live feeder food

JohnyScaggs

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 13, 2010
Messages
2
Ok, I'm set to make a colony pretty much, but before I order, if you only had one choice of live feeder food for a T, what would it be ? I know that crickets and the dubia are the two most talked about. And on a side note, is gut loading ( shaking enriching powder on the live feeders ) really important ?
 

popcangenie

Arachnosquire
Joined
Aug 6, 2010
Messages
135
roaches are better there not to load and not smelly

you do not need to use cal power they will not incest it for the most part and ive heard cal is bad for tarantulas (really bad for big spiders)
 

belljar77

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 7, 2010
Messages
129
I sometimes have trouble getting my Ts to eat the dubias, which don't move much and tend to burrow. However, you can always do some head-squashing and leg-trimming if you aren't squeamish. Lateralis seem to work better for me, plus I can use the babies to feed my slings. I won't go near crickets anymore. Stinky and loud.
 

MichiganReptiles

Arachnobaron
Joined
May 14, 2010
Messages
407
dusting is not the same as gut loading. gut loading is feeding you feeders nutritious foods that will be passed on to the animal that is eating them.
 

CAK

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 17, 2009
Messages
298
I'm completely off of crickets!

I actually have two colonies! B.dubia and B.lateralis. They both have their PRO's and CON's. There is really one CON that covers both colonies. That is the look that people give you when you are asked the common question "what do you feed THAT many Tarantulas?"

Dubia:

PRO: They are HUGE and super nutritious and loaded with nutrients for your spiders. They grow pretty quick, easy to keep and eat about anything! They also pretty much only smell like the food you feed them. I feed mine a blend of mostly cat food... YOU GOT IT! They smell like catfood. They don't smell like crap when they do die. They don't climb, dont make noise (although in the feeding bucket that I shake them into... It does sound like rain when they are all scurrying in the bucket), and they don't fly.

CON: Dubia will burrow a bit, play dead. about 1/3'rd of my collection will refuse dubia. I have an impossible time feeding my slings dubia.



Lateralis:

PRO: They are FAST! They don't play dead, don't really climb, males don't fly, but they will jump a little and try flutter to get away. They don't burrow. The Lat babies are small enough to feed even to your smallest of slings. They eat almost anything like the dubia. I love these for feeding to my slings.

CON: People say they don't stink... Now, they definitely are not stinky like crickets, but YES, they do smell a bit. They "can" colonize if you get some loose in your house. I haven't had anything like that happen, but it's what I have heard. Lastly, they aren't as plump as dubia so you may end up feeding more in the long run.




Depending on how many T's you have... I would suggest Lateralis if you have to choose one. I have about 120 T's in my collection and use both colonies.


Holler if that didn't help you at all.
 

JohnyScaggs

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 13, 2010
Messages
2
Thats alot of info to take in... but I've read it twice. I only have one T, and its a sling and I dont know that I'll ever have a collection like yours. I'm mostly wanting to get out of the trips to the pet store.
 

belljar77

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 7, 2010
Messages
129
Thats alot of info to take in... but I've read it twice. I only have one T, and its a sling and I dont know that I'll ever have a collection like yours. I'm mostly wanting to get out of the trips to the pet store.
ThatT That was part of my rationale for getting more Ts- to eat all the roaches ;)
 

Moltar

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 11, 2007
Messages
5,438
B. lateralis are, in my opinion, slightly superior feeders because of how quickly a T will take them. They grow faster, are pretty resilient and easy to keep. However... they are much harder to catch so you need some kind of system for it. They also present a bigger risk of infestation, not just because they're pretty resilient but because they can escape while you're trying to feed them off, they're so fast. Also, if you have a decent number of larger T's (say, bigger than 6") they need to eat a rediculous amount of them.

B. dubias are even harder to kill but it's easy to "turn off" their breeding with temp management. For this reason it is said that they're less likely to infest in temperate climes. I'm not sure that I agree... They are even less smelly that lats, grow slower so overpopulation doesn't happen quite as fast and they are BIG. A fat sub-adult female is at least 4x the amount of meat as an adult lateralis. Adults and sub-adults are easily distinguishable so there's less risk of a gravid one getting loose from a T cage (just don't feed off adult females, ever) and they produce lots of males so mostly I just offer adult males. Also they're easy to catch and easy to hold on to. It takes some T's a while to get hip to eating them but eventually they will come around. Except for my grizzled old G. rosea. She never eats anything.
 

JohnyScaggs

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 13, 2010
Messages
2
why are you starting a feeder breeder when you have 1 sling?
Simply so I dont have to costantly go to the pet store to buy crickets like I've been doing, that and it gives me something to do. No, I have no particular need for a feeder colony but.... why not, ya know ?
 

Offkillter

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jun 18, 2010
Messages
149
Sounds to me like you could get away with having only one breeding pair of dubia,the female produce small young and they grow slow so you wont get over run.when you have enough little nymphs just kill off the male. :evil:
 

JohnyScaggs

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 13, 2010
Messages
2
Thats not a bad idea, and I could raise a small amout like that in an extra 10G aquarium I have.... hmmmmmm Thanks for the idea !
 
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