Let's discuss feeders

[cold blood]

They dont pose much danger to a t....as i illistrated, its katydids that have those mandibles, not hoppers or locusts.

 

[cold blood]

I use crickets. I try to treat my prey just like I treat my tarantula.

They have almost no smell because I clean out any dead ones every day and keep the container wiped down to remove as much feces as possible. This can be accomplished easily by using a very large modified plastic tub to house them. I inserted screens on mine so the ventilation is good. I have never had any crickets try to to escape so I usually leave the lid off unless I want to shield them from light.

My crickets sometimes do provide hi fidelity audio but it is because I allow it to happen. It is easy to clean out the noise makers by feeding the large males to the tarantulas first. You can also avoid getting any noise makers by not buying the large size crickets.

Banded crickets do not bite. I quite often grab a single large cricket to provide to my female tarantulas I can use the cricket counter to grab a bunch which I usually load up in a plastic vial with lid to carry to my feeding station for the pre-kills (burrowed slings).

I keep mine at a lower temperature than recommended by most breeders. Most will recommend small crickets be in the 80's and adult crickets be in the high 70's for best results. I keep mine at 74 F. I will need a heating device of some sort when I start to breed them.

I stopped using veggies and fruit for mine because it attracted too many flies / gnats. I now use cricket feed and water only.

Everyone should be searching for and using banded crickets.

 

[clive 82]

Interesting fact there! I have heard what we call "locusts" in the UK also referred to as hoppers?

 

[Neot]

Since we have thread about feeders in 2017, I'd like to hear some update from people who feed shrimps to tarantula in old threads. Do you still give them to your tarantula?

 

[Nightstalker47]

Since we have thread about feeders in 2017, I'd like to hear some update from people who feed shrimps to tarantula in old threads. Do you still give them to your tarantula?

Why shrimp of all things?

 

[GingerC]

Why shrimp of all things?

I don't know why anyone would use shrimp, but I'm honestly super curious about how that turned out too.

 

[Nightstalker47]

I don't know why anyone would use shrimp, but I'm honestly super curious about how that turned out too.

Just feels wrong, almost like feeding your dog a lobster, why feed it that lol? If they would never encounter each other in a natural setting I don't think it's a good idea...

 

[houston]

The only thing I can think of is someone meaning shrimp like Cherry or Ghost shrimp-- something that they had laying around in their aquarium when feeding day came and they had no bugs.

If they meant shrimp like the dead stuff you buy for cocktail parties, I think it's at least a lil dumb. Shrimp and other seafoods smell so incredibly bad after a day, it's bacteria central.

 

[GingerC]

Just feels wrong, almost like feeding your dog a lobster, why feed it that lol? If they would never encounter each other in a natural setting I don't think it's a good idea...

I'm pretty sure that dogs' wild ancestors didn't go around hunting cans of cooked beef, nor did the wild felids of the African and Asian grasslands catch deep sea tuna, but okay. The main thing is finding something good for the Ts that they can eat and digest, but shrimp seem a lot less convenient than crickets. I'm pretty sure that not all of the various tarantula species encounter house crickets in nature, either.

 

[Nightstalker47]

I'm pretty sure that dogs' wild ancestors didn't go around hunting cans of cooked beef, nor did the wild felids of the African and Asian grasslands catch deep sea tuna, but okay. The main thing is finding something good for the Ts that they can eat and digest, but shrimp seem a lot less convenient than crickets. I'm pretty sure that not all of the various tarantula species encounter house crickets in nature, either.

I never implied that for cats or dogs, your taking things out of context. However tarantulas definitely encounter other similar invertebrate prey in the wild, as opposed to sea dwelling crustaceans like shrimp.

 

[GingerC]

I never implied that for cats or dogs, your taking things out of context. However tarantulas definitely encounter other similar invertebrate prey in the wild, as opposed to sea dwelling crustaceans like shrimp.

Well, in that case, the only good dog food is raw elk, and you should only feed raw birds and mice to cats. Doesn't matter that you're talking about Ts, same reasoning should still apply, right? When you choose a feeder, whether or not your animal naturally encounters it isn't really that important, otherwise no one would be feeding a moth larva that lives in beehives to a terrestrial tarantula. What is important is that the feeder meets the animal's nutritional requirements, is digestible, can be easily obtained and/or cared for, is practical, and presents a low disease risk. I have no clue whether shrimp meet any of those requirements, but I do know that I'm doing pretty good with mealworms and crix right now so I, personally, wouldn't risk it.