This isn't a question that I'm terribly concerned about. I'm really just curious. (remember, I'm new )

I was feeding my slings last night. All of them went for their food immediately but I went back an hour or two later and my B. vagans had gone back into its burrow. I thought it had eaten its roach but when I looked closer there was still a whole(ish) roach left in the tub. It was just dead. Now I saw the spider go for the roach. It did grab it and kill it but it left it there only to come back out about 3-4 hours later to finally eat it.

If a tarantula kills its prey is it most definitely going to eat it or would it, say, kill its prey and then decide it's not in the mood? Or would it have killed the roach just because the roach was irritating it? Or would it kill it just because it's there?

I just look at the lives of spiders in the wild and they don't strike me as the kind that would just leave their freshly caught meal lying out in the open.

As I said.. Just curious
:blush:

Funny you say this..

My Haplopelma lividum , sometime kills its crickets .. And doesnt eat them...

I think is simply a defensive thing.. If it wasnt bothered.. It wouldnt of killed for the sake of killing..

It may just be its not hungry then but its killing it now so that it does not have to take the chance when it is hungry that a roach will be there!

PS i think what i said makes sence

I might be wrong, but usually when I see this happening, the T is in pre-moult and I did not notice. So it can not eat or do not want to eat, but see the insect as a thread for it when it will moult and therefore kill it before the cricket kills it while moulting.

Not abnormal behavior, but let me start by saying, NOTHING on this planet kills for fun, except of course, humans.

It is possible that nobody understands this properly, but I will go to my grave believing it's not for fun.

It can be a defensive reaction, pre moult loss of appetite or to consume later. I have seen that spiders will kill a prey item, only to feed at leisure later. They would in many cases web over the dead item, seemingly ignore it for some time, then pick it up to feed. Is all...

But... My dog kills snakes in the garden for fun. No, it's not really for fun. More for practice I guess? That might have been a better word to use. I do believe it's in pre-moult. It's just that I thought they won't eat while in pre-moult at all. So I thought it rather peculiar.