Does anyone feed their t's feeder lizards

[jimip]

I would not recommend them for the tarantulas per say. I sell them mostly too zoos that need them for a certain type of bird and to a few people that have snakes that only eat anoles or small lizards. Some people buy them just to have a 100 anole pets too

the only way i would own an anole as a pet is if i had a huge vivarium with anoles everywhere. so this would come in handy. i would never feed one to my pets. i think it would be sad to see.

 

[advan]

I used to catch them as a kid and when you corner an anole they will not hesitate to bite, not much harm to a human but could easily rip a leg off a tarantula.

 

[Poxicator]

Not picking on you at all, Sleazoid, and I agree that it's not a necessity, but the calcium issue is still very much anecdotal and poorly understood. I personally would like to see something to back up these claims(not from you specifically). In my overly simplistic understanding of calcium content, wouldn't the vert's skeleton be the primary source of calcium in the animal? In the few times that I have fed verts to large Ts, the remains of the skeleton are cast off into the bolus. Again, no battle being attempted here, just satisfying some curiosity on the matter.

I was curious about feeding (frozen) mice to tarantula as I couldn't remember what was left the last time I used one. As my bred Ts (the only time I consider it) refused it I fed it a A. geniculata. It took about 2 days to eat it and what was left was just the skin, no bones which is kind of what I expected.
Regular feeding of vertebrates is frowned upon and often repeated in forums. Why people become "doubting Thomas" on this I have no idea when many people suggests its not good. There are long time hobbyists and people involved in proper study of tarantula that have noted issues with regular feeding of vertebrates to make me decide on the side of caution. I think you have to argue whether the make up of an vertebrate is required as a tarantula's diet and why they do so well without them.
However, as some people will still require information from a good source (rather than search or research it themselves) here is a quote by the president of ATS, Christian Elowsky which covers not only the feeding of invertebrates but overfeeding (please note some of the other names involved in this):
Darrin and I did some work a few years ago comparing the zinc and calcium concentrations found in the fangs Theraphosa and Acanthoscurria. He sent samples of exuvia of animals which had lost fangs after molting and those which did not. With EDX (energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy) I did find different levels of various metals in the groups. The only difference? Vertebrate diet. Sadly, the sample size was far too small for me to even write up for the ATS Magazine. ... My tiny look seemed to point at calcium being a real problem, but again, I'm not stating it was a nice set of data.

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.

 

[Merfolk]

Personal experience, observations (including from relatives on a trip) and many other factors point toward the fact that not only they are suitable (especialy for large arboreal) but they are actually a favorite. I have Ts that simply want only that. They don't even touch mice anymore. And they are far easier to digest. Herbivorous mammal flkesh leaves them bloated for a long time. Lizards are assimilated in a wink comparatively. I only feed crickets to my juvies and slings nowadays...

 

[Merfolk]

I used to catch them as a kid and when you corner an anole they will not hesitate to bite, not much harm to a human but could easily rip a leg off a tarantula.

Do you have anoles in Minnesota?
I am curious if any lizard species exist in Canada.

 

[Lopez]

the only way i would own an anole as a pet is if i had a huge vivarium with anoles everywhere. so this would come in handy. i would never feed one to my pets. i think it would be sad to see.

Anoles make great pets, especially if you have a few of them in a large tank.

I like in the UK so feeding live vertebrate prey is illegal. I wouldn't do it if it was legal anyway to be honest.

 

[Introvertebrate]

Do you have anoles in Minnesota?
I am curious if any lizard species exist in Canada.

I'm guessing he spent his youth in the southern US. Anoles are common in Florida. I used to try to catch them at my parent's timeshare on Sanibel Island. You can't take two steps through the woods without hearing them scamper away.

Tom

 

[catfishrod69]

i really dont see the point...it would be expensive food, and the thought of something going wrong...id rather know that my T's are safe at night...i did feed my vietnamese centipede a thawed pinky once, but that was cause my snake moved up a size...

 

[advan]

Do you have anoles in Minnesota?
I am curious if any lizard species exist in Canada.

