feeder mice

Spyder 1.0

Arachnoprince
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Jan 7, 2007
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when is the right time to move into the feeder mice territory? Right now i have a female(i think) costa rican Zebra tarantula. lately she has been searching for food like crazy, and i keep providing it. I think she may be ready for something bigger then large crickets.

from a few months ago


from today

what do you guys/girls think? baby feeder mice? or no
 

C_Strike

Arachnobaron
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Jun 8, 2005
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For me its a very infrequent addition to the diet,
Although i havent actually read any evidence to back it up, people report that it can lead to molt problems.
In particular yours looks quite small for mice.
Also if its live mice your thinking, mice hand teeth, and they are sharp, haha thats enough for me to not bother to risk any harm to my T's.
1 pinky every couple of months seems more than adequate for Ts.
I do think an ocassional one will be good for a change in diet and nutrients gained, after all they do live for god knows how many years.
Your T is very nice!
 

FOOTBALL FAN

Arachnosquire
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here in the UK its illegal to feed live mice to your inverts or reps which is a good thing in my opinion, I used to not be sure and thought its nature, but really its not, feeding live mice is cruel and also can lead to your T getting seriously hurt even killed, also it makes a hell of a mess, they never really need to be fed anything other than crickets or large locust they will be perfectly healthy and happy eating them if shes looking for more food throw another cricket in
 

Nerri1029

Chief Cook n Bottlewasher
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I agree, mice aren't needed,

I have a large female almost twice that size.. body-wise, and she's never had a mouse or any mammal.

How ever due to a divided enclosure accident she did eat another seemanni

I raise roaches.. and feeding larger prey is not a problem.

quantity can also be done with crix.

the T looks healthy enough, and I agree about the risk to the T not being worth it.
 

C_Strike

Arachnobaron
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Aye, its just moral groundings for me.
Maybe just get some variety of other food sources,
for me, i have 3 species of cockroaches currently breeding, though i havent got enough to use them as a food source... yet.
Variety is good:D
 

rYe

Arachnosquire
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Regular diet of Mice, don't do it. Feeding a mouse to a T causes molting problems, never heard of it. I agree if your going to feed a mouse only once in a blue moon is okay, but not live. Buy a frozen pinkie and soak it in a hot cup of water for a few minutes till it's defrosted then use some tongs and do what you need to do to get the T's attention (IE make the mouse look alive, tickle it's web etc) If it doesn't eat the pinkie after so many attempts toss it in the garbage (The pinkie not the T :D )
 

Merfolk

Arachnoprince
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Mine gets two mice over the winter (Pinkies or fuzzies, never bigger than T's abdomen) and it's small lizards and frogs the rest of the year. They rarely eat warm blooded prey in the wild, so it must not be a staple. Most of the time it's crickets and roaches!
 

Selenops

Arachnoangel
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I'd think mealworms in a small dish (don't want these things burrowing down beneath the substrate).

I don't think any vertebrate prey is required by rosies. Now, if we were speaking of those sleek greyhound killers from Asia, Pokies, Birdeaters, or larger Baboons they probably deserve an occassional pinkie or small anole. Of course cleaning remains for any T is required, that's another reconsideration.
 

Spyder 1.0

Arachnoprince
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my mice i meant small pinky mice with no fur. i just want to beef up my T before i leave it in the hands of my mother for 6 months while im at university in rez..

so yes or no to a small pinky mouse
 

Brian S

ArachnoGod
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but really its not, feeding live mice is cruel and also can lead to your T getting seriously hurt even killed,
Thats a matter of opinion as far as being cruel. I have snakes that will not switch over to F/T mice so what am I to do? Let them starve? I think not, so live it will be. I think your gov. needs to stop sticking its nose where it doesnt belong (just like our gov)
They can damage a T though so I can go along with that.

my mice i meant small pinky mice with no fur. i just want to beef up my T before i leave it in the hands of my mother for 6 months while im at university in rez..

so yes or no to a small pinky mouse
I would personally keep throwing the crickets to it. I have plumped up many a spiders on crickets alone
 
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Mina

Arachnoking
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Is your Mother refusing to feed the T while you are gone? If so even feeding it a pinky (if it would even accept one) won't keep it going for six months. Have your Mother go to a rep store and buy enough crickets for your T to eat in one week. Then she does not have to maintain crickets. She will still have to water it though.
 

