Feeding tarantulas mice

[Haksilence]

Someone please explain this too me? As far as I know there is zero quantifiable reason to feed mice to tarantulas.

The calcium is potentially hazardous to them.
Mice can actually bite them.
It's gonna stress the hell out of the tarantula.

So why do people do it, and defend doing it?

 

[arachnidsGrip]

IMO: full grown mice: no go.
Pinky mice: okay on RARE occasions (and only for bigger species, ie T. Blondi/Stirmi).

 

[ArachnaeEsoterica]

I have never fed my Ts a rodent and its something I'm uncomfortable with on the T's diet. I keep plenty on hand for my scaleys but I doubt I'd feed even a Blondi or Stirmi a tiny mouse but once in a blue moon.

 

[Haksilence]

I'm talking full grown live feeder mice.
Pinky's aren't bad, but still unnecessary, they aren't anymore nutritious to a t than a mix of dubias and super worms.

 

[Sana]

Okay folks the calcium thing is a myth. I don't feed mammals because they make horrible screaming noises while the venom is doing it's work. Crickets, roaches, worms, no noise. Also I hear that rodent boluses smell pretty awful.

 

[Exoskeleton Invertebrates]

It's more than a myth, I feed my Pelinobius muticus, Acanthoscurria sp. "Brocklehursti" etc. adult size nice, pinky mice and pinky rats. Being feeding my tarantulas for many years this type of food. My old Xenesthis sp. "Blue" ate lots of mice and pinky rats with no problems as well. Over 20 years of feeding to any of my tarantulas mice and rats with no problem.
Have fun with this topic.

 

[Exoskeleton Invertebrates]

Nice and fatty. She is either fat from eating rat pups, adult mice or she's gravid.

 

[cold blood]

Okay folks the calcium thing is a myth. I don't feed mammals because they make horrible screaming noises while the venom is doing it's work. Crickets, roaches, worms, no noise. Also I hear that rodent boluses smell pretty awful.

I agree, and its not the boli, it takes so long to consume that it starts to rot while its still being consumed...just horrible.

I agree with Jose though, for certain large ts, especially after molt when they're slender, it can be an acceptable meal, although one could certainly argue about putting a mammal through that...even pinkies scream. Not my cup of tea, but I only know that because I have fed them.

 

[Haksilence]

I get all that, but why not just toss 2 super worms their way? If they are hungry enough to take a mouse surely they will have no trouble taking back to back supers.

 

[Walter1]

Perhaps, feeding frozen/thaweds is easier and more economical. They will take them that way.

 

[Exoskeleton Invertebrates]

My tarantulas eat what ever they want to eat at the present time. It doesn't matter wether is super worms or not or frozen rats, mice etc.

If a person is afraid that a mice could hurt a tarantula than you shouldn't feed a mice. Depending on the size of a baby tarantula and the size of a cricket can also injure a tarantula, crickets can bite as well. I don't worry about those things happening tarantulas are a natural predator for those type of insects or animals.

I made this video months ago she loves earthworms. Since the video she has molted.

And this is her today after eating earthworms and a few crickets.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Without entering the debate about the supposed benefits (or not) i consider the 'cruelty' part. A cricket in the fangs of a P.murinus (example) is more or less like a man hit by a truck at full speed. With a mouse that's another story. I don't want to put my T's at risk nor to see animals suffer.

Don't want to sound hypocrite, it's not that a mouse life is better or more important than a cricket, but i have a certain "respect" even for violence.

Never offered one to my T's in 25 years, and never will.

Probably there's people who enjoy "poop" like this, not me.

 

[Haksilence]

Without entering the debate about the supposed benefits (or not) i consider the 'cruelty' part. A cricket in the fangs of a P.murinus (example) is more or less like a man hit by a truck at full speed. With a mouse that's another story. I don't want to put my T's at risk nor to see animals suffer.

Don't want to sound hypocrite, it's not that a mouse life is better or more important than a cricket, but i have a certain "respect" even for violence.

Never offered one to my T's in 25 years, and never will.

Probably there's people who enjoy "poop" like this, not me.

