Can I over feed my sling ?????

[Introvertebrate]

............Me personally, I feed my slings weekly and so far havn't lost a sling. "knocks on wood". As long as their rumps are slightly plump, and they are hydrated. I see no reason to overfeed.

Thanks Suidakkra. That's good to know.

Tom

 

[ryancreek]

I was wondering this myself. My 2 1/2 inch A. genic has eaten 4 small crickets, 1 large cricket, and 2 small mealworms this week.... and it still attacks water drops. I do try to power-feed, but it seems like this t would eat till it burst!

 

[webbedone]

I power feed my slings to get them out of their tiny stage and into their juvies(2-2.5inches) but after that its game over back to the regular diet which is like 1 roach/nymph a week.

 

[DawgPoundSound]

I have read in this forum, as well as others, that people tend to powerfeed their smallest slings (1/6th-1/4") to get them to a more "sustainable" size, then kick back to a normal feeding schedule.

Is that still considered "life shortening" ? Especially for T's that are known to live for 20+ years?

So many conflicting theories on this subject.

Power-feeding slings of size 1/8" - 2" is not to be concerned about shortening the life of your T. It's when you are power-feeding the adults considerably that people here are being mistaken about. And I'll cosign to the fact that females living in excess of 20+ years, there is absolutely NO WAY you're going to notice that you power-fed them as slings so that's why she may have died at year 19. :?

I power-feed all of my slings to the 2 inch mark at best. Period. And then they go on a consistent feeding schedule of once or twice a week, depending on the tarantula itself. Personality goes a long way with these guys. Some will eat twice a week, some won't. Some mature males will refuse food, some won't.

So power-feed away and don't worry. It will leave the food alone when it's full. Or it may even strike at it and back away. Then you'll know when to stop.

 

[Poxicator]

If this is out there, on paper, from an educated source, I would love to read it.

It would be wonderful if the answers to all our questions lay in papers but unfortunately there hasnt been enough study on tarantula to provide back up to our questions. What we have is the experience of long time hobbyists, breeders and dealers, this is where we should look for more accurate answers, not the experience gained over a few years, that wouldnt even be 1 generation for the majority of tarantula.

However, in answer to your question and Maudau's opinion here is a quote by the president of ATS, Christian Elowsky:
At Arachnocon in 2007, a well rounded round table discussion all agreed that overfeeding was the main issue facing the hobby, the group included Eric Reynolds, Bill Korinek, Michael Jacobi and I think Frank Somma. Since then, I have been making my own observations, and I've seen enough to support that overfeeding (of any prey items) or commonly feeding rodents causes molting issues.


Powerfeeding is not usually considered as an adult issue, its considered a way to get slings up to adult stages and adult prices as quickly as possible.

 

[losct2381]

So now due to that comment or qote my thought is that. Maybe it's not the calcium but just the size of the pray item because it was stated that over feeding in general if all prey items cause molting problems. So wouldn't it be the size if the rodent that is causeing the problem. I would think this because a mouse even small would surely be the equivalent to a huge amount of crickets of most invert at that.