About to buy first tarantula but cricket/roach situation is stopping me from pulling the trigger

sid1221

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 17, 2016
Messages
15
Hi all. Great forum. Anyways, I live in an apartment and don't want to hear crickets chirping in my place. I can't stand the sight of a roach, so roaches are a no-go.

Am thinking of getting a Grammostola pulchripes but not sure what to feed it other crickets and roaches. I suppose I could just buy a couple of crickets every few days (or however often it needs to be fed) and drop them in the tank with it so I don't have to maintain a colony of them. Seems cumbersome to have drive every few days to pick up two crickets but I guess I could do it.

Any ideas?
 

G. pulchra

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
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Jun 7, 2005
Messages
592
If your a total no-go on roaches, then I would recommend that you keep meal worms and supplement with store bought crickets. Just make sure to gut load them prior to feeding.
 

sid1221

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 17, 2016
Messages
15
Thanks. It's an adult btw. Mealworms are still ok? Sorry, newbie questions.
 

DragonizedGlory

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jul 4, 2016
Messages
52
If you keep crickets just keep them in your kitchen cupboard. You won't even hear them. Just take them out when you want to feed them or the T.
I keep mine in the kitchen cupboard that's literally 5 steps from my room and I've never heard them making noise.
 

N1ghtFire

Arachnoknight
Joined
Jun 17, 2016
Messages
172
Only adult male crickets are noisy. If you buy medium/small crickets and feed them off before they mature you wont have any problem. You could always just feed the males off first, or clip their wings off.
 

sid1221

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 17, 2016
Messages
15
Ok great to hear about the lack of noise. Just didn't want to be "that guy" in the apartment complex with the crickets chirping :)
 

Andrea82

Arachnoemperor
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Jan 12, 2016
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For adult Ts you can also buy superworms. Although i wouldn't recommend keeping them in your bedroom, the sounds they make, creeping through the bran flakes is eerie :eek:
 

DragonizedGlory

Arachnosquire
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Jul 4, 2016
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Thank goodness burrowing T's don't make noise :rolleyes:
Because both my female G. Pulchripes and L. Parahybana love digging
 

EulersK

Arachnonomicon
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Feb 22, 2013
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How is it that no one has brought this up?

You can feed an adult G. pulchripes once per month, even less if you really fatten it up with each meal. All of my adult NW terrestrials get fed about once every six weeks, and since I run my own roach colony, it's not like I don't offer them food. It's just that they don't need very much. If you've got an adult G. pulchripes (how big are we talking, by the way? Full grown, or just adult? Not the same thing), then just buy 5-10 crickets once per month and feed them all at the same time. Always offer one to see if your spider will even take them, then just toss them in a couple at a time. They can take down several crickets at once, obviously.

I fed nothing but crickets until I had about 15 adult specimens, and I only made a trip for crickets once every two weeks. I never once kept crickets overnight - if they didn't get eaten, they got flushed.

EDIT: I initially said that I fed my spiders once every six months. I misspoke - once every six weeks
 
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viper69

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
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Dec 8, 2006
Messages
17,851
If you keep crickets just keep them in your kitchen cupboard. You won't even hear them.
You either have cupboard doors that are 10 feet thick, or you are hard of hearing :D I keep mine in a cabinet, in a separate room with the cabinet closed and the room door closed. The place is carpeted which absorbs noise. I can them in the living room, and the place I live in while not large is in excess of 1200 sq ft. There's noise 24/7. Maybe I have super hearing, and yours is normal :D

Ok great to hear about the lack of noise. Just didn't want to be "that guy" in the apartment complex with the crickets chirping :)
For crickets? There is noise.
 

mistertim

Arachnobaron
Joined
Sep 4, 2015
Messages
548
Isn't really a problem for me because I don't get that many crickets at a time. I currently have 12 Ts and get about 20 crickets every couple weeks from my LPS (mix of little ones and big ones) and that lasts me that couple weeks fine. I rarely hear chirping from them...though I have before. One time it was really annoying so I got out of bed, grabbed my cricket enclosure, FOUND the bastard who was making the noise, and immediately fed him to Autumn, my P. cambridgei.

