Feeding

Gabrgrl

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How do you know when to begin feeding your Ts double or bigger crickets?
 

SuleymanC

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How do you know when to begin feeding your Ts double or bigger crickets?
Keep in mind that you ALWAYS give smaller size crickets than tarantula. 1 cricket a month is good or 1 cricket for every 2 weeks. For slings I prefer 1 every week so they molt to get bigger faster. Once they are juvenile or adult you can feed once every 3 weeks or month! Hope this helps :)
 

Andrea82

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Keep in mind that you ALWAYS give smaller size crickets than tarantula. 1 cricket a month is good or 1 cricket for every 2 weeks. For slings I prefer 1 every week so they molt to get bigger faster. Once they are juvenile or adult you can feed once every 3 weeks or month! Hope this helps :)
Ehm, not really. This feeding schedule can be alright for G.porteri/rosea, but it is too little for other species imo.
Slings get to eat what they want. I feed three or four times a week, and prey is the size of the abdomen, roughly. Some species aren't afraid of bigger prey, while others run even from pre killed.
So it depends on species, @Gabrgrl
 

user 666

Arachnobaron
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my rule is to feed crickets smaller than the _body_ of the T, not the abdomen.

And it is hard to say when you should feed multiple crickets or shorten the interval between feeding; it varies between species.
 

Andrea82

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my rule is to feed crickets smaller than the _body_ of the T, not the abdomen.

And it is hard to say when you should feed multiple crickets or shorten the interval between feeding; it varies between species.
I can get away with giving prey the same size of the T with my C.cyaneopubescens, but not with my E.sp.Red. She runs from anything bigger than her abdomen.
Same goes for my arboreals. P.pulcher snatches anything that comes within striking range, but my A.metallica runs from too big feeders.
 

KezyGLA

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Size of prey and how frequently you feed them depends on the size of your T.

I feed slings to 2inch every few days

Juveniles of 2" and up to 3" will get 3 prey items per week.

Once 3" I slow right down to 1 prey item every 1-2 week then keep an eye on their abdomens and stop feeding when getting tubby.
 

Venom1080

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I pick prey by the legspan. Except for avics, they seem to take smaller food better, at least when young.
 

Gabrgrl

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Size of prey and how frequently you feed them depends on the size of your T.

I feed slings to 2inch every few days

Juveniles of 2" and up to 3" will get 3 prey items per week.

Once 3" I slow right down to 1 prey item every 1-2 week then keep an eye on their abdomens and stop feeding when getting tubby.
Thank you for this. I have been wondering at what point they are juvenile and no longer slings. At what point are they adults? I have a cobalt blue, a rose hair, arizona blonde and a pink toe
 

KezyGLA

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Many species are different sizes when they reach maturity. Many people have different views as to what a sling, juvenile and adult are.

I would say anything up to 2" is sling/grown on. 2-3" a juvenile. 3-4" subadult and 4+" adult with most of the more common species.
 

Paiige

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Keep in mind that you ALWAYS give smaller size crickets than tarantula. 1 cricket a month is good or 1 cricket for every 2 weeks. For slings I prefer 1 every week so they molt to get bigger faster. Once they are juvenile or adult you can feed once every 3 weeks or month! Hope this helps :)
If I fed like this, I have Ts that might break out of their enclosures and try to eat me. For my G. porteri it would be fine but that's about it.
I generally feed prey smaller than the size of the abdomen, but it depends on the T. Some of them (my G. pulchra, A. genic and Avic avics) will attack and try to eat literally anything that moves and I could feed them something their size and they'd still wrestle with it (not that I recommend this!) I have other Ts that are terrified of anything that's even close to half their abdomen size. But smaller than their abdomen is a good rule of thumb. Something I do if I'm a little worried about a cricket being too big for a sling is perform some cricket surgery...rip off the back legs and the mouth parts, so the T can't be injured.

I feed my slings every other day, if they'll eat; my juveniles every 3-4 days depending on how chunky they are and my adults once a week. I slow down to once every other week if they start looking too fat (only for large juveniles/adults. Fat slings are happy slings)
 

user 666

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I can get away with giving prey the same size of the T with my C.cyaneopubescens, but not with my E.sp.Red. She runs from anything bigger than her abdomen.
Same goes for my arboreals. P.pulcher snatches anything that comes within striking range, but my A.metallica runs from too big feeders.
This is true.

Just to add more data, I have a Haitian brown T which can kill adult crickets its size, and my H gabonensis regularly kills crickets slightly larger than it is.

So it really varies between species.
 

Hellblazer

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I feed slings as much as they'll eat. I have a surplus of roaches though. I try to give them one about the size of their abdomen, sometimes a little bigger.
 
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cold blood

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yeah like kez said, its completely species dependent, both in the size, and frequency of prey.

I will say that I don't feed more than one per feeding ever. For larger species, crickets are just a snack between larger meals like dubia and superworms.
 

The Grym Reaper

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Ehm, not really. This feeding schedule can be alright for G.porteri/rosea, but it is too little for other species imo.@Gabrgrl
This, a Lasiodora/Acanthoscurria/Theraposa will eat more adult crickets in one sitting than a G. porteri/rosea would over the course of several months.

To the OP, I'd generally try to keep total prey size to smaller than the abdomen of the Tarantula you're feeding, I'd only feed multiple crickets per feeding to my A. geniculata/L. parahybana/L. difficilis because they're large gluttonous murder tanks and the combined size of 2-3 adult crickets is still smaller than the T's abdomen (I only do this when I'm out of roaches/supers or have a surplus of adult crickets).

I generally feed slings (up to 2") every 3 days, juvies (2-4") once per week and subadults/adults (4-5"+) once a fortnight. I do tweak the feeding schedules to better suit the individual T if I need to though.
 
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