Feeding a sling - any alternatives to Crickets?

[CrackTaxi]

I haven't got my little B. smithi yet. But i bought some small silent Crickets just to see what i'm dealing with. I can't imagine i would like to keep these in my house, how am i meant to open the tub to get one out, without some of them escaping? They are too much hassle for me. Apparently, i'm meant to clean the Crickets out and replace the food every 2 days or so. This seems impossible without some escaping, if only they didn't jump.

So i was wondering if anyone knows of any alternatives that i could feed to a 1cm B. smithi sling? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.


EDIT: So mealworms? Could i feed it live ones? Like these - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Standard-...iles_Spiders_Insects&var=&hash=item1e708f28fa

Or freeze dried ones? Like these - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50g-Dried...plies_Birds&hash=item2a1fc96d1f#ht_569wt_1037

Cheers.

 

[Vespula]

You can try chopped-up mealworms. That's what I use for my small slings. Plus, they're not as prone to escape.

 

[derp105]

If you want to consider crickets, you can chop off some of there body parts and then feed it to the tarantula. What I do is buy only a couple at a time.

 

[Shrike]

I use meal worms as feeders occasionally. Don't go with freeze dried. Use live or kill one yourself and let your sling scavenge. A full size live meal worm might be on the large side depending how big your sling is, but after a few molts this shouldn't be an issue. You'll be surprised though. Slings can take on surprisingly large prey items.

If you use crickets get one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Lee-20080-Kricket-Keeper-Small/dp/B001OVBDDM

I find these to be a convenient way to keep crickets and easily get however many I need.

 

[Curious jay]

Waxworms, mealworms, calci worms, maggots. Or try putting the crickets in a freezer for a minute before you grab them and they'll be a lot less active.

 

[Arachninja]

What is wrong with a loose cricket, your not scared of a spider , so how is a cricket gonna ruin your exisence, youll be fine, and how are they silent(to young to chirp obviously), I hope you dont get to hooked(to tarantulas), because if you do breeding crickets is loud(kind of, and calming).

 

[Terry D]

You'll be surprised though. Slings can take on surprisingly large prey items.

Absolutely in agreement on this point. My G pulchra slings, at slightly over an inch, could easily put away a pre-killed ad male cricket with little bolus remaining.....then eat another two days later- until I slowed them down quite a bit at about 3"- 3.5". Moreover, Little Big Butt (Benzo48 has it now) was the only one that would never seem to molt on time and would continue eating until it looked like it was about to pop- so I stopped doing this a little earlier on that one............(-;

 

[CrackTaxi]

What is wrong with a loose cricket, your not scared of a spider , so how is a cricket gonna ruin your exisence, youll be fine, and how are they silent(to young to chirp obviously), I hope you dont get to hooked(to tarantulas), because if you do breeding crickets is loud(kind of, and calming).

I live in a shared house, so i can't have any loose insects roaming about. Also there's children, i would hate for some kind of infestation.

 

[Piddleysmith]

I live in a shared house, so i can't have any loose insects roaming about. Also there's children, i would hate for some kind of infestation.

Don't worry, I have had TONS of crickets escape. They really don't make it very far. Sometimes I will just find them roaming around, others, my cats will kill them, but small silent crickets are too young to breed, so you shuldn't worry about infestation, and unless you're gunna cut the crickets up, the're gunna be too big. You could buy pinheads, they work great. Or you could try flightless fruit flies. But apparentley if you feed them these too often then they give you sling bad molts. But other than that, go with the previous suggestions and try anything you can really. If you can find a good online livefood seller (which won't be hard at all) then you can buy alot of things for feeding them. If you want something less likely to escape, then mealworms are the way to go, be warned, then can start to smell, but it's the same with most livefoods, except B.Dubias.

*EDIT* Just noticed you live in the uk I live here aswell, so i can show you some good sites in the u.k for ordering livefoods
http://www.internetreptile.com/ I havn't tried these guys before, but I'm currentley stocking up on cages for my slings when they get bigger and the delivery from here is brilliant

http://www.livefood.co.uk/ This one is definatley the way to go, I think altogether my last order cost about £4 for about 700 pinheads, which have lasted a good couple of months

 

[poisoned]

I will always advise B. lateralis.
Cricket sized, long lived, non smelly, non burrowing feeders

 

[Shrike]

I will always advise B. lateralis.
Cricket sized, long lived, non smelly, non burrowing feeders

A good suggestion. If you can get past the "cockroach" factor, they're great feeders and not smelling up the joint like crickets is definitely a plus. Of course, if you have a breeding colony of feeder insects you'll have to get more tarantulas

 

[Anonymity82]

You're only feeding one small B. smithi sling? Do you have a pet store near you? You're only going to be feeding your tarantula a handful a month most likely. I have trouble keeping crickets alive more than a week. I give them food and a damp papertowel but they still die within a week.

Don't do freeze dried. Tarantulas get most of their hydration from the food they eat so freeze dried isn't going to cut it. I don't think meal worms is a good staple diet because they're high in fat. But I'm sure there are plenty of people who have had success with using meal worms.

 

[CrackTaxi]

You're only feeding one small B. smithi sling? Do you have a pet store near you? You're only going to be feeding your tarantula a handful a month most likely. I have trouble keeping crickets alive more than a week. I give them food and a damp papertowel but they still die within a week.

Don't do freeze dried. Tarantulas get most of their hydration from the food they eat so freeze dried isn't going to cut it. I don't think meal worms is a good staple diet because they're high in fat. But I'm sure there are plenty of people who have had success with using meal worms.

Yes, i'm just getting the 1 T. The closest pet store to me is only about 15 miles away, but i'm not too sure if sells this kind of food. I will have to check in soon.

I think i will go with mealworms until it's a bit bigger, then it can consume things like crickets, roaches... ect. But for now, i think they will just die on me, like yours.