Hurt a T,?

[kirsty smith]

I understand the fact that crickets can hurt a t, while its moulting 7 just after a moult,but in normal circumstances can a cricket or locust hurt your t,?. I guess im a bit worried about the first time i feed Lois!

[wesley flower]

i have in the past had cricket do damage to a spider wether it is going to moult or not. if my spiders dont take the food in less than 12 hrs the food is removed.

[Phil Rea]

Not normally. The spider will just grasp the food item and dispatch it.

Spiders can sometimes shy away from prey initially, so don't be worried if yours does. Leave it a while, and more often than not you'll look again, and the spider will be eating.

If the prey item is still in there after 24 hours or so, then remove it

[kirsty smith]

Today i bought a couple of locusts,as these are what i was told she had been eating at the shop i bought her from. Ive even bought a small pet keeper to keep the locust in,put some lettuce in for them.
from what i can work out from the shop i bought her from,she hasnt eaten since boxing day,she seems to have settled in quite well in her tank(ive now had her a week) Stan said to wait a week - 10 days,so ive put them in,but she doesnt seem intrested,have i stressed her?,im taking them out tomorrow morning if she hasnt eaten them,its just ive hardly seen her since i put them in? (i usually see her legs or bum sticking out the front of the hide at some point every day!)

[James Box]

welcome to the fun world of G rosea keeping lol...they sometimes go off food for months! sometimes it's a long premoult cycle, sometimes it's just them being weird. you have very little to worry about, though. just keep trying!

[Phil Rea]

I have one that would only eat brown crickets. Nothing else. She fasted for several months, moulted, and now she eats anything given to her. They're great fun

[Peter Lacey]

The one thing that's common with all new people to the tarantula world, and include myself in that, is the fear we're not providing well for them. Whether that be food, heat, humidity, substrate, water etc we're all concerned.
Seems the more I read in books and forums the more I find Ts don't need as much as we think they do. They can survive in the simplest of enclosures and be seen less in something more naturalistic.
From what I've read Ts can go without food for months and possibly 2 years! as long as they have water. They can survive extreme temperatures that few animals survive, and they've done so for centuries.

Don't worry about her not eating. She's been through a lot. Make sure anything you feed her is small enough for her to manage. If you decide to leave live food in there for any length of time make sure its when you're likely to be regularly in attendance - eg the weekend. Try introducing the food close to her rather than dropped into a tank furthest away from where she resides. Ts can be quite lazy about finding food.

It may reassure you to know I haven't found one post suggesting a T has died through lack of food.

[Clinton Hogben]

Hi Kirsty
As everyone else has said dont worry toooooo much she will be fine
My Lasiodora has a reputation for eating everything in site but I have found she has become very fussy shying away from black crickets and locusts since her last moult.
The only thing she has eaten over the last 6 weeks or so is a couple of big earth worms (taken from a pesticide free compost heap) and drinks of fresh water now and again

but like you i keep checking
temp ok 80 degs "fine"
humidity 60-80 % across the tank "fine"
no mites, no change to environment nothing else weird

I give up and will leave it to her she knows best when she wants something she will let me know


And as mentioned "T"s are very hardy beasts and wont starve

All the best

Clinton