# Bad for a Tarantula to eat too many crickets in one day?



## Ewok (Oct 4, 2005)

My tarantula ate 5 or more crickets today, they escaped over the divider panel and in to the tarantulas side of the cage. Everytime  I checked on it, there it was with a cricket in its mouth or wiggling its  butt around   and catching another one. Do taranutlas know when to stop eating, or are they like other animals and eat themselves to death?


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## AfterTheAsylum (Oct 4, 2005)

This outta be fun... more controversy from me.  Tarantulas will not eat themselves to death.  Some of mine eat 10 crickets a week.  I feed them until they get their fill.  This will cause them to molt faster and get bigger faster, and some people (as I know you will see after this post) disagree with feeding them their fill because they feel it shortens life.  The T will reach it's maximum size (it won't die at half its size due to power feeding).  Some people feel that a Ts life is limited to a number of molts.  But no, your T will not eat to death; however, if your T eats a mass amount and goes climbing a cage wall and falls... this greatens the chance of death.  

The Sickness


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## Waryur (Oct 4, 2005)

the answer is basically yes and no. Yes its possible for them to eat to much to wear they actully burst. But that really dosn't happen it's not something i would worry about. T's will eat when they are hungry be 1 cricket or 5. 

I'm a novice i asked the same question to my T dealer with my first T thats what he told me.... but i would wait for a more expierenced answer


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## Elmolax (Oct 4, 2005)

Don't worry.
The T SHOULD know when its full lol.
If it ate all5, i suggest not feeding it for a week or 2 weeks., depending on the crick size


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## Puppet Master (Oct 4, 2005)

I feed my G. rosea 5-7 crix every other Monday. your T will not die from over eating they eat till they are full just dont do it to offten you dont want a very fat T cause thy can hurt them selves very badly 

Some T;s are like bottomless pits always eating.

Reactions: Funny 1


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## surena (Oct 4, 2005)

It has been addressed before that power feeding can reduce the life of a T . There are some good discussions about it here if you search for them. So in away yes it is bad for a tarantula to eat too much (that is if you care to see you spider live longer).


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## Ewok (Oct 4, 2005)

yeah I don't want it to grow too fast  , so I think I will hold off on the crickets for a few days.


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## AfterTheAsylum (Oct 4, 2005)

Well, if it is a slow grower, I would say power feed the hell out of it just to get some damn size... then cut back.  I am one out of probably a billion that power feeds though.  I have my reasons   

The Sickness


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## becca81 (Oct 4, 2005)

Soulsick said:
			
		

> Tarantulas will not eat themselves to death.


True  



> This will cause them to molt faster and get bigger faster,


Again, true.



> .... they feel it shortens life.


True - but *not* because a tarantula has only a certain number of molts before it dies, but because it will only live so long as an adult.  By shortening the amount of time it spends as a sling, you aren't adding that time to its adult life.

For a female _B. smithi_ or _A. anax_, this reduction in time may be negligible, since they live for so long.  However, for a male _P. murinus_ that matures in less than a year, you could just about cut its life span by 50%.

When mine are tiny slings, I tend to feed them more to get them to a size where I can feed them more easily (and possibly determine sex) and they are a bit easier to manage overall.  Actually, I don't have the time to feed every day or even every other day, so my version of "really feeding" slings is probably someone else's version of slowing them down.

Once juveniles or adults, I only feed once every week or two and even then it's only a few crickets.


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## dirtborder4life (Oct 4, 2005)

*How much to feed*

I feed all of my T's until they ignore,or show no interest in eating any more.After a molt this may be 2 pinkies and 10 crickets,one right after another,or when not in pre/post molt,this may be 3 cricks twice a week.Some people say,"A hungry T is an active T",this is true,but cruel.I dont keep my t's constantly hungry,i feed them until they are full,it only makes since to me.I dont want to see my t's constantly out in the open,walking around,looking for food,i want to see my t's happy,and healthy,and whatever behavoir that entales.So to summarize my opinion,if your t is hungry,it will eat,if it isnt,then it wont.Simple as that.


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## Farom (Oct 4, 2005)

Soulsick said:
			
		

> I would say power feed the hell out of it just to get some damn size


  :clap: :worship:  :worship:  :worship: :clap:


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## becca81 (Oct 4, 2005)

dirtborder4life said:
			
		

> I feed all of my T's until they ignore,or show no interest in eating any more.After a molt this may be 2 pinkies and 10 crickets,one right after another,or when not in pre/post molt,this may be 3 cricks twice a week.Some people say,"A hungry T is an active T",this is true,but cruel.I dont keep my t's constantly hungry,i feed them until they are full,it only makes since to me.I dont want to see my t's constantly out in the open,walking around,looking for food,i want to see my t's happy,and healthy,and whatever behavoir that entales.So to summarize my opinion,if your t is hungry,it will eat,if it isnt,then it wont.Simple as that.


