Feeding vertebrates to invertebrates…choose your side!

Do you feed your tarantulas vertebrates?


  • Total voters
    89
  • Poll closed .

Hellion299

Arachnosquire
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Echolalia, I thought that is what the back side of our 12" steel tongs are for.......
 

matthias

Arachnobaron
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Yay for Team Zombies!

Great information matthias! I could defiantly see how mice being treated with chemicals could be harmful for a T, which is why I breed my own rodent feeders. As for the "dead mice bolus stick". It is true I DO have to remove the mouse bolus promptly to avoid a pretty foul smell. Lol. I have never heard of a horned worm though, you got a scientific name for them?
I didn't find the latin for them, but they are also called Tobacco Hornworms

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05517.html
 

BobGrill

Arachnoprince
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If you feed vertebrates to your Ts the calcium police will track you down.
 

pnshmntMMA

Arachnobaron
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none of my Ts are big enough yet, but when my LP is, i honestly doubt ill feed verts. its just not worth the risk of having the prey injure the T after all the work put into keeping them healthy. just my .02, id be pissed of a mouse bit my T. so probly gonna stick to bugs, and annoying neighbors as food sources. this thread is like the AR vs AK thread on gun forums, both have pros and cons, and its been beaten to death.
 

xhexdx

ArachnoGod
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What is the new way to comment on things now?

Oh, right:

Stupid thread is stupid.

OP asks for fresh opinions, but argues with and agrees with responses.

The soft skin of a rodent might be easier to digest than the exoskeleton of an insect, but the bones are definitely not easier. They don't digest at all and end up as fecal waste. I'd say the bones alone make a rodent much more difficult to eat and digest than any invertebrate.
Um, what?

There is absolutely no need to feed a vertebrate to an invertebrate. None.
 

BobGrill

Arachnoprince
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What is the new way to comment on things now?

Oh, right:

Stupid thread is stupid.

OP asks for fresh opinions, but argues with and agrees with responses.



Um, what?

There is absolutely no need to feed a vertebrate to an invertebrate. None.
There might be no need, but unless you're using live mice I'd say the risks aren't too big.
 

Mojo Jojo

Arachnoking
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Tarantulas don't need to eat mice. Pictures and videos of spiders eating rodents disgust me. People who feed rodents to their spiders for entertainment value disgust me. If you are breeding mice and have an overabundance of pinkies and you toss some to your spiders so you don't get overwhelmed with more adult mice than you can deal with, whatever. If your spider dies because it got sick from eating the rodent or because the rodent bit it, then please tell Karma I said hi. Oh, and don't come here and start an emo thread about how sad you are because a mouse killed your spider. That mouse didn't kill your spider. You killed your spider.
 

BobGrill

Arachnoprince
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Tarantulas don't need to eat mice. Pictures and videos of spiders eating rodents disgust me. People who feed rodents to their spiders for entertainment value disgust me. If you are breeding mice and have an overabundance of pinkies and you toss some to your spiders so you don't get overwhelmed with more adult mice than you can deal with, whatever. If your spider dies because it got sick from eating the rodent or because the rodent bit it, then please tell Karma I said hi. Oh, and don't come here and start an emo thread about how sad you are because a mouse killed your spider. That mouse didn't kill your spider. You killed your spider.
Can you say "overeaction?" Did you even bother to read my post?
 

Merfolk

Arachnoprince
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I do feed vertebrates, and some of my Ts mostly eat that. Fact is, where I live crickets are very small and other insect feeders that don't burrow are illegal or overpriced. I can go with superworms for large Ts sometimes but it's not a staple either. As for the results over 6 years, I lost no Ts save for the bunch that froze during a power outage in mid winter last year ( I was away). Fed them frogs (never had nematodes, cross fingers) but those sometimes got ignored since they remain still most of the time, only my swamp dwellers would constantly go ape for them. Mice are the favorite of my large Pokies along with anoles.

