Pinky feed failed miserably...

[jim777]

I'm fairly interested in the prawns/shrimp idea here as well - are these the kind you might get in a supermarket in The States? Would someone who feeds the occasional prawn or shrimp to one of their T's perhaps post a picture of said prawn/shrimp? I would also prefer to do that than toss a big t a live mouse or pinky.

 

[Earth Tiger]

Prawns? Are we talking about what you get in the meat dept? I def couldn't feed live pinkies, Artic Mice, maybe.

Yup I have been talking about the same prawns and shrimps in your seafood dishes, except that you feed them raw and alive to your Ts. Freshwater shrimps are highly sensitive to pesticides so as long as you feed them live prawns your Ts are happy and safe. Big Ts especially L. parahybana and L. klugi are particularly fond of them.

---------- Post added 12-21-2011 at 12:30 AM ----------

I'm fairly interested in the prawns/shrimp idea here as well - are these the kind you might get in a supermarket in The States? Would someone who feeds the occasional prawn or shrimp to one of their T's perhaps post a picture of said prawn/shrimp? I would also prefer to do that than toss a big t a live mouse or pinky.

Which species to feed your Ts just doesn't matter, any live shrimp or prawn can be fed to your Ts. The key is to get some LIVE shrimps or prawns, not frozen ones since you cannot be sure what "killed" the frozen shrimps, and whatever killed the prawns may also kill your Ts.

Salt water and freshwater ones are fine too (although I feed my Ts with freshwater shrimps more often as salt water prawns are more expensive )

 

[jim777]

I'll have to look around for live ones, don't know if I can get them honestly.

 

[ArkanoviTigrovi]

If you are throwing a live baby mouse to a spider to be impaled repeatedly by fangs, injected with venom and consumed just so you can watch it wriggle and squeak for your own pleasure perhaps you shouldn't let that be known.

Hahaha, I laughed for a good 5 minutes once I read that.

 

[ijmccollum]

I'll have to look around for live ones, don't know if I can get them honestly.

Yeh, I'm kinda scratching my head on that one too. If you find a source, let me know.

 

[jim777]

I'm thinking an Asian food market might work, but I don't know. Would a T eat a goldfish if you gave it one? I go through at least 100 of those a month feeding my Oscars and piranhas. Might be messy afterwards though...

 

[Hornets inverts]

you would think so... dont act like youve never clicked a youtube vid of a mouse being eaten by a t... feeder mice are called feeder mice for a reason. grow a set and quit acting like its inhumane. crickets and roaches are living, breathing, able to bleed (sort of) creatures as well. whats the difference:sarcasm:

Not sure about the US but here in australia it is illegal to feed live mice.

Yes they are called feeders but they should be fed dead, feed them live is quite cruel and completely unnecessary. To compare feeding live mice to feeding like crickets/roaches is like comparing rocks and banana's, invertebrates have a totally different nervous system and feel any pain unlike mice who feel pain just like us.

Please dont use live mice as feeders, stick to prekilled or thawed or just dont feed them at all

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Not sure about the US but here in australia it is illegal to feed live mice.

Yes they are called feeders but they should be fed dead, feed them live is quite cruel and completely unnecessary. To compare feeding live mice to feeding like crickets/roaches is like comparing rocks and banana's, invertebrates have a totally different nervous system and feel any pain unlike mice who feel pain just like us.

Please dont use live mice as feeders, stick to prekilled or thawed or just dont feed them at all

IM sure the mice in the wild,... would like you to tell Snakes that :biggrin:
the majority of people feed mice for entertainment.. only us few T lovers feed them for variety
I have never fed any of my Ts mice yet.. will feed pinkies soon to my LP hoping it gets closer to MAx size

 

[jayefbe]

Not sure about the US but here in australia it is illegal to feed live mice.

