feeding tarantulas mice

[EightLeggedFrea]

I know just crix are good enough for all tarantula, but wold it be safe to feed my 4-4 1/2" rosea or my L. difficilis of about the same size (almost 5") mice? The feeder mice I saw today in a pet store in a Hamilton Place mall looked about 3". Are these okay to use as feeders? Or should I look for pinkies? This will be the first time I've fed any of my creatures something other than crix, so what kind of cleaning would I need to do if they leave behind "leftovers" after eating? I of course don't plan to do this often...

 

[Windchaser]

Once a mouse has teeth and claws it is capable of defending itself and therefore has the potential to injure or kill a tarantula. The feeder mice you are describing certainly sound like they are large enough to defend themselves. In addition, a mouse that size is overkill in terms of the amount of food it would provide.

I have fed some of my tarantulas pinkies in the past but don't anymore. Besides the simple fact that they are more expensive, they leave an incredibly smelly mess once the tarantula is done. There is no need to actually feed them mice so for me the added expense and mess just aren't worth it.

 

[7mary3]

Pinkies are ok, nothing more as that they may harm the tarantula and as stated, are certainly over kill in the way of how much your T will eat. As far as cleaning after your T finishes, just remove the lil ball of bones and skin and whatever else as soon as you can and flush it. Yes, pinkies are more expensive than crix, but once in a while there's nothing wrong with giving one to your T. Just don't do it often. I feed one pinkie every 2 to 3 months as sort of a treat. Going overkill can fatten your T up too much and put them at a higher risk for a ruptured abdomen, and can cause other issues because of the abundance of calcium that the T isn't necessarily used to processing. By all means throw a pinky in, just make it a rare treat and don't go any larger.

 

[jbrd]

there are more feeders to use.....

I would not limit my T's to just crickets or pinkies for there diet. There are plenty of alternatives to feeding your T's. Crickets, pinkie mice and rats, superworms, lots of different types of roaches. Hell i have even fed my larger T's an anole or two in the past.
So a long story made short, T's in the wild do not just eat one solitary food item so why should we limit there diet just to crickets?
I also think feeding pinkies to your G.rosea and L. difficilis is not a very good idea either. These two will do just fine on other insects as there prey items.
As far as this too much calcium debate goes, its still a "debate", not an established fact as far as i know today.
Simple is best.

 

[cacoseraph]

as long as the pinky is considerably smaller than the carapace of the tarantula there will be no mess

you might want to fast your tara for a month or six weeks first just to make sure... especially if you feed on a like, caresheet schedule

 

[GOMER113]

Another vote for "nothing bigger than a pinkie." Anything bigger than that would probably be killed out of annoyance and maybe partially eaten.

I fed my 5.5" rosie a pinkie a few months ago and she gobbled it all up. Nothing remained. I tried feeding her one earlier this week and she only went as far as feeling the mouse, but didn't eat it. The mouse must have spooked her in some way because she didn't want to be anywhere near it while it was in her cage.

I thought she might not have been hungry, so I threw in some crickets and she snatched them up quick.

 

[Pestilence]

as to what they said i also agree. one thing really bothers me though is the smell of a dead mice.... really stinky. i try to limit my T's diet with crickets and super worms although i feed them superworms rarely because of the nutritional content.

 

[jbrd]

as to what they said i also agree. one thing really bothers me though is the smell of a dead mice.... really stinky. i try to limit my T's diet with crickets and super worms although i feed them superworms rarely because of the nutritional content.

In my experience a large T will eat 90% of the fuzzies i have fed but i also grab the bolus as soon as possible so there really is no smell that i have noticed.

 

[7mary3]

Also, as a lot of people on here do, myself included, is feed roaches. They're good, don't stink as much as crix and can be offered in larger sizes to satisfy the hungriest of T's. As always though, don't go overboard on size as you'll have waste left over.

 

[Pociemon]

I would also recommend a pinky to normal sized T´s. But i do feed my apophysis a mouse after it molting to fatten them up, and then just give them the regular stuff.

 

[bluegootty]

well..from mine experience..most of mine T will gobble pinkie up really quick and leave nothing..but try not to over feed em pinkie..i heard dat pinkie is very fatten so u dont want to over feed it with pinkie and again it's more expensive ,unless u breed mice..but cleaning the mice cage is nothing nice plus the foul odor from their urine...so stick with variety of roaches and like me ..i paid em young kids in the summer to catch me hoppers for mine T...

 

[G. pulchra]

I give my large speceis T's a fat pinkie every couple of months just for variety and to add a little fat to their diet. They eat more than insects in the wild.

 

[jbrd]

i paid em young kids in the summer to catch me hoppers for mine T...

Do you not worry about pesticides in the hoppers?

 

[GartenSpinnen]

As stated above be careful doing this. I dont disagree with doing it but make sure you kill the mouse first. Just throw the mouse in front of the T and if its hungry enough it will pounce on it as soon as it hits the ground. Something else you can do is take some forceps and wiggle it in front of the spider. Feeding live mice to anything like this be it centipedes, scorpions, or spiders can end in disaster, trust me i learned the hard way. I dont even advocate doing it with reptiles unless you really have to.
Cheers,
Nate

 

[Merfolk]

I gave a 21 dys old mouse to my 8" blondi and nothing was left. I mean nothing. I took the lid off a week later and found absolutely no smell. You just have to make it fast for a couple of weeks prior and after. It is a yearly treat though. In the wild, blondis will eat verts, but its mostly frogs and snakes. Cold blooded prey items are far easier digested.

My arboreals over 5" get a small anoleonce in a while. Most of the pictures of feeding arboreal Ts int the wild show small lizards being chewed, so it's the closest to home they can get!! For my smaller ones, my local pet shop save me the hatchlings of anoles or house geckos they find.

Finaly, my smaller terrestrials are fed crix and a wide variety of worms.