Pinkies as prey?

[elyanalyous]

don't you mean they shouldn't be fed when their molting?

 

[jimmysp4des]

id say feed pinkies as aften as humanly possible, seriously though, feed them whatever you want, as long as it feels right to you who cares what others have to say.

 

[Midnightrdr456]

yes i did mean they shouldnt, i just typed fast and maybe a stupid error. Please forgive me :worship:

 

[DanHalen]

id say feed pinkies as aften as humanly possible, seriously though, feed them whatever you want, as long as it feels right to you who cares what others have to say.

Who cares what others have to say? Uhh, well he does, and is obvious because he asked. And alot of people here have alot experience.....

 

[cacoseraph]

here is my take on pinkies.

live pinkies, to me... SUCK to feed... the squeak and take way to long to die.. it is a dang bloody mess. if you have fed them to other stuff before, but not tarantulas... bear this in mind... tarantulas, especially roseas, are not that good at killing pinkies real quick like. i do feed breeding females a pinkie sometimes. i am actually looking forward to buying predead frozen pinkies from my petstore dude to feed to a couple breeding projects i have going on now.

also, if you buy the tiniest pinkie you can find... and i mean, like 1-1.5cm long... if the tarantula is >= 5"/12.5cm diagonal legspan and not already obese... odds are you won't have any clean up. my taras just make little pinkie bolus after... nice and dry and clean. i almost kind of want to take one of their bolus apart and see if there is a skull and bones or what exactly happens

 

[elyanalyous]

hey cacoseraph, that sounds like a good idea, does anyone know if this has been done? will it be like an owls pallet thingy, with bones and fur?

 

[Windchaser]

it may be ok to feed a pinky(depending on size as stated above), but you must ask yourself why you would put your t through that. it takes a long time to digest, has been known (i read it on here a few years ago) to shorten livespan of the tarantula. and what about damage to the fangs in the struggle? if a tarantula's fangs get broken, they won't be able to eat.

I must admit that there is quite a bit of misinformation in the above quote. First of all, the issue with pinkies not being recommended as a feeder has to do with the level of calcium they contain. There is speculation as already mentioned that a diet high in calcium can cause problems with a weakening of the fangs. The thought is that the increase calcium interferes with the proper formation of the fangs which can lead to them breaking during a molt. Mind you I am NOT talking about feeding during or shortly after a molt. As mentioned earlier there is no definitive answer on this and at this time there is only speculation on the matter.

I am not aware of a pinkie taking longer to digest. I would like to know where you got this information. With respect to shortening the lifespan, this has to do more with power feeding than with the pinkie itself. A single pinkie is a large amount of food in one sitting when compared to a couple of crickets. The more a tarantula will eat, the more frequent it will molt. The lifespan of a tarantula is regulated by the number of molts. Therefore, if you increase the molting frequency you decrease the life span (when measured in time, not instars).

There is virtually no risk of a tarantula being injured by a pinkie. A juvenile or an adult mouse is another matter all together. They can and have injured tarantulas in there effort to not become a meal. A juvenile or an adult mouse is quite capable of defending itself. A pinkie however is pretty much defenseless.

 

[Brian S]

will it be like an owls pallet thingy, with bones and fur?

Since it IS a pinky I doubt there will be any fur

 

[elyanalyous]

true, i searched an i couldn't find the post i was looking for windchaser, i'm not saying i have ever done this, or that i had any reliable info, was jsut repeating something i read on here.

and i thought about the bolus thing later brian and realized it made no sense, your right there should be no hair

 

[Scott C.]

.........i almost kind of want to take one of their bolus apart and see if there is a skull and bones or what exactly happens

Done it kind of. Couldn't take it apart though as it was just a thick jello-esque white mass. It was consistent all the way through, and could be smeared onto something, like white clay, but sticky.... I figured it was undigestable semi liquified bone matter. Very easy to clean, and find. I've seen it many times. Almost every time I feed mice for that matter. I don't like the waste of feeding mice to t's so only the largest will get one on occasion......