Yes, I am an evil, vindictive person. :grumpy::mad::D
 

Haemus

Arachnosquire
Joined
Feb 11, 2016
Messages
128
For adult Ts you can also buy superworms. Although i wouldn't recommend keeping them in your bedroom, the sounds they make, creeping through the bran flakes is eerie :eek:
I love the sound of worms munching. Hearing them work makes me tired and puts me right to sleep lol
 

Trenor

Arachnoprince
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Jan 28, 2016
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I'd just feed super worms if I had only one T and didn't want to feed crickets. Just mash their heads so they don't burrow.
 
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Octagon

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Joined
Feb 15, 2016
Messages
39
If you keep crickets just keep them in your kitchen cupboard. You won't even hear them. Just take them out when you want to feed them or the T.
I keep mine in the kitchen cupboard that's literally 5 steps from my room and I've never heard them making noise.
At night, I put chirping crickets (in their container) into the laundry hamper, which is built into the bathroom cabinetry of our old-style apartment. Not very dignified for them to be in with the dirty laundry but I don't think they know the difference haha, and we can't hear a peep from in there.
 

Octagon

Arachnoperson
Joined
Feb 15, 2016
Messages
39
I love the sound of worms munching. Hearing them work makes me tired and puts me right to sleep lol
I didn't know worms make noise. (Have only ever fed my T's crickets). Sounds kind of peaceful and soothing.
 

Jones0911

Arachnobaron
Joined
Mar 5, 2013
Messages
406
Hi all. Great forum. Anyways, I live in an apartment and don't want to hear crickets chirping in my place. I can't stand the sight of a roach, so roaches are a no-go.

Am thinking of getting a Grammostola pulchripes but not sure what to feed it other crickets and roaches. I suppose I could just buy a couple of crickets every few days (or however often it needs to be fed) and drop them in the tank with it so I don't have to maintain a colony of them. Seems cumbersome to have drive every few days to pick up two crickets but I guess I could do it.

Any ideas?

Go to https://dubiaroaches.com/products/hornworms?variant=19591691973

And buy those horn worms their $8.95 which seems like a lot but there's 24 or 12 in a cup... You can cut one up into pieces and feed it to the sling and the rest you can leave in the fridge and get one when needed.

If you're getting a 2-3"+ T you can feed them the whole worm.

If you do get 24 or 12 they'll last you a long time all you have to do is clean out the container their in once/twice a week because they have a high metabolism and poop a lot lol.

But if cleaned right away its easy to clean out the poop.

If you want to get all of these but dont want them to grow freeze them all defrost as needed.

I'm about to buy a lot of these myself for my 24 Ts and I'll probably let some grow into giant moths to feed off to my Stirmi pair.
 
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Haemus

Arachnosquire
Joined
Feb 11, 2016
Messages
128
I didn't know worms make noise. (Have only ever fed my T's crickets). Sounds kind of peaceful and soothing.
It's like soft sand slowly moving...best way I can describe it lol

@OP I used wax worms, then meal worms, and now super worms as my main food for my two G. pulchripes. Every now and then I feed them crickets like how @EulersK describes. Not sure if the variety helps or not, my Ts take either.
 

Haksilence

Bad At Titles
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Dec 6, 2015
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405
I didn't know worms make noise. (Have only ever fed my T's crickets). Sounds kind of peaceful and soothing.
Yes super worms are quite active buggers and the sound of them eating/moving through the wheat is something like stepping on very dry leaves, on a much smaller scale, and laced with malice. There's just SOMETHING unsettling about the sounds they make.
 

Jeff23

Arachnolord
Joined
Jul 27, 2016
Messages
620
There is one thing to keep in mind on crickets. Only crickets with wings can chirp. And wings are the last thing to grow in their life stage. As soon as you see wings appear on a cricket use that one instead of the younger cricket. You can feed your T multiple medium size crickets instead of full size adult ones and they won't have any wings. And with medium sized ones you get more fun of seeing them grab the cricket.

I bought 500 smaller size crickets on August 8th this year. I have also supplemented this with full size crickets a couple times from Petsmart for my large B. Smithi. As of now, I haven't heard the first chirp and I do have multiple crickets with wings. I suppose they will start at some point soon.

Banded crickets have smaller wings and are thus quieter than house crickets and other types.
 
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