Crickets; grab; attack; eat; vanish!

[Richard Shah]

Hey everyone at the BTS forums!

Been some time since I posted on here, so I'd just like to say hello to everyone here

As many should know I have two tarantulas now; Pyro and Ice Cube.

Ice Cube has started to come out again and even began eating too. He doesn't look bigger to me but to my sister and her b/f, he looks much bigger, which is surprising since we haven't seen Ice Cube for the same amount of time. Also, he has an abdomen full of black hairs which wasn't the case before at all; I cannot see any skins and he simply looks the same size to me so this in itself is quite baffling. It's also very hard to get a picture as Ice Cube is one very skittish tarantula; totally contradicting Pyro!

Any way what this topic was really about is how Pyro (mainly Pyro) and Ice Cube (when he/she does eat) seems to eat the food but never leave any trace of it.
For example, I gave a cricket to Pyro today (like I do every three days) and he/she launched itslef at it and totally destroyed it. Pyro then proceeded to walk around with it in it's fangs for about half an hour before stopping to just suck on it. Several hours later and Pyro is on the glass and I cannot see any trace of the cricket; anywhere.

I know many sites and people say to remove the carcasses to avoid outbreaks of mites or other small organisms but I simply cannot find any remains and haven't seen any mites either.

Is this normal? What should I do?

Thanks a lot everybody! And again, to Louise

Rich

[jason holland]

dont worry at all. my smithi leaves no remains wotsoever. everynow and again u might find an empty shell. but not very often with my smithi. even with all the locusts i gave it, i only ever had one shell left for me. so i wouldnt worry about it. perfectly normal

[Richard Shah]

dont worry at all. my smithi leaves no remains wotsoever. everynow and again u might find an empty shell. but not very often with my smithi. even with all the locusts i gave it, i only ever had one shell left for me. so i wouldnt worry about it. perfectly normal

Cheers Jason. I was also just wondering; how does a tarantula eat the solid parts of a cricket? I ean, they have no mouth do they; no actual jaw structure. So how do they consume it all?
Or, am I seriously mistaken?

Thanks again mate,

Rich.

[jason holland]

you know... i actually have no idea... all i know is... when there hungry, they eat bl**dy everything lol.

[Kate Arbon]

There probably are remains but they get crushed up pretty small and covered in dirt so they're sometimes really hard to spot. I have some spiders who always leave visible remains, like legs and wings, and others which I never see any leftovers from. Just clean em out if you happen to find them but don't worry if you don't, unless you get mites it's not a problem. And you'd only get mites if the tank was damp which it probably never will be unless you have a species that needs it humid.

[Richard Shah]

you know... i actually have no idea... all i know is... when there hungry, they eat bl**dy everything lol.

Lmao! I have some really hungry tarantulas then!

There probably are remains but they get crushed up pretty small and covered in dirt so they're sometimes really hard to spot. I have some spiders who always leave visible remains, like legs and wings, and others which I never see any leftovers from. Just clean em out if you happen to find them but don't worry if you don't, unless you get mites it's not a problem. And you'd only get mites if the tank was damp which it probably never will be unless you have a species that needs it humid.

Nah none of my mine are; both tank are very dry in terms of the substrate and normal room humidty.
Thanks Kate And thanks again Jason.

BTW everybody I found a skin in Ice Cube's tank; He did moult but he hardly looks any bigger to me; still he looks thicker, like a proper T. should be.

[Colin D Wilson]

Kate's quite right, there will be remains, they will be a little hard, dried and crushed up "blob" located around the tank somewhere.
Mine normally leave their little "food Bolus" in and around the water bowl and/or in the corner of the tank.
Sometimes there very hard to see as they resemble clumps of substrate, normally covered in dirt anyway.

[Louise~Nichols]

Hello again Rich!! Tis good to see you, and I hope all went well with that week of school tests.

I find with my Brachys that they can go for ages just eating like pigs without seeing a scrap of debris, then suddenly a bolus of remains gets deposited somewhere in the tank...mine usually dump it behind their water bowls or in the corner closest to their water.
It's lovely to know you're enjoying Pyro so much, and it sounds like she/he is getting on extremely well in your care, so, well done and keep up the good work.

[Peter Lacey]

I had the same worries about remains until I realised how these appear, even then I found them hard to find. It seems there's a fair amount of indegistible parts of the crickets and more noticeably the locusts. These are often broken up and formed into a round pellet, similar to an owls dropping. My pokies and Avics actually flick these away from their hides which I guess mirrors what happens in nature. They're very dry but well camouflaged. Just give your substrate a good look once a week and remove what you can. As stated above, its not such an issue with dry substrates.

[Richard Shah]

Hello again Rich!! Tis good to see you, and I hope all went well with that week of school tests.

I find with my Brachys that they can go for ages just eating like pigs without seeing a scrap of debris, then suddenly a bolus of remains gets deposited somewhere in the tank...mine usually dump it behind their water bowls or in the corner closest to their water.
It's lovely to know you're enjoying Pyro so much, and it sounds like she/he is getting on extremely well in your care, so, well done and keep up the good work.

Thanks! Fairly well; I'm being kept in all the same sets but I did get some stupidly low marks due to the fact that I'm extremely slow with getting through the tests. Howeer my teachers seem very pleased with me too so it's all quite good!

I find substrate in the bowl but no remains of pellets; typical Auratum behaviour; putting the substrate in the bowl!

Yeah, Pyro seems to be doing very well; thank you

Kate's quite right, there will be remains, they will be a little hard, dried and crushed up "blob" located around the tank somewhere.
Mine normally leave their little "food Bolus" in and around the water bowl and/or in the corner of the tank.
Sometimes there very hard to see as they resemble clumps of substrate, normally covered in dirt anyway.

I'll be keeping my eyes open, definitely!

Thanks Colin.

I had the same worries about remains until I realised how these appear, even then I found them hard to find. It seems there's a fair amount of indegistible parts of the crickets and more noticeably the locusts. These are often broken up and formed into a round pellet, similar to an owls dropping. My pokies and Avics actually flick these away from their hides which I guess mirrors what happens in nature. They're very dry but well camouflaged. Just give your substrate a good look once a week and remove what you can. As stated above, its not such an issue with dry substrates.

Most surely Peter; thank you.

Thanks everyone!

[matthew spooner]

Hey everyone at the BTS forums!

Been some time since I posted on here, so I'd just like to say hello to everyone here

ur not the only one rich, the whole forum in general seems to have been rather quiet of late but nice to see you back with us

[Richard Shah]

ur not the only one rich, the whole forum in general seems to have been rather quiet of late but nice to see you back with us

Thanks Matthew. You know I will visit these forums every now and then to answer/ask (maybe more likely?) questions and add to discussions, but definitely not as much as before; in fact, a lot less!

Thanks,

Rich.