Over feeding?

TarantulaLover420

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Mar 22, 2017
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Can my spider's abdomen explode? My Gramistola rosea literally wont stop eating...I'll put a cricket in and he'll take it down but in a few hours he'll be back out of his burrow looking for more. Tbh I'm not sure if thats what he's doing but that's what it looks like to me. Let me know if you guys think i should keep feeding him or stop.
 

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Chris LXXIX

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I have saw definitely more chubby T's than yours :-s

Think that in general when it comes to G.rosea people complains about the opposite: sort of Bobby Sands hunger strike :angelic:

However the 'over feeding' issue that sometimes loves to jump out doesn't 'escape' to the rule that, reached a certain moment, Theraphosidae, no matter, wouldn't eat anymore.
 

Tim Benzedrine

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"My rose-hair won't stop eating" Now THERE is a complaint you seldom here in regard to that species!:D

But yeah, allowing them to get too plump does have it's hazards. i've seen accounts on here of spiders rubbing sores on their abdomens from dragging a big booty along. Overfeeding happens, since watching them take down prey and feeding is one of the more interesting facets of keeping them happens. I have a B. smithi which I did not really realize was getting a bit too plump, and I consequently stopped offering prey. I think she is in pre-moult anyway, though.

Another drawback is that overfeeding some species can bring on a fast, and in the case of a rose-hair, it doesn't take much for them to stop eating for extrordinary lengths of time. It is one of the criticisms leveled at them as a beginner spider, along with their mood swings.

On answer to your "Will it explode?" that's pretty unlikely to happen spontaneously and I've never heard of it, but the more obese a spider is, the greater the danger a rupture is in the event of a fall.
 

clive 82

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Can my spider's abdomen explode? My Gramistola rosea literally wont stop eating...I'll put a cricket in and he'll take it down but in a few hours he'll be back out of his burrow looking for more. Tbh I'm not sure if thats what he's doing but that's what it looks like to me. Let me know if you guys think i should keep feeding him or stop.
What size is your T? It looks like a sling & how often do you feed it?
 

TarantulaLover420

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What size is your T? It looks like a sling & how often do you feed it?
He's at about and inch and a half maybe two. His last molt is in his borrow and im not sure how to get in there to pick it up so i havnt measured exactly. I feed him once a week, i read somewhere that burrowing tarantulas come out when they're hungry so i usually feed one cricket once a week and if he keeps coming out I'll throw in another but never more than three because it honestly looks like his little abdomen is ganna explode. And honestly three even feels like ALOT but he keeps taking them down so i keep putting them in.
 

Olan

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The only problem is it looks to be housed in an exo-terra, which has A
LOT of vertical space for it to fall from. In that setup I would be worried about a fat T. My suggestion is to put the rosea in an enclosure with only 5" of vertical space and get an Avicularia or some other arboreal to put in the exo-terra
 

Shudragon

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Jan 26, 2017
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Not too fat at all. My g. pulchra is only about an inch right now and his abdomen is almost longer than his back legs :angelic: fatty just won't stop eating. It happens. Try to protect him from a fall like Olan said, other than that very rarely is there an issue.
 

clive 82

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He's at about and inch and a half maybe two. His last molt is in his borrow and im not sure how to get in there to pick it up so i havnt measured exactly. I feed him once a week, i read somewhere that burrowing tarantulas come out when they're hungry so i usually feed one cricket once a week and if he keeps coming out I'll throw in another but never more than three because it honestly looks like his little abdomen is ganna explode. And honestly three even feels like ALOT but he keeps taking them down so i keep putting them in.
That sounds like a good feeding schedule to me but as @Shudragon says it doesn't look overly fat. Just be sure not to overfeed. One cricket a week as you are doing should be plenty. I wouldn't worry too much.
 

The Grym Reaper

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That feeding frequency is probably about right for a G. rosea sling as they are pretty slow when it comes to growth rates, I feed all my slings twice a week up until they hit 2" then cut down to once a week.

As Olan said, get it into a smaller enclosure, aside from the fact that those Exo Terra enclosures are meant for arboreal species which makes them terrible choices for housing terrestrial species without substantial modification, it's far too big for a sling and creates an unnecessary risk of potentially fatal falls.
 

TarantulaLover420

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Thanks so much for all the feedback!!! This is my first tarantula and my first time on arachnoboards so i didnt really know what to expect. i got the exo terra at a local pet shop....i now know that dog and cat pet shops are NOT the place to go when lking for a t. But he said that spiders like to climb so i got a big ass tank with plenty of walking and climbing room. But after watching countless hours of YouTube videos i now know the truth.
 

cold blood

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Thanks so much for all the feedback!!! This is my first tarantula and my first time on arachnoboards so i didnt really know what to expect. i got the exo terra at a local pet shop....i now know that dog and cat pet shops are NOT the place to go when lking for a t. But he said that spiders like to climb so i got a big ass tank with plenty of walking and climbing room. But after watching countless hours of YouTube videos i now know the truth.
Like to climb...this is exactly why we need to house terrestrials in places that discourage such actions.
 
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