Lizards

[Malhavoc's]

I am searching for alternative food for my t's. I am hopping to give them a much more devearse diet in hopes of a better T and my question s this I aquired a large amount of baby blue belly lizards and fed one to each of my t's [making sure the lizard was the right size so it couldn't harm my pet] Well my G rosea did its foot on checking possible meal out but while it was doing that a very friendly 3 year old decided to mess with her and she got distracted from the liazrd to the sound on the side of the glass. Well now she shows no instrest in it at all. she may possbly be fasting but I was wondering how long do tarantula's remember? will she forget what the lizad is and check it out again later or will they continue to co habitate lol. oh btw anyone else tried lizards anyone know how nutritious they are? [my emp scorp and A avic both took the lizard hungerly]

 

[Malhavoc's]

Next question. What in your opinion is the best food for your T's? has there been any reasearch on what is the best for them?

 

[Mojo Jojo]

I don't know what the BEST food for them is. But I personally feed mine a diet high in mealworms. I use crickets sometimes and I RARELY RARELY RARELY use vertebrates.

Jon

 

[Malhavoc's]

I was thinking everyone says blondi's get bigger in the wild.. well what if its because we're not giving them something I figure try a lil bit of everything and perhaps you'll key onto whats missing to help them achieve all they can be!

 

[abstract]

I was thinking everyone says blondi's get bigger in the wild..

After watching the last discovery special I've seen on tarantulas, I'd think our T's can probably handle prey about 2x bigger than is conventionally fed. Avics, blondi's, and everything else shown in the wild were eating prey that was just as big as themselves - a lot bigger than I would have comfortably fed mine at home.

Either way, I don't worry any more about feeding one of my 4" and above a fuzzy - they handle it like champs.

Perhaps larger prey would encourage a spider to grow larger, in order to better handle it's prey. A diet of small crickets might pose no incentive for the spider to grow.....

 

[deifiler]

Yes but "in the wild" the spider isn't couped up in a relatively small box. After 24 hours any meal begins to stagnate and reek out my room, solution? Feed smaller meals. Always pre-killed too, out of interest.

 

[Code Monkey]

Ts are absolutely horrible models for any sort of study so I doubt that anyone will ever see objective, quantified data on what's best for them. They have too long of a development time, eat too infrequently, and live far too long to do any sort of a real study on comparative diets.

I kept a WC B. smithi alive for more than 17 years on nothing but crickets and maybe 3 grasshoppers over the course of her entire life with me. I think people stressing over food are stressing without cause. These are opportunistic predators that do eat everything under sun and moon, but certainly do not *need* to eat everything under the sun and moon to thrive.

A little variety can't hurt, but it's probably fanciful thinking to believe that there's an ideal diet for something so plastic in its predatory behavior.

 

[Telson]

I generally feed crickets as a staple diet to all of my T's, but after a molt I tend to give the larger ones about a week to "harden up" and then give them a pinky or a house gecko, either of which I can get at a local pet store as feeders for under $2 each. On the average, that will fatten up any of my Ts quite nicely if it comes out of a molt looking a little light in the backside. The only notable exception I've had is this Brachypelma albopilosum of mine, which is about 4.5" at this time, digging like it thought it could find China, and refusing to show any significant girth in the abdomen dispite eating 5 lizards in the course of about a week or so!:?

I would certainly imagine that a lizard or other vertibrate prey item would supply far more nutrients than a cricket, but considering that this is a spider we're feeding rather than a lizard for example, I have no idea how much that really matters. I would think it good for them to have such prey items from time to time, but I highly doubt it would be a necessity to keep a T healthy in any respect.

With the extremely low metabolism of Ts and the minimalistic food requirements they have, I generally ballance out the feeding by giving them a larger prey item now and then when I find that I've been too busy to stay on schedule for cricket feedings. It's more for my own convenience than a nutritional consideration more often than not when I feed them a larger prey item, as it prevents me from having to feed smaller prey as frequently. After a house gecko or similar sized prey item, most of my Ts turn down food for a while and I can relax and know that they are full and happy and that I don't need to get to the pet store for a little while for crickets.

As for the memory thing, I've had this happen... I've found that if I remove the prey item for an hour or two then put it back in the T will usually go after it like it's the first time it's been put there, or as though it's been eating these all its life.

 

[MrDeranged]

Originally posted by abstract
After watching the last discovery special I've seen on tarantulas, I'd think our T's can probably handle prey about 2x bigger than is conventionally fed. Avics, blondi's, and everything else shown in the wild were eating prey that was just as big as themselves

Don't take discovery shows as gospel on what T's eat in the wild. I'd say at the very least 90% of the feeding shots they show are staged and are not the natural diet of T's in the wild. It's all sensationalism.

Scott

 

[Vampire]

feeding

My spouse absolutely refuses to let me feed our Ts a pinkie!
too sentimental or something......we just use crickets for now & they're doing great.

 

[Malhavoc's]

Re: feeding

Originally posted by Vampire
My spouse absolutely refuses to let me feed our Ts a pinkie!
too sentimental or something......we just use crickets for now & they're doing great.

I cant feed it mice and now not even a dragon fly I caught for that very reason its just to "Cute" *Sneeks a mouse in when shes not looking* lol

 

[Phillip]

I agree with Code folks that are worried about providing variety are causing an un needed headache for themselves. Ts can and do survive just fine on crickets alone. Not saying that's all you have to give them as you can feed them what you want but I don't feel it makes a difference when the food is varied short of vertebrates such as mice being better for bulking up a thin one.

Scott also made a good point about the Discovery crap being staged. While I certainly understand why it is staged ( would be mighty boring watching hours of nothing between action shots ) the majority of wildlife action on the tube is staged.

Phil

 

[noboyscout]

I have used wax worms and crickets with out complaints. I onced fed a pinkie to a BA and you would have thought I killed a Kennedy!! My wife and live in nephew totaly freaked!! My BA liked it though. :} :}

 

[Malhavoc's]

I know variety is "uneeded" but how come WC blondi's a bigger then CB? answer me what are we missing?

 

[Code Monkey]

Originally posted by Malhavoc's
I know variety is "uneeded" but how come WC blondi's a bigger then CB? answer me what are we missing?

The crucible of natural selection. Each adult blondi represents one out of what? several hundred? thousands? tens of thousands?

When you're willing to buy hundreds blondi slings and let 95% of them die off due to competition, I'll bet you'll have some pretty spectacular specimens as well.