feeding problem with my GBB

[steve wilkins]

hi folks- i have a sub-adult GBB- think it's a female, as the one i had before as a juv matured as a male within a year, & i've had this one longer than that, bought it as a small sub-adult. anyway, here is the problem- she ain't eaten properly since her last moult, last summer, & not at all since autumn! since she moulted last, she has eaten about 6 times, & not at all since mid-autumn. she goes nowhere near her water dish, but will drink water dropped onto her web. until her last moult she ate like a gannet! all my other t's are fine, but i find they all eat erratically in winter. (the room they are kept in gets quite cold, the pet-pals i keep them in are heated by heatmats under 1/3 of the bottom.) they all eat occasionally- even my chile rose is eating- but not my GBB. she stays on her web all the time, spun on top of the heated area. if this is a heat problem, why are none of my other t's affected? & if it isn't, what's stopping her eating? any clues?

[Stephen jordan]

Hi, It may well be a heat problem. I dont think that T's in general like to be heated from below, from advice and information from here and the spidershop, they advised to put the heatmat on the side of the tank. If you think about it they wouldnt be heated from below in their natural habitat, it would be from above from the sun and they create burrows to escape the extreme heat of the day and hunt at night. Try changing the position of the heat source. All my T's are heated from the side, and after my cabinet is built they will be heated from above. I hope this helps a little in solving your problem

[steve wilkins]

yet my other t's are fine, & all are heated by the same method. only the GBB refuses to feed, & she fed before her last moult. btw,i have kept t's for 12 years, & never had this problem before. the heatmat doesn't cover the whole bottom, only 1/3. my brachy's are feeding, so is my chile rose, brazilian black, & all my other s. americans.

[Ray Hale]

If the heat source has not changed then it may not be the root problem. The spider may just be going through internal changes. Some spiders will eat voracioulsy and then fast for months. I once had an Aphonopelma seemanni that went nearly two years without eating and then moulted on Christmas day. She had no ill effects and went on to eat two weeks later.

Try not to worry too much if she has adequate water and is active she will probably be Ok.

Hope this helps

Ray

[steve wilkins]

SHE HAS FED! all i did, on a hunch, was put her in a different petpal & changed the heatmat for a newer one- she was in an 11'' x 7'', i put her in a 10'' x 6''. after a few hours of her sulking, i found her on the heated area, on tiptoes, back arched, pedipalps & front legs hunched under her jaws- the classic 'feeding hunch'- so i looked closer & sure enough, there was a cricket in her fangs! that was last night, & she hasn't eaten again, yet. so i don't know yet if she has truly broken her fast, or if this was a fluke, triggered by moving her (she may have only eaten to build up the energy to make a new web, rather than being genuinely hungry). but still, she HAS eaten, which she wouldn't do before!