I used to live in Houston, Texas and grew up all around the south

there are some species of lizards in MN not anoles i'm sure there are some lizards in Canada

 

[ArachnidJackson]

Thanks Ken for the information

I would not recommend them for the tarantulas per say. I sell them mostly too zoos that need them for a certain type of bird and to a few people that have snakes that only eat anoles or small lizards. Some people buy them just to have a 100 anole pets too

The master speaks :3: :2:

---------- Post added at 10:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:11 AM ----------

I was curious about feeding (frozen) mice to tarantula as I couldn't remember what was left the last time I used one. As my bred Ts (the only time I consider it) refused it I fed it a A. geniculata. It took about 2 days to eat it and what was left was just the skin, no bones which is kind of what I expected.
Regular feeding of vertebrates is frowned upon and often repeated in forums. Why people become "doubting Thomas" on this I have no idea when many people suggests its not good. There are long time hobbyists and people involved in proper study of tarantula that have noted issues with regular feeding of vertebrates to make me decide on the side of caution. I think you have to argue whether the make up of an vertebrate is required as a tarantula's diet and why they do so well without them.
However, as some people will still require information from a good source (rather than search or research it themselves) here is a quote by the president of ATS, Christian Elowsky which covers not only the feeding of invertebrates but overfeeding (please note some of the other names involved in this):
Darrin and I did some work a few years ago comparing the zinc and calcium concentrations found in the fangs Theraphosa and Acanthoscurria. He sent samples of exuvia of animals which had lost fangs after molting and those which did not. With EDX (energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy) I did find different levels of various metals in the groups. The only difference? Vertebrate diet. Sadly, the sample size was far too small for me to even write up for the ATS Magazine. ... My tiny look seemed to point at calcium being a real problem, but again, I'm not stating it was a nice set of data.

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.

This is some great information, thanks for sharing my friend. I might do some of my own research on this topic in the future. I love having hard core rock solid evidence instead of hearsay! I detest the fact that most people just repeat information without having any knowledge of the facts or even the situation sometimes. Kudos to those that find real answers!
Thanks again for this information buddy!

 

[jbm150]

I was curious about feeding (frozen) mice to tarantula as I couldn't remember what was left the last time I used one. As my bred Ts (the only time I consider it) refused it I fed it a A. geniculata. It took about 2 days to eat it and what was left was just the skin, no bones which is kind of what I expected.
Regular feeding of vertebrates is frowned upon and often repeated in forums. Why people become "doubting Thomas" on this I have no idea when many people suggests its not good. There are long time hobbyists and people involved in proper study of tarantula that have noted issues with regular feeding of vertebrates to make me decide on the side of caution. I think you have to argue whether the make up of an vertebrate is required as a tarantula's diet and why they do so well without them.
However, as some people will still require information from a good source (rather than search or research it themselves) here is a quote by the president of ATS, Christian Elowsky which covers not only the feeding of invertebrates but overfeeding (please note some of the other names involved in this):
Darrin and I did some work a few years ago comparing the zinc and calcium concentrations found in the fangs Theraphosa and Acanthoscurria. He sent samples of exuvia of animals which had lost fangs after molting and those which did not. With EDX (energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy) I did find different levels of various metals in the groups. The only difference? Vertebrate diet. Sadly, the sample size was far too small for me to even write up for the ATS Magazine. ... My tiny look seemed to point at calcium being a real problem, but again, I'm not stating it was a nice set of data.

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.

Thanks for posting all of this. I'm really skeptical about the whole vertebrate-feeding/calcium/etc being necessarily detrimental to Ts. Prey that can fight back, for sure (if mis-sized, anoles could certainly do some damage). But my suspicion is that there is nothing inherently wrong with feeding vertebrates.

It's quite possible that chemical contamination is the culprit. Any studies should really consider how the vertebrate prey are being kept. If you go to the pet store and buy a mouse to feed your over-sized (hopefully ) T, you stand a good chance of developing problems. They may have been exposed to anti-flea or -mite chemicals, been kept on cedar or other wood chips (oils in fur), been exposed to airborne deodorizers/pesticides, etc etc etc. These same problems can happen with store-bought crickets but chemical loads would presumably be much, much less and the crickets might be dead anyways.

But who knows, it could very well be true. Point is, we don't know. If you want to err on the side of caution, thats great! We want to minimize the chance of putting our Ts at risk. But so far, besides what Poxicator has presented, the whole calcium/vertebrate argument is heresay. If you feel like feeding your T vertebrates, thats your decision. But don't be stupid about it. When that mouse or anole turns the tables and fatally injures your T, or you vastly overfeed and subject it to potential molting/falling problems, just realize you had a part in that.

 

[Wachusaynoob]

[YOUTUBE]QjgRFONRwJ4[/YOUTUBE]


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjgRFONRwJ4

just watch it.

 

[fenhawk1]

why? what good would it do?