frequency of feeding

[Gillian]

Hi all,
I was wondering; how often does everyone feed?
I have mostly adults, and of late, have been feeding every 2 weeks. They were being fed every week, but I've noticed that they ARE getting plump. (I have a paranoid fear of my t's getting too plump, and "popping")
Thanks,
Gillian
)o(

 

[Code Monkey]

Depends a lot on my mood, but it's somewhere in the 10 to 20 day range between feedings on average. My style is to feed heavily over a 3-5 day period until everybody has eaten their fill (defined one of two ways: the most obvious being it has eaten everything I offered it, or it is so fat that I don't feel it needs to eat again), then not feed again until the urge strikes me (and even those "tiny and helpless" slings are on this schedule).

I just cringe every time I see somebody who claims they feed every day or every two days, particularly since my speculative opinion is that the frequency of moulting problems in captivity is due to forcing abnormally fast growth from captive tarantulas.

 

[deifiler]

I'll feed mine in proportions, i.e. a third in one day, and the last third the next day.

Obviously adjusting to moulting and other factors. Keeping feeding charts greatly assists in this anyway...

Some I'll feed more if I'm extremely bored or have nothign to do. Also depends on stock etc etc... Sometimes I resort to hacking up a cricket and sharing it amongst 4-7 spiderlings.

Adults I'll feed 4-6 days a week, though not 4 day in a row. Also depandant on the meals. I'm usually prone to feed the more visible spiders more often, than getting the impression of feeding the crickets to the burrows

My 'gravid' (fingers crossed) get extra food though.

Hope that provides some insight!

 

[Lasiodora]

I generaly feed all my spiderlings 2-3x a week. The adults get fed once a week. They get fed more often if they look like they need it (judging by their abdomen size).
Mike

 

[Mendi]

I've tried feeding mine more than once a week and ended up losing money due to food wasted. I've started feeding slings and adults this year every 7-10 days and if they are nice and fat just once ever 2 weeks. The only time I increase feeding is shortly after a molt, they then get a little extra on the once a week feeding.

I've not noticed any changes in molting frequencies since adjusting to a slower schedule or problems. The only thing I have noted is there has been better growth with molting and have had less bad molts in the tiny little sling Aphonopelma species I've got. Of course this might just be due to the time of year it is too, as they didn't do any molting or growing until spring this year. And you can imagine how fun preparing and feeding slings that are barely 1/5" in size can be Since April they've molted twice and can manage to eat most of a 1/4" cricket

 

[abstract]

I've got a mealworm culture that I feed out of intermittently, depending on how fat my terrestrials look.
Some won't eat mealworms though, so I pick up a few crickets about once ever 2 weeks or so and feed until they are gone.

Overall rules of thumb:
If they look skinny, I feed.
If they look fat, I hold off.
If I'm bored or showing them off, I feed.
If I think they're fat and getting close to a molt, I hold off and hope they molt sooner.

 

[arachnopunks]

Originally posted by Code Monkey
My style is to feed heavily over a 3-5 day period until everybody has eaten their fill (defined one of two ways: the most obvious being it has eaten everything I offered it, or it is so fat that I don't feel it needs to eat again), then not feed again until the urge strikes me (and even those "tiny and helpless" slings are on this schedule).

I just cringe every time I see somebody who claims they feed every day or every two days, particularly since my speculative opinion is that the frequency of moulting problems in captivity is due to forcing abnormally fast growth from captive tarantulas.

Yeah our feeding schedule is very much like this. Feed until they are almost plump and then whenever i get more food. Our slings are also treated the same way.

 

[hillie16]

My A. seemanni was anorexic looking when I got it a week ago at a show. It took 6 crickets that day, and a pinkie the next. Since then it has taken about 6 more crickets, and it's just starting to look like the abdomen is a normal size, not even plump. Am I overfeeding it?

 

[Lopez]

Aside from my Curly hair experiment, I feed them until they look big. Then stop. Then feed them until fat again. Then stop. Then feed until fat again. Then stop.
Then they normally moult.

I don't like fat "overfed" spiders. They look strange, walk stranger, and don't seem as active or mobile as the "normal" proportioned ones.

 

[sunnymarcie]

My sub adults eat every 7 to 10 days, except for my Curly.
It eats every 5 days, and boy does it eat!
The tiny slings eat 2 times a week, if they want it.
At this point, all of the T's eat only bugs. I have not tried
pinky mice yet. I may do that with my Curly when it
recovers from its molt.

 

[Gillian]

Thanks all,
My blondi, gets fed once a week. Its the only way I can keep weight on her. (note, I mean healthy, not fat)

Fat animals of any species are not healthy.
Peace,
Gillian
)o(

 

[vulpina]

I usually feed every7-10 days, might be right, might be wrong, but it works for me.

Andy

 

[whoami?]

Originally posted by Gillian
Hi all,
I was wondering; how often does everyone feed?
I have mostly adults, and of late, have been feeding every 2 weeks. They were being fed every week, but I've noticed that they ARE getting plump. (I have a paranoid fear of my t's getting too plump, and "popping")
Thanks,
Gillian
)o(

Not sure, really. I don't keep track of when I feed them. I just feed them whenever I feel like it.

I'm working under the assumption that it's almost impossible to starve a tarantula, so I can get by with feeding them...whenever.

Seems to be working so far.

 

[Jesse607]

The frequent molters, I feed more often compared to the less frequent molters as slings and small juveniles. For large juveniles and adults I pretty much follow the same rule, except for the fact that as adults they all molt ~once a year, so I go by that individuals metabolism.

Example: My A. geniculata sling is fed one insect 2 or 3 times a week. My C. crawshayi sling is fed one insect once a week. My A. geniculata large juvenile is fed one insect ~2 times a week, and my adult female P. murinus is fed one insect every 10+ days.