Recommended feeding

[white_feather]

I just read a website that says to feed one cricket per week to your T. Is that enough? I have been doing four to six. I have a G. Rosea and two H. Huwenum.

 

[billy28]

only 1-3 depending on size

 

[darkuncle33]

I have had a G Rosea for 16 years and it will stop eating when it wants to you can't over feed it. But i give my T 4 or 5 large crickets every 2 weeks or so. The G Rosea can fast on its own for a long time, From time to time that is normal.

 

[Mushroom Spore]

I have had a G Rosea for 16 years and it will stop eating when it wants to you can't over feed it.

Wrong wrong wrooong. :} Any animal can become obese if it eats too much, and no animal benefits from *being* obese.

white_feather, it really depends on how big your spiders are and how big the crickets are. But you're feeding pretty heavily right now; tarantulas can maintain their weight (and gain weight, albeit slowly) on MUCH leaner diets than what you're giving. You should do a forums search for powerfeeding if you want to read more on the subject.

 

[Warren Bautista]

Wrong wrong wrooong. :} Any animal can become obese if it eats too much, and no animal benefits from *being* obese.

white_feather, it really depends on how big your spiders are and how big the crickets are. But you're feeding pretty heavily right now; tarantulas can maintain their weight (and gain weight, albeit slowly) on MUCH leaner diets than what you're giving. You should do a forums search for powerfeeding if you want to read more on the subject.

I don't know, people say my fat is sexy.;P
No, but seriously, overfeeding a T is very dangerous and its abdomen may rupture if they fall from even a short area if they are obese.

 

[Eclipse]

A tarantula cannot become obese! LOL I get what you're saying, but when it comes to feeding, I don't give them a schedule. Just throw in 1 or 2 when you feel the time is right. I feed mine randomly. Since tarantulas can go on for long periods of time without food, feeding them everyday isn't a good idea. I just do it when I feel like it, but I most certainly don't wait until they're starving to death. When you sense a sign that they're hungry then feed them. It doesn't have to be once a week(or maybe it does).

 

[Godzirra]

G-rosea's get 6 crickets at one time, every 2 weeks.

All other T's will get 1 cricket every 3 days (adults will get some fatties, slings will get pinheads).........I'll take out anything not eaten overnight, out.

 

[Johnnyj]

It really depends on what you want to do. You can control the T's metabolism *to a point* with temperature. Now, the idea of powerfeeding has been discussed to Biblical redundancy and I leave you to your own use of the search function, but from what I have seen with my own personal T's only...my spiders eat everything I give them on a 2x a week feeding schedule of 1-3 crickets depending on the size of the T. My rosie, only really eats 2-3 a week. My burgundy goliath, which Im power feeding, easily takes down 5-6 crickets a week with an ambient temperature of 87% and an ambient humidity of 90%. The cobalt, avics, and OBT are somewhere in between those extremes. I have no obese T's, will post up some pics when I get my stupid memory card drivers working.

Side note, just for fun we gave the Rosie (who is actually damn near 6") a small mouse last month. She took it down with absolutely no problem and hasnt eaten since

 

[gvfarns]

I think it's pretty clear that there's a lot of variability in how much people feed their T's. Tarantulas are extremely hardy about food and well adapted to not getting much. As a result they can flourish on much more meager rations than have been described by anyone here...or they can eat what seems like quite a bit.

Also there is a LOT of variability in the size of crickets. And other feeders as well. That's another reason there's no consensus on the subject except that we shouldn't let tarantulas get too awfully fat.

There's also not a definite consensus on whether tarantulas will overeat. Certainly some will, but others it seems will just let the food scamper around for a looong time without eating, even if they are not obese or near a molt. Many of the docile, slow growing new worlds that beginners keep display this behavior.

The bottom line is that you can feed a T pretty much whatever you feel like subject to the following restriction: Don't keep feeding if its abdomen gets super huge because it's getting obese. Feed more if its abdomen shrinks significantly. Although that pretty much never happens unless it is caused by dehydration because no one is patient enough to go that long between feedings.

Part of the charm of T's is that you don't need a feeding schedule. You should look at how many bugs you feed per year, not per week. The advice I give to new owners is to feed an adult tarantula as infrequently as you can stand (but at least once every few months).

 

[Stagger-Lee]

id feed the H. huwenum more like 3 crickets a week due to the higher metabolism