Favorite Invertebrate Prey For Larger Ts

[Nightstalker47]

Surprised no one mentioned hornworms, they get massive, dont burrow and attract lots of attention...great feeder option for larger specimens. Only downside would be their cost.

 

[Lil Paws]

I will never understand this...people feel bad for crushing the heads, which doesn't kill them, nor does it cause the invert pain in the conventional sense...yet have no problem having their t impale them, inject venom into them and devour them alive....lmao. What's the difference....the roach dies in the end either way.

Oh, I understand the irony and hypocrisy... That's why I pretty much want to retire my colony and find other things to feed to my big guys. To me, dubias are cute and seem intelligentish/self-aware (the other day one seemed to shake in fear as I put it in with my G. Pulchripes) so I feel super guilty every time I toss one into an enclosure and harming/killing them directly seems even more awful.

I don't remember being this bothered when I had Death's Head roaches for my bearded dragon, but back then I had no problem feeding live mice (even pinkies and hoppers) to snakes either—which is definitely no longer the case anymore (long story).

I'm kind of soft that way...but I still find it thrilling to watch the Ts hunt other prey. I'm trying to get some Blue Bottle fly larvae to pupate so we can watch our arboreal slings chase them down.

 

[Tia B]

I will never understand this...people feel bad for crushing the heads, which doesn't kill them, nor does it cause the invert pain in the conventional sense...yet have no problem having their t impale them, inject venom into them and devour them alive....lmao. What's the difference....the roach dies in the end either way.

I just don't like injuring or killing things in general unless the end goal is me eating them. I also don't like how they struggle so much as I maim them, not to mention that dubias have a somewhat cutesy appearance that appeals to me more than most prey items. It makes me feel guilty. If they take their prey immediately after me injuring them, I don't feel so bad. The problem is when I pretty much kill a roach for them and they don't eat it. Now I just ended a life for no reason.

 

[Olan]

I just don't like injuring or killing things in general unless the end goal is me eating them. I also don't like how they struggle so much as I maim them, not to mention that dubias have a somewhat cutesy appearance that appeals to me more than most prey items. It makes me feel guilty. If they take their prey immediately after me injuring them, I don't feel so bad. The problem is when I pretty much kill a roach for them and they don't eat it. Now I just ended a life for no reason.

This is why I feed my garbage disposals last. Feed the less likely to eat Ts first, if they don’t take a maimed roach, then you can give it to the sure things. Xenesthis, G. iheringi, Pamphobeteus, genic are my disposals.

 

[volcanopele]

The problem is that right now, only my big LK female eats adult dubia (everyone else eats crickets, and my bearded dragon eats smaller dubia). So if my LK isn’t hungry, as had been the case for much of the last 7 months, then there’s no one else to take the dubia except MAYBE my P. Miranda, and even then an adult dubia is probably a bit too much for her. So I “killed” the dubia for no reason (yes, I know they don’t die right away, but without a head, they can’t eat... so they’ll die, wait this is dubia we’re talking about, nothing short of a nuclear explosion can kill them... still)

 

[Mychajlo]

I will be using Horned Worms when my T. stirmi gets bigger, I just found out the PS here where I live has colonies of all kinds of feeders they grow there so that’s cool

 

[volcanopele]

Surprised no one mentioned hornworms, they get massive, dont burrow and attract lots of attention...great feeder option for larger specimens. Only downside would be their cost.

I do use hornworms, but only very occasionally as a Christmas present due to the cost.

 

[Minty]

I use grasshoppers. I've only ever used them and crickets. Don't know anything about keeping a colony of feeders yet.

 

[Mirandarachnid]

Surprised no one mentioned hornworms, they get massive, dont burrow and attract lots of attention...great feeder option for larger specimens. Only downside would be their cost.

Those are some happy tarantulas.

I can't wait for mine to get big enough for me to justify breeding horn worms. It seems like a pretty involved process, but I love moths, and judging from these pictures my Ts would appreciate the effort!

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

Those are some happy tarantulas.

I can't wait for mine to get big enough for me to justify breeding horn worms. It seems like a pretty involved process...

Which is why they are so costly. Crickets, a pain and really not worth the effort. Roaches, easy and REALLY productive (at least in the case of B. lateralis, the only ones I've attempted) Mealworms? I recently discovered a small container of them I had sort of forgotten about and they had zero food and no hydration and still I had baby worms. It was literally a container of expired adult beetles and mealworm frass. I've rectified the lack of fluid and nourishment since. Superworms can be a little problematic due to the nature of their cycle, but doable, though I've never bothered to try.

Horn worms and Calci worms seem to me to be a class unto themselves though.

I think raising horned worms would be fun and interesting. Just something that I am not willing to tackle.

 

[Nightstalker47]

Those are some happy tarantulas.

I can't wait for mine to get big enough for me to justify breeding horn worms. It seems like a pretty involved process, but I love moths, and judging from these pictures my Ts would appreciate the effort!

Thanks for the bold response. They definitely seem to enjoy these, beware that bodily fluids may go flying during feeding.

I wouldn't mind getting my hands on some horn worm moths, I know the poecs would go nuts for them.

 

[vespers]

My largest terrestrials occasionally get Hissers. Crickets are the staple, but sometimes they get a larger meal.

 

[Rittdk01]

Meal and superworms. I get a dozen crickets every other month and throw them in with my larger t's.

 

[kevinlowl]

I wish there were feeder crickets that are two to three times the size of normal feeder crickets