Making the switch to dubia

[SpellKaster4]

So, I more or less want to do some preemptive complaining. I decided to pull the trigger and see about doing dubia instead of crickets for Peter my LP sling. So I hopped over to dubideli.com and ordered some free samples and got them in today. Surprisingly there were none dead so that's pretty cool. Anyway, I get them all set up in their new death row prison and picked out tonight's lucky winner. Based on its size I figured Peter would be able to take it down on his own so I didn't pre-kill it like I have been doing his crickets. I'm all excited like a kid on Christmas as I open his enclosure and I toss the dubia in. And it immediately buries itself.... Okay I think. No problem. I pick it out and throw it over on the other side where it proceeds to play dead for five minutes. This whole time Peter is watching, amused, atop his cork wood. At this point I figure I'll just wait, they'll figure things out. Fast forward thirty minutes and Peter has walked around and over the dubia a few times but hasn't even really acknowledged its existence, even with it walking around him. I've heard that sometimes when you switch them they won't know at first that the new food is actually food so I'm worried. And I know that maybe he's not hungry or maybe a hundred and one other things are going on making him decide to not murder this stupid bug for my amusement so I'm not stressed or worried or anything. I just think it's funny that Peter decided to poop on my Christmas and I wanted to share my pain.

 

[Dave Jay]

I've had much the same thing but with scorpions. My female U. elongatus seemed quite happy to have wood roaches living with her and climbing all over her for months on end, crickets were doomed though.

 

[SpellKaster4]

I decided to put in a larger, pre-killed dubia. I'm going to leave him to it over night like I usually do with the crickets and see how he does. Once he's hungry enough he'll figure it out one way or another I guess. I just want to watch him to the murdering lol.

 

[Dave Jay]

Roaches are great value with centipedes, once they get running they can almost out manoeuvre the pede, but sooner or later they make a mistake. Watching that leaves a David Attenborough film for dead!

 

[SpellKaster4]

Centipedes are one of those things that I both find incredibly fascinating and absolutely horrifying.

 

[Arachnoclown]

I don't use dubias....they play dead and don't move for days on end which the Tarantula can't sense they are there. Redrunners or hissers is what I use for roaches.

 

[Tortoise Tom]

Centipedes are one of those things that I both find incredibly fascinating and absolutely horrifying.

You are a smart man.

 

[Tortoise Tom]

So, I more or less want to do some preemptive complaining. I decided to pull the trigger and see about doing dubia instead of crickets for Peter my LP sling. So I hopped over to dubideli.com and ordered some free samples and got them in today. Surprisingly there were none dead so that's pretty cool. Anyway, I get them all set up in their new death row prison and picked out tonight's lucky winner. Based on its size I figured Peter would be able to take it down on his own so I didn't pre-kill it like I have been doing his crickets. I'm all excited like a kid on Christmas as I open his enclosure and I toss the dubia in. And it immediately buries itself.... Okay I think. No problem. I pick it out and throw it over on the other side where it proceeds to play dead for five minutes. This whole time Peter is watching, amused, atop his cork wood. At this point I figure I'll just wait, they'll figure things out. Fast forward thirty minutes and Peter has walked around and over the dubia a few times but hasn't even really acknowledged its existence, even with it walking around him. I've heard that sometimes when you switch them they won't know at first that the new food is actually food so I'm worried. And I know that maybe he's not hungry or maybe a hundred and one other things are going on making him decide to not murder this stupid bug for my amusement so I'm not stressed or worried or anything. I just think it's funny that Peter decided to poop on my Christmas and I wanted to share my pain.

I read your post with amusement, and I must say I've never had that experience. If I drop a dubia into a hungry spider's enclosure, it is pounced upon immediately. If not, I will prod it until it runs over near the tarantula, and if the spider doesn't react, I assume its not hungry and remove the roach. I seldom have to remove the roach.

