- Joined
- Jan 31, 2009
- Messages
- 79
I thought maybe it was a tarantula. I have had success feeding large burrowing wolf spiders to adults before.
Ah man, I knew this question was going to be asked and to be honest I will keep this part to myself. But I will say that it was a little smaller than her.Just out of curiosity, what species was fed? How big was the "meal spider".
Dang thing looks nice and plump now, so I'm guessing the fed spider was an adult or close.
Ahhhh! Most likely not.I heard it was a P metallica
You know I do wish I didn't have to sacrifice another spider. The whole purpose to this thread is really of why of all the prey that was giving to her from her last molt she refused. Why is it that minutes before feeding her a tarantula she would not eat crickets? And why a week later after having her first meal that she still refused a different source of food but accepted another tarantula as a meal?I wonder if you could get the same response by feeding a true spider and not have to sacrifice any other T's in your collection.
Yeah you were right all a long. As a pet keeper I have a tarantula that not had a meal over a year, obviously the baumgarteni is a rare species in the hobby and which makes her valuable. Regardless of the financial part she is still valuable as the two that died, take away the financial part all spiders are equal, but hard choices have to be made.Ah, so my guess was correct.
I, too, am curious as to what what the "feeder species" was. The thought that comes to my mind is, how does one decide what tarantula is more worthy or deserving of continued life than the other?
I have experienced that some of my larger arboreals will ignore smaller prey like crickets and go for larger male dubias. I don't know if it is because they don't deem them worthwhile or that they are better at hiding.[/COLOR] You know I do wish I didn't have to sacrifice another spider. The whole purpose to this thread is really of why of all the prey that was giving to her from her last molt she refused. Why is it that minutes before feeding her a tarantula she would not eat crickets? And why a week later after having her first meal that she still refused a different source of food but accepted another tarantula as a meal?
-J
My thought is since we love our tarantulas we just don't want to see another tarantula get hurt, neglected or abused.I asked this question on another post. What's the difference between a cricket and a tarantula. Aside from cost I don't understand why people are so offended by it.
That maybe true, it's just weird that two of my spider around the same time molted and decided to refuse food. One died earlier this year.I have experienced that some of my larger arboreals will ignore smaller prey like crickets and go for larger male dubias. I don't know if it is because they don't deem them worthwhile or that they are better at hiding.
A live, healthy tarantula can seriously injure or kill another in its struggles.I asked this question on another post. What's the difference between a cricket and a tarantula. Aside from cost I don't understand why people are so offended by it.
That is true I took a risk. The two tarantula I gave her was a bit smaller than her. Even though both tarantulas that were smaller it could have injured my baumgarteni.A live, healthy tarantula can seriously injure or kill another in its struggles.
A cricket cannot.
I will let you guys know, I'm hoping that she will start eating her regular food. It's unfortunate that I have another tarantula I bought for her. If I see a decrease in size of her abdomen within a week I will try to feed her again with some crickets, if she does not want the cricket I will be giving her another tarantula. Right now I'm not comfortable with her weight and health of how long she went without food.Well, a couple thoughts. One tarantula was probably going to die in the end, so it was a matter of having to choose which. If you had done nothing, there would likely still be one less spider. Secondly, dying of starvation, even a self imposed starvation probably entails more suffering than being immediately killed and eaten, and being killed and eaten is the more natural of the two demises. As long as it is a last ditch effort, I don't really see a big problem. A controversial thing to be sure, but wrong? I don't think so.
I do hope that anybody that would consider it would make it a last-ditch attempt rather than "My spider hasn't eaten in two months, I'll try giving it another tarantula!" Also, if i was faced with such a choice, I'd prefer to use a mature male if one was available, preferably one that had already been successfully paired.
I think the question of whether or not a largish true spider, if available, would trigger the same feeding response, such as a wolf spider. Like you, I also wonder if the possibility might exist that the spider will no longer accept anything but another spider.That could become a bit of a headache to have to make a similar decision repeatedly for the rest of the fussy-eater's life span. Be sure to let us know if the B. baumgarteni finally accepts anything else.
Could I do it? I'm not sure. I had enough difficulty euthanizing one when I knew it was for the best, and there was no question that it was for the best. And even then, I needed somebody else to tell me that it was. But that's a weakness of my own, not a criticism towards the action you chose.
I had the same thought, makes me wonder that it might be a challenge for them. I just don't understand why not eating for so long.This might be wacky but is it possible that it starts off defending itself then the feeding response kicks in?
This was also my thought. "Hey, that's big enough to hurt me, I'd better kill it" and then once it's in her fangs "...it's kinda tasty, might as well not waste it."This might be wacky but is it possible that it starts off defending itself then the feeding response kicks in?