C_Strike

Arachnobaron
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Thats a matter of opinion as far as being cruel.
Well, by definition and justification it is cruel, but it is life.. life is cruel.
At the end of the day for our amusment with our pets, feeding a live mouse to an animal is goin to put the mouse through some degree of pain. Thats cruel. Its just rationalising, justifying our pets life over the feeders life.
I can understand that some snakes are very picky, with mine at least, this only with a red-tailed boa, and a royal python thats both picky, if you warm the F/T feeder, and use tongs, or something, always got mine to eat.. when theyr hungry.
But equally they probably arent the most picky of species *tho the boa ONLY ate white rats, not brown ones, nor white guinea pigs, rabbits or anything, lol*
 

C_Strike

Arachnobaron
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Btw its your T, its your decision as to whether you want/ should put one with it, Just give a lil espect to the feeder, ie; dont buy one that the T is going to wrestle for ages with before it finally dies. Lol
Then again, thats your decision too!;) :?
 

pinkzebra

Arachnobaron
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Personally, I would not feed mice. Your T looks kinda small. Feeding mice has no known benefits. It is unhealty for Ts, as for any other animal, to be too fat. The huge bloated abdomens that they get are more likely to split open in case of a fall. I feed my Ts a cricket or two every week to a week and a half. A roach once in a while. Mealworms and superworms once in a while for variety. Your T is going to need to have water changed many times in that 6 month period, can't your mom throw a cricket in every once in a while also?
 

Crunchie

Arachnoangel
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Try it on a pre-killed mouse every now and then. I'll give mine one of these around once or twice a year. Of all my adult spiders (around 18) I have yet to find one that does not accept pre-killed prey.

As has been mentioned in the UK it is illegal to feed live vertebrates unless an animal refuses to eat anything else and all our spiders appear happy and are bred often enough. On this one the government have certainly got it right as there should be no need really to feed an invertebrate live vertebrates. Even the biggest tarantula will do well on cockroaches, crickets or locusts.

Of course at the end of the day the choice is yours. :D

Here's a few of mine enjoying a meal of pre-killed mice, I've also fed them raw chicken breast with success.


 

Spyder 1.0

Arachnoprince
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when i leave it with my mother it will get fed. but not every 2 days as i am . and once the crickets run out there may be a week before she buys more..
 

Mushroom Spore

Arachnoemperor
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when i leave it with my mother it will get fed. but not every 2 days as i am . and once the crickets run out there may be a week before she buys more..
Woah, you're feeding it WAY too much! If your mother can toss it two crickets a week, that's more than perfect.
 

Bigboy

Arachnoprince
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here in the UK its illegal to feed live mice to your inverts or reps which is a good thing in my opinion, I used to not be sure and thought its nature, but really its not, feeding live mice is cruel and also can lead to your T getting seriously hurt even killed, also it makes a hell of a mess, they never really need to be fed anything other than crickets or large locust they will be perfectly healthy and happy eating them if shes looking for more food throw another cricket in

I'd be careful about using the word "cruel" as it is a loaded term. However in reality there is no reason for your spider to ever have need of vertebrate prey items. In the wild they may eat them in the form of small mammals, and herps, but it is much less expensive for you to just use inverts such as roaches and crickets. Though some people "get off" on seeing how, dare I say it, cool it is to watch their spider or scorpion tear lay into a mouse, ultimately you have to ask why? It's messy for you to clean up and in some cases downright risky for the welfare of your pet. I've been in the hobby for three years now, have over 80spiders and have only ever fed one pinky to a subadult A. geniculata. I had hoped it'd be a big meal which is why I did it, but four adult crickets would have been cheaper and just as effective. If you are looking for larger prey items I'd invest 50dollars or so into a roach colony. They are great, mine started with 40 B. dubia and in 6months it has sprung into the hundreds with nymphs subadults and adults.
 
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