Hamsters for food?

[koldaar]

Just wondering if anyone raises hamsters for feeding T's. I know they reproduce a lot and I'm guessing they would be a good source of food for the larger T's. Does anyone think it would be more cost effective to get your pinkies this way?

 

[Silver.x]

If you have a large number of spiders then it would pay off... but often they reproduce faster than you can feed so you have an excess, that and the fact that there are costs that come with upkeeping of basically at least 2 new pets.

 

[koldaar]

How fast can they reproduce and how many do they have at once? Anyone know?

 

[Randolph XX()]

wondering how many larger species and how many of them you keep that require hamsters for feeder

 

[lta3398]

I keep hamsters as pets, but do not breed them. I have had them reproduce in the past fairly quickly, probably because i didn't want pups. But if you do have a breeding pair, they have anywhere from 4-12 pups, I believe, with a gestation period of about 15-20 days, approximately. They breed relatively quickly, on my part anyway, when they are together. I cannot promise you it will happen that fast if you buy a breeding pair. I usually just buy feeder pinkies and mice from the local store.

 

[Rabid Flea]

How fast can they reproduce and how many do they have at once? Anyone know?

I know when my hamsters were breeding out of control, one of my females was having a litter per month, her litters consisted of around 10 pinkies... but let me warn you, if you cant get rid of them right away, you have to seperate the sexes because inbreeding will occur, then things get seriously out of control. :wall: Trust me I learned that quickly!

 

[koldaar]

I have 3 L. parahybanas, 1 A. genic, and am getting a T. blondi. Just wondering if it were more cost effective to go with hamsters as opposed to buying pinkies. It was just a thought.

 

[CedrikG]

personally and this is just my opinon here I prefer the Old juicy crix ... if you're ready to breed hamsters then I guess there would not be problem for breeding crix too, why give hamster to a spider, its a wast of life , but especially of food, you T wont eat an adult hamster, it will stink like hell in your room, and you might have mites problems , plus, its a bit barbar to give a hamster to a T, it wont die immediatly, aint no fun in watching that

 

[ink_scorpion]

I have 3 L. parahybanas, 1 A. genic, and am getting a T. blondi. Just wondering if it were more cost effective to go with hamsters as opposed to buying pinkies. It was just a thought.

On this scale, my opinion would be no. It would probably be less expensive to buy the pinkies you need.

 

[jbrd]

I have a hard time feedin the pinkies to the T! :wall:

 

[David Burns]

Mice will work just as well and you can feed them scrap veggies and almost anything else. Separate sexes to control reproduction.

 

[kmk]

I feed my rosie a baby hampster occassionally, but you will spend more money raising and feeding the creatures (as their population grows exponentially) then u will saving money by going to a pet store.......sometimes if the pet store has enuf of their own babies u can get em free.

 

[The Juice]

Mice will work just as well and you can feed them scrap veggies and almost anything else. Separate sexes to control reproduction.

Thats what I was thinking plus you can get a pair of mice cheaper than a pair hampsters. Not sure about you r local petstores but the one in my area is always looking for pinkies to keep up with them demand. Maybe you can sell the extras to a petstore or a friend. I would have gladly gave you my girlfriends hampster to feed to one of your T's(liked 2 bite) Some of those hampsters can be pretty bitey.

 

[BriTer]

Adult hampsters are tarantula killers

 

[Snakecharm]

I guarantee that you would have less mess, fuss and trouble if you just break down and buy a bag of frozen pinks either at your next reptile show or get together with some buds and order some. They're usually sold in bags of 50 or 100, toss it in your freezer and you're done.

No mess. No smell. No overbreeding. Prey is always the right size, and no moral dilemma of throwing a live baby to a spider that doesn't care one way or the other.

 

[lta3398]

I really think I have to agree here and say go with mice, as I have said before. They also breed as fast as hamsters. I have a red tail boa and a ball python that eat a dozen mice a week, so I have to buy quite a few. I never get as far as breeding cuz all my pets eat them too quickly. I buy a couple of pinkies for my 9" blondi, as she seems to like those with crix and worms. Once in a while, she will take an adult mouse, but not too often. And as was stated above, I hate to see a waste of life if she won't eat it anyway. I would be wary of the hamster thing. it just doesn't seem like a good idea.

 

[Scorpiove]

I know when my hamsters were breeding out of control, one of my females was having a litter per month, her litters consisted of around 10 pinkies... but let me warn you, if you cant get rid of them right away, you have to seperate the sexes because inbreeding will occur, then things get seriously out of control. :wall: Trust me I learned that quickly!

I have bad experience with hamsters inbreeding too. You start getting major problems like hamsters without legs and other things like that. Its really bad, and the mother knows so she eats them.

 

[koldaar]

Thanks for all the posts everyone! Sounds like buying pinkies is the way to go. I haven't given any of my T's pinkies yet, how do you do it? Do you just drop one in the tank and the T will know that it's food?

 

[David_F]

Do you just drop one in the tank and the T will know that it's food?

Yep. That's how you do it. Be sure to get rid of the bolus quickly. Mites show up fast and it stinks really, really bad.

 

[Andy]

This is funny because my gf was thinking of getting a hamster and I said get a breeding pair of mice so I can have the offspring for my T's and then she said what about hamster for food? lol I thought, why not!
But it seems id rather feed pinkies.

How should I kill pinkies if I was going to use them as a feeder?