One feeder diet?

[Xharyel]

Hey guys, so I was wondering, can Ts live healthily with eating only one kind of feeder for their diet?

I tried looking for infos but only found a few threads that are kinda old.

Reason I'm asking is because I saw a thread where @viper69 (I think it was him) talked about an experiment he did with a friend. Something like feeding only crickets, while his friend was feeding only worms, and apparently the Ts who ate only worms grew faster and fatter (obviously because worms have more fat).

So, are there any studies or paper about Ts diet somewhere?

I know people who only feed dubias, while some only feed crickets, others also suggest to vary their diet, but is it really useful? If so, in what way?
Do the T really enjoy a varied diet if in the end, all feeders eat the same stuff?

And also, would it be dangerous to feed only mealworms? (just like how dangerous it is for us to only eat burgers everyday)

I'd like to read about your experience on this matter! Very interested to know more about this subject. Because, while I'm ok to keep various feeders, it would be SO MUCH easier to only keep one kind (especially mealworms since they make no noise and are very easy to care for).

Have a nice day everyone!

 

[Table]

I'm not sure, and I'm looking forward to some great answers. I personally mostly feed meal works, not there is an occasional cricket. they seem healthy enough for the time being.

 

[emartinm28]

I haven’t done any experimenting myself, but I have noticed that feeding similar sized mealworms and dubias tends to make my Ts’ abdomens grow more than if I offered them a similar sized cricket. So it stands to reason that more nutrient rich foods will make them grow faster. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that feeding certain other foods is bad. Tarantulas as far as I know are not governed by the same growth standards as say a leopard gecko or a white’s tree frog. For those, they need a certain amount of food within a certain amount of time with a certain amount of nutrients or else they will become stunted, develop MBD, etc. However, this doesn’t really apply with tarantulas, or at least not with such a narrow time constraint. There can be massive variation in growth rate between individuals and there doesn’t really seem to be any noticeable differences in health as far as I know. Tarantulas have much slower metabolisms and all they really need to do is store enough nutrients to molt to the next instar. Additionally, vertebrates have the added taxing task of absorbing way more trace elements for our skeletons than inverts need. The exoskeleton of inverts is almost entirely chitin, which if I remember correctly is a polysaccharide aka really easy to collect the ‘ingredients’ for, ergo they can survive and thrive on much less nutritionally dense food than we can or herps can. So to sum it up, I’d say growth rate can definitely be affected but health overall not so much. They just aren’t on the same time scale as us.

 

[BoyFromLA]

It is completely okay to stick with one feeder.

It only gets complicated when you are keeping all different size tarantulas, but even so, there is no problem with it. Slings will gladly take large meals, and sub adults will gladly take several small meals at once.

 

[cold blood]

can Ts live healthily with eating only one kind of feeder for their diet?

yes. for decades most people didnt have variety available....just mealworms or crickets...ts lived just fine.

Reason I'm asking is because I saw a thread where @viper69 (I think it was him) talked about an experiment he did with a friend. Something like feeding only crickets, while his friend was feeding only worms, and apparently the Ts who ate only worms grew faster and fatter (obviously because worms have more fat).

Yeah, i was the friend. It showed something, but it absolutely did NOT prove one feeder was better...just that one plumped ts faster and showed better growth in the early stages. I think this would only be relevant to sling growth and possibly gravid females.

His slings grew into the same healthy adults that mine did. Mine grew faster, that's it.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Yes.

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

Yeah, i was the friend. It showed something, but it absolutely did NOT prove one feeder was better...just that one plumped ts faster and showed better growth in the early stages. I think this would only be relevant to sling growth and possibly gravid females.

His slings grew into the same healthy adults that mine did. Mine grew faster, that's it.

Without knowing anything about the methodology used in your experiment, it is hard to know if the experiment showed a difference in growth between two different feeder insects. Based on a nutritional and energy content of various feeder insects, mealworms have a higher energy content than crickets; mealworms having 6.49 kcal/ g versus and adult cricket at 5.43 kcal/ g. In order to determine if mealworms result in faster and larger growth, each group of spiderlings would have to be fed the exact same amount of each feeder insect by mass (grams). Without knowing how much of each type of feeder was used in each group of tarantulas, it is possible more food by mass was provided to the mealworm group than the cricket group which provided the results seen.

A research paper was published in 2018 that showed an increase of growth rate and size using just crickets when one group of T. albopilusus was fed more crickets than another group when both groups were maintained at the same temperature. It would seem then, that the conclusion one could draw on mealworms vs. crickets as feeders is that it just takes more crickets to produce the same growth rate and size gain that a mealworm of equal mass would. If the same amount by mass of mealworm and cricket were provided to spiderlings resulting in the equal quantities of energy/ nutrients, then there should be no difference.

References

Canals, L., Figueroa, D., Torres-Contreras, H., Veloso, C., & Canals, M. (2012). Mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) diets relative to the energy requirements of small mygalomorph spiders (Paraphysa sp.). Journal of Exotic Pet Medicine, 21(3), 203-206.

