Am I overfeeding my a. seemani?

[vixx]

Okay so, I posted about a month ago with concerns about him being underweight.. and now I'm concerned I might be overfeeding him. I have had him for about 2 months now, and have been feeding a small cricket every other day or once every 3 days for around 3 weeks. A friend of mine who has kept tarantulas before pointed out that his abdomen seems big, so I was just wondering if he looks 'overweight' and if I should feed him less often. Thanks! I will try to get a better picture soon, he has been in his hide a lot recently.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Okay so, I posted about a month ago with concerns about him being underweight.. and now I'm concerned I might be overfeeding him. I have had him for about 2 months now, and have been feeding a small cricket every other day or once every 3 days for around 3 weeks. A friend of mine who has kept tarantulas before pointed out that his abdomen seems big, so I was just wondering if he looks 'overweight' and if I should feed him less often. Thanks! I will try to get a better picture soon, he has been in his hide a lot recently. View attachment 446842

Looks fine to me .

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

What size is your spider? General rule of thumb to shoot for is abdomen around the same size as the carapace unless it is a small sling. Every other day is a lot, a lot. I generally feed once every week or two weeks or three weeks depending on the abdomen to carapace size.

 

[viper69]

No

 

[dman13760]

that abdomen size looks good; you may wanna back off on your feeding schedule a bit. Generally, for my larger T's, I'm feeding once every 2 or 3 weeks.

 

[MariaLewisia]

A bit plump, but not worryingly so. As Intermittent pointed out, a general rule of thumb is to have the abdomen be the same size as the carapace unless it's a sling which we want to be on the bigger side. You can cut down on feeding to once or twice a week and you'll be fine.

 

[NMTs]

If you continue to feed at a rate of every other day, I predict your next post will be titled "My A. seemanni hasn't eaten in weeks, please help!" Feeding that frequently often results in the T going on a long fast because it gets as full as it needs to and won't eat again, usually until after it molts which could be weeks or months away. If you feed smaller prey items less frequently, you can usually avoid fasting except for a few weeks leading up to a molt.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

If you continue to feed at a rate of every other day, I predict your next post will be titled "My A. seemanni hasn't eaten in weeks, please help!" Feeding that frequently often results in the T going on a long fast because it gets as full as it needs to and won't eat again, usually until after it molts which could be weeks or months away. If you feed smaller prey items less frequently, you can usually avoid fasting except for a few weeks leading up to a molt.

I generally feed mine once every 3-4 weeks as the smallest one is about 4”. And superworms until I get a roach colony going . Crickets are too tiny at my lps those are better for slings . I mostly just keep the water dishes full as possible now days . I know some Ts love to bury dishes.