Fussy eater

[stevebagnall]

I've got a huge A.Geniculata. Now on purchasing I thought she'd need some big food. So I went and bought the biggest locusts I could find. I popped one in with her and eagerly waited for her to pounce. Only to have her run away from the locust! Now I also had some large crickets, and she loves these and eats them no problem.

Does anyone else have a T that just won't eat certain food types? My other T's all love the locusts and benefitted from her turning her fangs up at them.

One great moment was when the locust walked under the T, and she raised herself so that the locust could pass under. The locust then proceeded to stand up putting it's front legs onto the belly of the spider, making it look for all the world like she was lifting this huge 8"+ female. A great photo opportunity but she had moved by the time I got the camera on!

Anyway, comments or thought on why she won't touch them would be appreciated. I've thought of buying some mice? But not sure of the mess or if she'd take them.

[Phil Rea]

I have a female G. rosea who would only eat brown crickets. Not black ones, not locusts, not roaches, not anything else.

She moulted, and now eats whatever you give her. G. rosea are great

[Guy Tansley]

Hi Steve,

IME A. geniculata are voracious feeders but there could be a number of reasons why your spider is refusing food. Have you given it enough time to settle in it's new enclosure? Sometimes they won't feed for a few days until they're settled. How large is the locust? Even the most eager feeders will shy away from a locust if it's too big or they have never experianced one before. The spider could also be approaching a moult and therefore refusing food will be in line with pre-moult behaviour. If it's none of the above, just remove the locust and try again in a few days and then with a different prey item such as crickets.

[Phil Rea]

In addition to what Guy has said, I've noticed that locusts do tend to jump around at the slightest provocation, and that can initially spook some Ts.

[Colin D Wilson]

A Large Juvi L parahybana of mine changes personality and feeding habits from moult to moult.
At the moment he's always out in the open, feeding readily on large black crickets. last moult he was always in his hide and only wanted large locusts, ignoring everything else.
As Guy says above trying after a few days with a different food type is normally the way to go, and is sound advice, but this one seems to be just set in his ways.

[Louise~Nichols]

Hi Steve,
If it's any help...I have 3 Genics...none of them will eat locusts!! I don't worry about it, I just let them have their crickets....I'd not go with mice too often...or you'll end up with a spider that needs to go weight training to lift it's backside off the ground!!

[Clinton Hogben]

Hi Steve
I have a 7" L Para thats the same really fussy. she used to eat locusts then started to ignore them and like yours runs away from them now, she prefers brown crickets to black crickets and will eat them like potato chips all day long other times she will stop eating live food altogether and just go for a chunk of steak .As colin mentioned they can change feeding preference after a moult as well as changing personality

dont worry just feed it what it fancy's


Clint

[Kate Arbon]

I noticed the exact same thing with my G. rosea. I got her in December, and I had been using hopper locusts as food for a few months. Between mid December and this week she ate only one locust, even though she looked pretty skinny. She would pounce at the locusts but not catch them, just kind of follow them around with her legs up, very weird.

I figured she was just on hunger strike because I've heard rosea do that. But this week I switched back to crickets as I got fed up of the locusts' habit of climbing up to the lid of my spider tanks. The first time I put a cricket in with my rosea she nailed it in a flash. I threw in another one and she went straight for it as well, first time I've seen a T with two bugs in their mouth at once, lol. So I guess she just doesn't really like locusts. I'll be sticking to crickets again now I guess.