Padilla, M., Colley, M. A., & Reading, R. P. (2018). Growth Rates of Laboratory Reared Honduran Curly Hair Tarantulas (Brachypelma albopilosum) in Response to Power Feeding. Arachnology, 17(7), 325-327.

Bernard JB, Allen ME. 1997. Feeding captive insectivorous animals: nutritional aspects of insects as food. In Nutrition Advisory Handbook Fact Sheet 003

Feeding captive insectivorous animals: nutritional aspects of insects as food • AZA Nutrition Advisory Group

nagonline.net

 

[The Grym Reaper]

Hey guys, so I was wondering, can Ts live healthily with eating only one kind of feeder for their diet?

Yes, tarantulas fed only on one type of prey item are no less healthy than those fed on a variety of prey items.

 

[cold blood]

Without knowing anything about the methodology used in your experiment, it is hard to know if the experiment showed a difference in growth between two different feeder insects. Based on a nutritional and energy content of various feeder insects, mealworms have a higher energy content than crickets; mealworms having 6.49 kcal/ g versus and adult cricket at 5.43 kcal/ g. In order to determine if mealworms result in faster and larger growth, each group of spiderlings would have to be fed the exact same amount of each feeder insect by mass (grams). Without knowing how much of each type of feeder was used in each group of tarantulas, it is possible more food by mass was provided to the mealworm group than the cricket group which provided the results seen.

A research paper was published in 2018 that showed an increase of growth rate and size using just crickets when one group of T. albopilusus was fed more crickets than another group when both groups were maintained at the same temperature. It would seem then, that the conclusion one could draw on mealworms vs. crickets as feeders is that it just takes more crickets to produce the same growth rate and size gain that a mealworm of equal mass would. If the same amount of mealworm and cricket were provided to spiderlings, then there should be no difference.

References

Canals, L., Figueroa, D., Torres-Contreras, H., Veloso, C., & Canals, M. (2012). Mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) diets relative to the energy requirements of small mygalomorph spiders (Paraphysa sp.). Journal of Exotic Pet Medicine, 21(3), 203-206.

Padilla, M., Colley, M. A., & Reading, R. P. (2018). Growth Rates of Laboratory Reared Honduran Curly Hair Tarantulas (Brachypelma albopilosum) in Response to Power Feeding. Arachnology, 17(7), 325-327.

Bernard JB, Allen ME. 1997. Feeding captive insectivorous animals: nutritional aspects of insects as food. In Nutrition Advisory Handbook Fact Sheet 003

Feeding captive insectivorous animals: nutritional aspects of insects as food • AZA Nutrition Advisory Group

nagonline.net

I agree, totally inconclusive [barely even an] experiment. Kinda what I was getting at.

 

[viper69]

draw on mealworms vs. crickets as feeders is that it just takes more crickets to produce the same growth rate and size gain that a mealworm of equal mass would. If the same amount of mealworm and cricket were provided to spiderlings, then there should be no difference.

Your statement “..same amount..” is not clear at all.

I’ve talked with a member of the Chilean team- nice person!

Mealworms are more nutrient dense than crickets. I’ve known this since my chameleon keeping days over 30 yrs ago.

Of course it takes more crickets to provide an equal growth rate to mealworms.

This is what I’ve said all along with our pilot “experiment” in some fashion or another.

There are reasons I use “” when I talk about our observations.

Have fun

 

[Xharyel]

Thanks for the answers, it's interesting and helped me clear some questions/doubts I had.
In some other groups, whenever I ask why do people give a varied diet, I never had an answer aside from "it's healthier" without any proof or backing to that claim and just tell me to do the same.
I think I'll go ahead and start raising a sling to adulthood while only feeding mealworms, hopefully there'll be no issues.

 

[Iamconstantlyhappy]

I also go by a one feeder diet. Potatoes.

 

[Dry Desert]

Thanks for the answers, it's interesting and helped me clear some questions/doubts I had.
In some other groups, whenever I ask why do people give a varied diet, I never had an answer aside from "it's healthier" without any proof or backing to that claim and just tell me to do the same.
I think I'll go ahead and start raising a sling to adulthood while only feeding mealworms, hopefully there'll be no issues.

If you are concerned about a varied diet - vary the diet of the feeders. I feed mealworms and vary their diet. If you keep them cool with a good varied diet they last for months, and the invert benefits from well fed feeders- this is what counts after all.

 

[Albireo Wulfbooper]

And also, would it be dangerous to feed only mealworms? (just like how dangerous it is for us to only eat burgers everyday)

Burgers aren't crickets, and humans aren't tarantulas.

Feeder insects are mostly going to have approximately the same nutrients in them. Some will have proportionally more fat or more protein, but they're not likely to be missing critical nutrients required for health. Humans can't be healthy on burgers alone because we're omnivores that require a much wider range of foods to get critical nutrients.