. I suspect it would be the same with crickets. Once a web is established, I usually just put the food item on the webbing, and it's dealt with in short order ;)
P regalis is a good eater IME, and mine have never had trouble locating their food.
 

Joe1968

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my 1.25'' P. regalis is stll in its pill bottle enclosure so its easy for her to find the prey. but my other aboreal species such as P. irminia and cambridgei are in a larger enclosure and they sence it pretty good when theres a prey in their enclosure, so to answer your question, yes, just place the crickets in their cage and they will be able to find it , they can sence when theres a prey nearby and will attack it (very fun to watch), they have a very good speder sence. how big is your P. reg?
 

Windchaser

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pandinus said:
is there a peice of bark or anything? if so, the crick can just climb up to meet its doom. another alternative source would be to feed it hissing cockroach nymphs. they are arboreal climbers, too so it simplifies things even more. all of my arboreals seem to love them!


John
Thanks for the input. There is a piece of bark in the enclosure. This is a P. regalis s'ling. It is about an inch long. I have it in a small, converted Beta tank.
 

Immortal_sin

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It shouldn't be a problem then. IME, as long as the enclosure isn't so large the sling can't find it's food, then the setup sounds fine.
 

JohnxII

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Yes, no worries there. The arboreal T's do come down to hunt. And you actualy got a Pokie for your first arboreal? :eek: You have more guts than I do...
 

chris73

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My arboreals will actively hunt prey on the ground as well. In my experience, it also helps to drop the prey on their webbing so it attracts their attention.
 

shogun804

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yeah i agree throw it in there and it will be dealt with whenever they get hungry. and if they do not come down to eat it at some point then that is a decent indication of an upcoming molt at lease for the young ones IME.
 

DracosBana

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I've been dropping prey into my A. purpurea's webs for a while and they've not been eating too well. Tuesday night a actually put the prey on the floor, went upstairs to watch something, came back down and both were munching contentedly.
 

Windchaser

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JohnxII said:
Yes, no worries there. The arboreal T's do come down to hunt. And you actualy got a Pokie for your first arboreal? :eek: You have more guts than I do...
No guts, no glory. :D

I have some fairly aggressive terrestrials, so I am not too concerned with keeping the Pokie. Though, it is a fast little bugger.
 

Darryl Albers

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I used to fuss , but dont , they havent evolved for 500 000 or more years
to starve with food below them and it makes them more inventive , ie mine have a side entrance and a bottom entrance on there tubular webs , they ambush from the substrate facing entrance for the pesky crickets running around . and usually use the higher side entrance for the climbing locusts .
i watch them a lot . :)
 
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