Tiger Nutrition Part II

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sammy4tbts

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Well, I've tried several times over the past week and Sammy refuses to eat the worms. I even tried the "kitchen sink" trick someone here recommended. He watches the worms, but backs away from them when they get too close. One even got under him and they both stopped moving and Sammy just looked up at me like "What the heck is going on?!" :eek: :uhoh:

I've ordered calcium powder for dusting the crickets. Do you all dust them every time? I'll have to hand-feed the dusted ones, but he really likes to stalk and chomp 'em on his own. Is there a ratio of dusted to non-dusted crickets?

Thanks!
 
How warm are you keeping it?

I wouldn't worry about a tiger not eating for a week.
 
If you dust them every time, he should get enough powder that you don't need to hand feed. He will eat at least some of them soon enough that they will still be have some powder. It will also help if you feed him infrequently enough that he's hungry and ready to stalk when the crickets go in.
 
Kaysie, I wasn't worried that he wouldn't eat the worm. He ate a few crickets. I've been trying to vary his diet with the worms with no success. Jannewt, he lets me know when he's hungry; he pops his head up every few days when he's ready. The powder should arrive early in the week and I'll start dusting. I'll try a baggie. Does spritzing the crickets a bit help the powder stick?
 
On the worm front I'd be tempted to try him with chopped earthworms in a feeding dish. Use a small, shallow dish with vertical sides and sink it into the substrate so he can see down into it. Chopping earthworms is pretty gruesome but it prevents them from moving too far and the chunks will wriggle for quite some time. Put them in just before lights out so he'll come across them whilst naturally out hunting.

Aside from the worms there are a number of invertebrates you can offer to vary his diet. If you have a garden you can easily collect woodlice, slugs, spiders and small snails just by looking under objects. Commercially available insects suitable for a tiger are waxworms, maggots, juvenile locust and cockroaches.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, Mark. I'm in a rural area where the mountains meet the plains, but its very dry here and I haven't found many bugs when I've looked under rocks before. However, Spring is here. Maybe we'll get some rain and I'll find some bugs.

This is such a great place to get help!;);););)
 
Dusted Crickets

Well, its been a few weeks and I've been dusting the crickets. As first Sammy was leery of those "ghost" crickets, but all is well now.

Except for those darn worms. I tried withholding the crickets until he got hungrier; I thought he might go for worms then. But no. So now I've given up on worms, haven't found any bugs outside, and Sammy's diet consists only of dusted crickets.

I hope that's a nutritious enough diet for him because that's all he's gonna get. For now anyway, if I find some outside bugs as Spring progresses, I may try to tempt him with a treat.
 
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