Yeah I can see that for sure. In videos it seems like mice take up to a minute or so to stop screaming, that has to be pure agony. For crickets or superworms just the mechanical damage has to put them out almost immediately

That's an aspect that I didn't think of

 

[Exoskeleton Invertebrates]

Without entering the debate about the supposed benefits (or not) i consider the 'cruelty' part. A cricket in the fangs of a P.murinus (example) is more or less like a man hit by a truck at full speed. With a mouse that's another story. I don't want to put my T's at risk nor to see animals suffer.

Don't want to sound hypocrite, it's not that a mouse life is better or more important than a cricket, but i have a certain "respect" even for violence.

Never offered one to my T's in 25 years, and never will.

Probably there's people who enjoy "poop" like this, not me.

Hey man! How are you? The difference with my feeding I keep it close doors. My kids love mice/rats, I don't let them watch or even know that I have a mouse/rat for my tarantula to eat.

That was a large mouse/rat for the P. murinus. The only problem that I have about a spider eating a large prey like the one in the video is the P. murinus will not consume all its food. So the reality is the owner of the P. murinus should have giving it a smaller prey. To me that was a waste of life.

Now I would like to see someone holding that tarantula. He! He!

 

[petkokc]

I don't enjoy animal (or any ones) suffering and since there is no benefit of feeding Tarantulas with rodents I never did or never will use them as feeders. Plain and simple.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Hey man! How are you? The difference with my feeding I keep it close doors. My kids love mice/rats, I don't let them watch or even know that I have a mouse/rat for my tarantula to eat.

That was a large mouse/rat for the P. murinus. The only problem that I have about a spider eating a large prey like the one in the video is the P. murinus will not consume all its food. So the reality is the owner of the P. murinus should have giving it a smaller prey. To me that was a waste of life.

Now I would like to see someone holding that tarantula. He! He!

I wasn't talking about you, Jose, but in general. Those people aren't like you. You know what you are doing, those people not. They just enjoy cruelty, and (combining their voyeuristic feelings with YT) those are a very bad example for other people, including (especially) those in good faith who wants to move their first steps in the hobby.

Take care Jose, man

 

[Scott C.]

So why do people do it, and defend doing it?

Because they're available as feeders, and further vary the diet of their pets. They defend doing it because some folks feel the need to tell them they shouldn't for an assortment of bogus and/or self righteous reasons.

Personally, it's rare if at all. Too messy.

 

[Exoskeleton Invertebrates]

I wasn't talking about you, Jose, but in general. Those people aren't like you. You know what you are doing, those people not. They just enjoy cruelty, and (combining their voyeuristic feelings with YT) those are a very bad example for other people, including (especially) those in good faith who wants to move their first steps in the hobby.

Take care Jose, man

Oh I know you weren't talking about me. I do understand where your coming from since I do know how aggressive the kill can be. My Acanthoscurria sp. "Brocklehursti" went nuts over her mice it was a violent kill, it was the worse I ever seen. The best part about though she is over 7" inches and she consumed everything.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Another point of view i want to discuss with you people, involving this issue.

So, here a lovely Spring is arrived... there's more or less 64 F outside. I have noticed, among the others, my 0.1 P.murinus busy with "Spring" cleaning, she kicked out a molt, bulldozing everything (i expect a molt soon, she's in pre molt).

She looks "happy", meaning... master at her home. Secure. Don't consider the premolt status nor the ethic part for a moment; well, the last thing i want is to put a mouse in her enclosure, and put her into a "life or death territory battle" like happens in the wild.

 

[louise f]

Another point of view i want to discuss with you people, involving this issue.

So, here a lovely Spring is arrived... there's more or less 64 F outside. I have noticed, among the others, my 0.1 P.murinus busy with "Spring" cleaning, she kicked out a molt, bulldozing everything (i expect a molt soon, she's in pre molt).

She looks "happy", meaning... master at her home. Secure. Don't consider the premolt status nor the ethic part for a moment; well, the last thing i want is to put a mouse in her enclosure, and put her into a "life or death territory battle" like happens in the wild.

Ohh Christian my friend,have you not heard that the Ts hormons are going crazy at the spring just like us people

haha