Anole is the vertebrate prey that got digested the fastest, speaking from experience. The T doesn't get bloated for weeks like when fed a mouse and slims down noticeably within 2 weeks. They are some's favorites but are a bit pricey; mice are used for long lasting fattening like prior to a long absence or else! Each of my 6"+ has +/-2 mice a year, never larger than a hopper. Those die fast and I totaly dislike the sight of a squeeking bacon dance (didn't happen much, lucky...) that happens when a mice too large got bit out of a vital area. Sometimes, I switch mice for other preys. For my smaller Ts, well I caught several of those black large crickets that you see on very hot days and am starting a colony so the hatchlings will feed my slings and the adults my juvies... I wish we had those gigantic locusts they have in Europe...
 

Hellion299

Arachnosquire
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Good stuff Merfolk! I have found Anoles to be a great feeder as well, never tried frogs- could be interesting. : )
 

shining

Arachnodemon
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My opinion is that boards have a plethora of threads concerning feeding verts to inverts, and the pros and cons have been debated and beaten to death, so we don't need another thread/poll concerning the topic.

Opinion given.
agreed.
i feed my inverts humans.
 

DamoK21

Arachnosquire
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I feed mine insects, lizards, and mice because it happens in the wild

And because it happens in the wild, i also let my MM's cross the roads and get ran over, and because it happens in the wild, i run and walk past there enclosures, while killing the odd female because i pretend to be scared of them, I also throw stones at there homes, just for fun, because it happens in the wild. Ill even flood enclosures, because sudden rain storms happen in the wild, iv imported the tarantula wasp, and let my spiders be stung and eggs layed on them, because it happens in the wild...

And because i can be botherd to take note my home is not the wild, i read up on nutrition for the spiders, and because i can be botherd to research what it takes to make up the spider's exo skeliton, i feed my T's the food they need, and because i can be bothered to research, my spiders ae happy and healthy. And because iv done this, im not stupid enough to give them somthing that would cause them to be at risk. And because its not just the calcium, and there other aspects to it, such as wrong proteins, and fats, i know not to feed them rodents and lizards or birds.
 

BobGrill

Arachnoprince
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I feed mine insects, lizards, and mice because it happens in the wild

And because it happens in the wild, i also let my MM's cross the roads and get ran over, and because it happens in the wild, i run and walk past there enclosures, while killing the odd female because i pretend to be scared of them, I also throw stones at there homes, just for fun, because it happens in the wild. Ill even flood enclosures, because sudden rain storms happen in the wild, iv imported the tarantula wasp, and let my spiders be stung and eggs layed on them, because it happens in the wild...

And because i can be botherd to take note my home is not the wild, i read up on nutrition for the spiders, and because i can be botherd to research what it takes to make up the spider's exo skeliton, i feed my T's the food they need, and because i can be bothered to research, my spiders ae happy and healthy. And because iv done this, im not stupid enough to give them somthing that would cause them to be at risk. And because its not just the calcium, and there other aspects to it, such as wrong proteins, and fats, i know not to feed them rodents and lizards or birds.
Congratulations, another overeaction.
 

coco

Arachnoknight
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Mar 7, 2004
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I'm feeding mine mice, grasshoppers, roaches, crickets and even guppyfish from time to time.
 

DamoK21

Arachnosquire
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hardly comming from somone who belives there home is the wild...
 

Hellion299

Arachnosquire
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Nov 30, 2008
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Someone needs to pull their knickers out of their epigastric furrow and relax a bit...

---------- Post added 08-22-2011 at 11:09 PM ----------

Speaking of furrows, does this look violated to anyone?
 

BobGrill

Arachnoprince
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Someone needs to pull their knickers out of their epigastric furrow and relax a bit...

---------- Post added 08-22-2011 at 11:09 PM ----------

Speaking of furrows, does this look violated to anyone?
This is not the right place to post that discussion.

Damok21 you really need to chill out. What people feed to their Ts is their business not yours. So enough with the speeches please, "and because this, and because that, and because."
 

xhexdx

ArachnoGod
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Bob,

Did the OP not ask for opinions regarding what to feed?
 
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