Feeding Baby T's..

[Hemolymph]

Hrm.. My newly arrived baby T's are probably getting hungry. However, recomendations say to feed them pinhead crickets.. etc.. Well.. I went and bought some pinhead crickets.. and to be honest, they just seem way too big for them.
At the pinheads smallest they are exactly the same length as the babies.
I do have giant meal worms, also...
I've never had a T as small as these guys are.

How do you go about feeding very small babies ? Does the food need to be live ? Should I cut up a meal worm ?

Any advice is greatly appreciated !

- Jeni

[Hemolymph]

Quick update: I offered all 3 babys the smallest pin heads I could get outta the ones I bought and..
my Grammostola Rosea killed a cricket straight away... i put 2 pinheads in there for her to eat.. it seems like she'll probably eat the other one after she's done with the first.
I offered another to my Lasiodora Parahybana.. which is the biggest out of all 3.. and it didn't go after the cricket at all. It raises it's front few legs a few times. It may be about to moult. All of it's limbs are very stiff looking. It totally ignored the cricket.. so I took the cricket out because it seemed like an annoyance.

And.. last but not least.. my very small Brachypelma Albopilosum is too busy pretending it's in a burrow to notice it's food. It is very small, and to be honest this is the only one I am worried about food wise. The cricket is either the same size as it is, or a smidgen bigger.
I will wait and see.. But it just likes to jam it's self between the glass and the substrate with it's bum in the air.. its very cute.

What do I do if my B. Albo is too small to kill it ?

Thanks,
Jeni

[Warren Beattie]

I had a similar problem recently. I recieved three young Euscorpius flavicaudis, each about 6-8mm long (including the 'tail'). Unfortunately the shop where I get my livefood was out of microcrickets and the smallest available were the same size as my scorpions.
Then I remembered a few articles I read about tiny spiderlings accepting crushed crickets and chopped mealworm segments. I tried this, and two of the scorpions latched onto the squashed offerings almost immediately. Currently all three are eating well.

Also, I've raised two B. albopilosum myself. Hardy spiders, and voracious feeders, except within a few days of moulting. When I first got them it took them a few days to settle down and start excavating little burrows for themselves.
I use a compost/vermiculite mix, which may help keep the substrate loose enough for spiderlings to burrow. But having said that, I've had spiderlings which moved and rearranged all the substrate in their containers to their liking, including large pieces of vermiculite and bark chips.

[Hemolymph]

Yeah, warren.. my little B. Albopilosum has been getting better at burrowing by the day since I got it ! First it pretended it was in a burrow with it's bum in the air.. then it actually dug down a bit the next day.... and now it is completely covered over in the substrate. Haven't a clue where it's at.. but it was ignoring the food still, so I just took the cricket out !
I can't wait until it moults.. because it's so tiny right now, it's hard to tell where it is !



- Jeni