I have Blatta lateralis, dubias, and hissers, and I don't see anything different from any of my tarantulas with any roach species. Over the years I've had rose hairs, curly hairs, Mexican red knees, pink toes, Brazilian blacks, Chaco gold knees and a few local spider species. Also had some scorpion and centipedes. Manitds too. All of them showed the same reaction to any insect I tossed into their lair.

Is it possible Steve isn't hungry at the moment? For experiment's sake, drop a cricket in there and see if he goes for it.

 

[Kymura]

Can't bear the thought of using hissers, I really like them far to much to use them as feeders, and...I have to agree that they can be a PITA,
I had a few that never transitioned to dubia. I even made a couple of funny images about my old porteri gal over the silly things. I do admit tho, they are easy to keep. Better then crickets in that aspect.

https://tarantulaforum.com/threads/...the-adventures-of-yeti-vol-1.6865/#post-61679

 

[Arachnoclown]

Can't bear the thought of using hissers, I really like them far to much to use them as feeders, and...I have to agree that they can be a PITA,
I had a few that never transitioned to dubia. I even made a couple of funny images about my old porteri gal over the silly things. I do admit tho, they are easy to keep. Better then crickets in that aspect.

https://tarantulaforum.com/threads/...the-adventures-of-yeti-vol-1.6865/#post-61679

Seperate the offspring that way you keep your large breeders..."pets".

 

[SpellKaster4]

I don't use dubias....they play dead and don't move for days on end which the Tarantula can't sense they are there. Redrunners or hissers is what I use for roaches.

I'm gonna see how these free samples go but if they're more work than they're worth than I might try a different roach. If all else fails I'll stick to crickets cause they do the job I guess.

 

[SpellKaster4]

You are a smart man.

Anything that uses freaking cyanide as venom is a nope for me.

 

[SpellKaster4]

I read your post with amusement, and I must say I've never had that experience. If I drop a dubia into a hungry spider's enclosure, it is pounced upon immediately. If not, I will prod it until it runs over near the tarantula, and if the spider doesn't react, I assume its not hungry and remove the roach. I seldom have to remove the roach.

I have Blatta lateralis, dubias, and hissers, and I don't see anything different from any of my tarantulas with any roach species. Over the years I've had rose hairs, curly hairs, Mexican red knees, pink toes, Brazilian blacks, Chaco gold knees and a few local spider species. Also had some scorpion and centipedes. Manitds too. All of them showed the same reaction to any insect I tossed into their lair.

Is it possible Steve isn't hungry at the moment? For experiment's sake, drop a cricket in there and see if he goes for it.

I suppose he could just not be hungry. Honestly I have been overfeeding him. I've been giving him a cricket every time the one previous disappears so practically every day. I killed a roach and put it in there to see if he would investigate it on his own and it's still in there so I dunno. I'll get some more crickets tomorrow when I go to work and see what he does. Knowing my luck I'll have the only picky LP out there lol. If he does go straight for the cricket I wonder how I'll get him interested in roaches.

 

[Nunua]

My A. geniculata juvie "Maisa" also attacked on crickets right away, but actually got startled by the very first dubia I offered her so I took the dubia away and decided to try again later. The second time I hold the dubia upside down with tongs - As it started to move its legs, Maisa got interested in the movement and turned herself towards it. At that point I dropped the dubia in and it was pounced on right away.

I usually don't tong feed her because as greedy as she is, there is a big possibility that she'll bite the tongs instead of the feeder. But at this time the tongs were very helpful to see if she was interested in

 

[SpellKaster4]

My A. geniculata juvie "Maisa" also attacked on crickets right away, but actually got startled by the very first dubia I offered her so I took the dubia away and decided to try again later. The second time I hold the dubia upside down with tongs - As it started to move its legs, Maisa got interested in the movement and turned herself towards it. At that point I dropped the dubia in and it was pounced on right away.

I usually don't tong feed her because as greedy as she is, there is a big possibility that she'll bite the tongs instead of the feeder. But at this time the tongs were very helpful to see if she was interested in

I've heard a few other stories similar to this. It seems like sometimes they just don't know what to do at first. I've got plenty of sacrificial roaches for Peter, he's got time to figure out that they're food.