Feeding after a moult and catching uneaten crickets

[Jane Mitchell]

My L Para has just gone through a successful moult (while we were on holiday so had the joy of a nice new shiny spider when we got home!) He hadn't eaten for a couple of months so we were kind of expecting it.

We left him for a week after we came back - so it would be 10-12 days since the moult - and tried him with a nice juicy cricket. He's totally not interested BUT now we can't catch the cricket to get him out of the tank. We've tried catching him in a glass but that didn't work and we don't want to rummage around in the tank too much in case it upsets the T if he's still feeling a bit delicate.

Any ideas on how to catch him? Will it harm the T if we can't? At the moment, we're hoping that depriving the cricket of food will slow him down enough so we can get him.

If we do manage to catch the cricket, how long should we wait until we try him with another one?

[Thomas Pitchford]

One of my T's homes is an old sweet jar, so, since it's a very tall structure with a smaller opening than a traditional tank, I have a very long thin stick that I wrap the end with cellotape - I carefully poke it on the cricket and the tape is sticky enough to pick up the cricket, yet gently take him off once he's out of the tank. I now do this with all the tanks because my T's are either unaware or unbothered by the "intrusion".

[Peter Lacey]

I like the idea of your sticky stick Thomas
The issue with leaving crickets in the enclosure is to avoid the moulting T being eaten by a hidden cricket. Personally I'd leave the cricket in there, perhaps supply it some lettuce and eventually the T will eat it. However, I sometimes find removing them and replacing with a completely different one seems to work, no idea why!
For slings/juveniles I often wait 2-3 days after a moult before feeding. For adults I tend to wait a week. This allows plenty of time for them to harden and the most important part of that is allowing the fangs to harden from ivory to black.

[Andy Wood]

Agree with Peter Jane, the spider might get annoyed at the cricket but if
it's hardened up after the shed it won't be injured. You could try putting a
section of egg carton in and the cricket will probably us it as a hideout and
you can get him that way.
I've got a gadget that I think is part of an electricians tool kit, flexible metal
with 3 gripping wires on the end and a button you press in on tother end,
excellent gadget for catching crickets, removing rubbish and old sheds.

AndyZoo

[Jamie Brady]

crickets

This is an interesting thread, getting the cricket out of a chili rosea's tank is alot easier than say an orange baboon-like to hear from other folk on the interesting things they do to remove them

[Jane Mitchell]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I might give the sticky tape a go! Otherwise, the cricket will just have to wait for his fate!

I'm not too worried about the T being injured. We left it well over a week before feeding so he had chance to toughen up a bit and from what we can see (as he's hiding a lot at the moment) he's probably about 7-8" across now so he should be big enough to look after himself!!!

[Maria Clarke]

There is some great ideas here, I often wondered how I was going to get the uneaten crickets out of a tank, with a skittish T in there,

its all ok with a rosie, not so easy with a pokie!!