Yes they are called feeders but they should be fed dead, feed them live is quite cruel and completely unnecessary. To compare feeding live mice to feeding like crickets/roaches is like comparing rocks and banana's, invertebrates have a totally different nervous system and feel any pain unlike mice who feel pain just like us.

Please dont use live mice as feeders, stick to prekilled or thawed or just dont feed them at all

You took the words out of my mouth.

 

[Earth Tiger]

I'm thinking an Asian food market might work, but I don't know. Would a T eat a goldfish if you gave it one? I go through at least 100 of those a month feeding my Oscars and piranhas. Might be messy afterwards though...

Ask your nearby sushi restaurants and they should have good contacts that supply them fresh shrimps.

 

[Hornets inverts]

IM sure the mice in the wild,... would like you to tell Snakes that :biggrin:
the majority of people feed mice for entertainment.. only us few T lovers feed them for variety
I have never fed any of my Ts mice yet.. will feed pinkies soon to my LP hoping it gets closer to MAx size

The thing is, this is not the wild, far from it. Its the most common way people try and justify live feeding "they eat live mich in the wild", this is not the wild, t's dont need mice, dead or alive to survive and snakes can be fed on dead mice 99% of the time. In a few desperate situations i do believe it to be acceptable to feed live (snake wont take dead prey, close to starvation and every trick in the book has been tried to no avail) but most of the time it is done for no other reason than to satisfy the keepers sadistic desires.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

yeah I dont feed my Ts mice.. I heard of a very expensive ball python being killed by a live rat before.... live rats ..Can kill snakes.. mice are a bit too weak though I think
Live feeding is frowned upon in Britain also... its pretty painfull for the mouse yes..? but Is murdering the mouse before...its fed any better? clearly it dies regardless
while it is cruel.. clearly the people who feed fuzzy mice to Ts do probably wont listen to any of our advice on the subject.. anyways

 

[DannyH]

The thing is, this is not the wild, far from it. Its the most common way people try and justify live feeding "they eat live mich in the wild", this is not the wild, t's dont need mice, dead or alive to survive and snakes can be fed on dead mice 99% of the time. In a few desperate situations i do believe it to be acceptable to feed live (snake wont take dead prey, close to starvation and every trick in the book has been tried to no avail) but most of the time it is done for no other reason than to satisfy the keepers sadistic desires.

You read my mind. Tarantulas would try to eat anything thats smaller than it and moves. If I wiggled a peice of paper coated in poison infront of my GBB (not that I ever would) it would hesitate to attack. T's don't know what they can't eat, and niether do humans. Whats humans DO know is what T's CAN eat.

yeah I dont feed my Ts mice.. I heard of a very expensive ball python being killed by a live rat before.... live rats ..Can kill snakes.. mice are a bit too weak though I think
Live feeding is frowned upon in Britain also... its pretty painfull for the mouse yes..? but Is murdering the mouse before...its fed any better? clearly it dies regardless
while it is cruel.. clearly the people who feed fuzzy mice to Ts do probably wont listen to any of our advice on the subject.. anyways

I think dead feeder mice may be killed painlessly in some fashion, but I may be wrong.

 

[jayefbe]

yeah I dont feed my Ts mice.. I heard of a very expensive ball python being killed by a live rat before.... live rats ..Can kill snakes.. mice are a bit too weak though I think
Live feeding is frowned upon in Britain also... its pretty painfull for the mouse yes..? but Is murdering the mouse before...its fed any better? clearly it dies regardless
while it is cruel.. clearly the people who feed fuzzy mice to Ts do probably wont listen to any of our advice on the subject.. anyways

Generally, feeder mice/rats/whatever are euthanized using carbon dioxide gas. They very quickly pass out and suffocate due to lack of oxygen. Painless. VERY different.

 

[Hornets inverts]

Generally, feeder mice/rats/whatever are euthanized using carbon dioxide gas. They very quickly pass out and suffocate due to lack of oxygen. Painless. VERY different.