Hmmm...

In the wild, a tarantula doesn't always "know" when its next meal will arrive and it will, therefore, eat as much as it can when available so that it's okay if food is scarce for awhile.  

However, in captivity, there is no need to feed a tarantula until it can hold no more.  The spider's instincts are to eat until it can't eat any more (not "full" in the same way that we think of "full"), but within the confinements of a glass enclosure - that can be dangerous a dangerous thing....


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## AfrooDah (Oct 28, 2016)

so my brachypelma akbopilosum which is very docile and calm but yesterday i gave him 1 cric and today it still aggressive i mean i try to clean up the tank and he was trying to grabbed my brushes (brush for cleaning the cave or anything) and i gave him another crick is it ok if he is eats more than it should? how do i know when my T is no longer hungry?


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## Venom1080 (Oct 28, 2016)



Reactions: Agree 3 | Love 1 | Award 1


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## dopamine (Oct 28, 2016)

It'll stop eating when it's full don't worry.

Reactions: Like 1


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## 14pokies (Oct 28, 2016)

Venom1080 said:


>


 I'll see your  and raise you ..

Op post a pic of your T so we can judge if its over eating

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 4


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## mistertim (Oct 29, 2016)



Reactions: Agree 1 | Funny 3


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## Venom1080 (Oct 29, 2016)

memes are slowly becoming a thing on this forum and its frightening.

Reactions: Agree 1 | Funny 1


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## EulersK (Oct 29, 2016)

Venom1080 said:


> memes are slowly becoming a thing on this forum and its frightening.


I personally welcome our meme overlords.

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 4 | Optimistic 1


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## magicmed (Oct 29, 2016)

Man,you guys make me feel like i'm starving my ts. adults get 1 or two large crickets/superworm a week. slings get fed every other day. am I underfeeding? abdomen sizes aren't getting smaller


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## Venom1080 (Oct 29, 2016)

magicmed said:


> Man,you guys make me feel like i'm starving my ts. adults get 1 or two large crickets/superworm a week. slings get fed every other day. am I underfeeding? abdomen sizes aren't getting smaller


haha nope, your good. my porteri gets a couple crickets a month. slings get fed on the same schedule as yours.

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 2


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## cold blood (Oct 29, 2016)

Venom1080 said:


> haha nope, your good. my porteri gets a couple crickets a month. slings get fed on the same schedule as yours.


Yup, our past users showed a significant propensity for over-feeding.  There's just no point.   It takes a certain amount of time for the t to grow a new skeleton and ready its self for a molt.  Mashing all the feedings into a short window just means the t will be fasting in pre-molt a lot longer...sometimes ridiculously longer, like our friend the rose hair...which may take 4-5 years until its ready to molt again, that's a long time one has to plump a t....and we wonder why so many fast for a year or more.   When I used to over-feed, that thing was fasting al the time, often for 6-13 months at a time, often times it didn't even result in a molt and it hardly ate in winters.   In 3 years of more moderate feeding. I think a month is the longest its fasted, but it gets 2-4 crickets per month now.

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 1


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## EulersK (Oct 29, 2016)

magicmed said:


> Man,you guys make me feel like i'm starving my ts. adults get 1 or two large crickets/superworm a week. slings get fed every other day. am I underfeeding? abdomen sizes aren't getting smaller


Nope, my adult specimens get one male dubia per month. All nice and plump. Ever since I started feeding this way, I've only had one go on a long fast (shocking - my G. porteri). It keeps me happy by being able to watch them eat, and it keeps them happy by not overfeeding.

Reactions: Like 2


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## Chris LXXIX (Oct 29, 2016)

AfrooDah said:


> so my brachypelma *ak*bopilosum which is very docile and calm


Docile and calm? There's a "mini, suitable for eight legged" Kalashnikov under that substrate :-s


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## Chris LXXIX (Oct 29, 2016)

magicmed said:


> Man,you guys make me feel like i'm starving my ts. adults get 1 or two large crickets/superworm a week. am I underfeeding? abdomen sizes aren't getting smaller


Not at all, man


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## Ellenantula (Oct 29, 2016)

I am still trying to figure out housing situation.  Are the T and crickets in same enclosure with a barrier wall?
(sorry if I missed answer to this. Just, a loose cricket in my home could never get into a T enclosure....)


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## Kymura (Oct 29, 2016)

I'm probably doing it wrong.But if I'm honest here I'm not changing things. They all seem content and look great.  I feed my adults weekly and my slings as much as they'll eat whenever they'll eat it.
Feel like their only job is to grow so I assist them with a nice toasty room and food when they want it.


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