Feeding time at the zoo...

[Tuishimi]

http://homepage.mac.com/candiazoo/pictures_of_us_and_stuff/our_arachnids/

Well, it was Charlotte's (my larger Chilean rose) first meal since molting, and it was Jitter's (my small rose) first full-size cricket today. Both did fine.

I also fed each of my collected Aphonopelmas two crickets. It's amazing how different their personalities are. Sting (which might be a male) nailed both crickets in mid-air! Scary. Buttercup waited for the crickets to come to her. Much more lady-like. Now she is staring at me from the front of her cage. Not sure why. Maybe she was taking the trash out. Maybe she is still hungry... maybe it's just a thank you .

Jitter is pretty funny. The cricket is almost as big as he is.

Now, should I restrain myself and wait until early next week to buy more crickets, or would it be alright to pick up a few tomorrow or Wednesday to let them have another round of feeding? I feel like maybe I should feed them as much as they will consume, but another part of me says "treat them like my fish" and only feed them a little every few days or more.

Should feedings be consistent, or inconsistent? I don't remember reading about that in the T. Keepers Guide.

 

[Alice]

it doesn't really matter if you feed regularly or not - as long as there are only a few ts and you can remember when everyone ate last .

in their natural habitat, food is an irregular occurence, that's why most ts will eat whenever something comes their way unless they are in premolt.

so there are two major difficulties with feeding them as often as they will eat:
1. they can get quite obese, thus increasing the probability of a fatal injury
2. they live shorter lives, as a t's life span is measured in molts, and the more often you feed, the quicker it will molt

on the pro side: they molt quicker and thus grow quicker, so you've got big ts earlier.

i feed my slings and juvies about once a week, twice a week if the prey item is small. i do feed when i've got the time to do it, so it's not exactly regular. all my ts do fine with that and are more often up and about, looking for food.

the adults, unless mated females or freshly molted, only get food once or twice a month, but they get two large african grass hoppers on those occasions. they do fine es well and are not too fat. sometimes i throw in a few crix, a roach or a zophoba for a bit of a change.

hope this helped a bit!

 

[Tuishimi]

Yes! That's great, thanks!