Dessicata Female eating like a pansy

[kitkat39]

After her last molt, my Dessicata female hasn't really been eating very much. Before that she would eat and eat and eat til she got FAT! NOW, however, she seems to eat a tiny portion then just completely drop her food. She's gotten a little better at eating now, even though it's still super wasteful. Before she'll attack the food then eat one line straight through.. kind of like if you grabbed me and ate from one side of my neck to the other.. then she'd drop the food completely.. If I put in new food she'd do the same thing. At least now she'll eat the equivalent of a neck and like.. maybe one of my arms or something.. but she continues to just drop her food like she completely loses interest. I put her into a bigger container so she'd be more comfortable.. even tried different foods. So far it's been roaches, crickets, and flies. I guess I could just keep putting in food and let her waste it.. Will need to eat like 12 crickets to be the equivalent of just finishing one of them off.

Has anyone ever had a problem like this? Normally I really wouldn't care and would let natural selection take it's course, however, she is my lone Dessicata! Sub Adult too! And I've got like a few males that are future mating potentials waiting around. ;-)

Let me know what you guys have done in this situation.. if no replies then I guess I'll just have to continue wasting food on her.

 

[Krissim Klaw]

Are you positive its a girl and not a boy?

I have one female that went through a similar problem after shedding. Would try to eat but get hardly anything in her before dropping the food. I finally managed to figure out she had a deformity with her mouth that was making it hard for her to bite through the tough exoskeletons of her prey. To fight this I feed her either freshly shed prey items (as in just came out of the skin are still white and super soft) or I will partially gut/mash the food and hand feed it. I found if I hold the mushy part of an insect up to her mouth she will start to eat than take it in her own claws and do the rest of the work. There is still lots of uneaten bits when it is all said and done, but she gets plenty in her to survive and being she is going on 10 months of age it seems to be working pretty well for her.

 

[ismart]

How often are you trying to feed her? I would wait like 3, or 4 days before trying to feed her again. I had a similar problem with my sub-adult female Dessicata's. Also don't bother using flies. These guys prefer large ground based insects. Like roaches, crikets, and such. My adult females would not even look at a blue bottle fly.

 

[kitkat39]

Are you positive its a girl and not a boy?

I have one female that went through a similar problem after shedding. Would try to eat but get hardly anything in her before dropping the food. I finally managed to figure out she had a deformity with her mouth that was making it hard for her to bite through the tough exoskeletons of her prey. To fight this I feed her either freshly shed prey items (as in just came out of the skin are still white and super soft) or I will partially gut/mash the food and hand feed it. I found if I hold the mushy part of an insect up to her mouth she will start to eat than take it in her own claws and do the rest of the work. There is still lots of uneaten bits when it is all said and done, but she gets plenty in her to survive and being she is going on 10 months of age it seems to be working pretty well for her.

I actually found this out to be true just last night. I paid extra close attention to her and she seems to be having trouble eating the hard exoskeleton of her prey and that was the main reason why she'd just she did what she did. She likes to eat the guts and although there is a lot still left, she's getting a tad bit of food but throwing a lot of the food away because of it.