I breed my own feeders here and there, i normally use a good hard smack to the back of the head with a solid object, can be a bit grizzly but it works

 

[Earth Tiger]

You read my mind. Tarantulas would try to eat anything thats smaller than it and moves. If I wiggled a peice of paper coated in poison infront of my GBB (not that I ever would) it would hesitate to attack. T's don't know what they can't eat, and niether do humans. Whats humans DO know is what T's CAN eat.

Hmm that's not correct. One reason I like arachnids is that they can differentiate different preys and they wouldn't charge something blindly. Dropping a cricket to a docile Chilean rose carapace will instantly trigger it's predatory response and the cricket will be chewing under it's fangs in 0.1 second. But pressing it's carapace with your finger will only stop the docile T under the same condition - it won't attack your finger. And L. lividum is one evil T that is said to attach everything including your hand that is much larger than it. Pretty mindless? Then try throwing a 2" small scorpion to its tank - it will change from being aggressive to cautious, and may even abandon it's hole and flee although it is much larger than the scorpion. Tarantulas and scorpions do know what they are dealing with and know what they can't eat - of course if one tricks it with poison crickets that's another story...

 

[yodaxtreme545]

Here's my opinion on the matter: A T isn't going to adjust it's eating menu based on if it's in captivity or not. Quite frankly, I try to set up my tanks to suit the each individual T's natural habitat as well as I can. So my question is, why is it more cruel to feed your T a mouse than a cricket? If you are looking to make the mouse suffer than thats one thing but if you are feeding your T than in my opinion that is fine. I'm going to go on a limb here and say that T's either don't know or don't care they are in captivity as long as you give them a home to mimic their natural habitat, therefore I don't think feeding them what they would naturally eat as food would be a problem at all. Let me say it again though, I do not in any way support or tollerate animal cruelty. Do the right thing you guys.

 

[Bigboy]

So my question is, why is it more cruel to feed your T a mouse than a cricket? If you are looking to make the mouse suffer than thats one thing but if you are feeding your T than in my opinion that is fine. I'm going to go on a limb here and say that T's either don't know or don't care they are in captivity as long as you give them a home to mimic their natural habitat, therefore I don't think feeding them what they would naturally eat as food would be a problem at all.

A mouse's central nervous system is almost identical to ours, this is one of the reasons they are used in lab to test products and drugs that we use. The pain and fear you can experience is similar within all mammals. A cricket is far more primitive. They do not experience pain or fear in the manner we do if at all. You can for instance tear off all of a crickets legs and it will never go into shock. Feeding live mice for entertainment value is a completely different thing from feeding prekilled frozen/thawed mice for nutrition.

There is also no comparison between feeding a live mouse to a snake or monitor and feeding it to a tarantula. Both reptiles will quickly kill the mouse through suffocation, envenomation or cervical dislocation. A tarantula kills through massive trauma and hemmoraging and NOT through its venom on a mammal because their venoms are not made for that purpose in mammals. Tarantula venom is meant to cause extreme pain in mammals, however it is designed to take out invertebrates. Again I will reiterate, feeding live mice is not necessary for a varied diet, frozen thawed mice have the exact same nutritive value.

Now on to the difference in cruelty between the mouse that was already dead and the mouse you tossed in to die. That prekilled mouse was either gassed with CO2 as per AVMA protocols by a supplier or it was hand raised and brained by you in one quick motion. It did not die in fear and pain slowly. There is a HUGE difference there.

So I will say again, feed live if you want, but don't try to justify it as being the "natural" way. That is a cop out excuse and you're not fooling anyone. If you feed live mice its because you like watching your pet kill higher organisms. If you feed live mice it is because you don't care about the trauma and fear that mouse is going to experience before it dies and if you feed live mice it is because you don't value your PET enough to guarantee it does not get injured or killed by the rodent you just tossed in there to die.

Yoda, this is not directed specifically at you, I just wanted to address one of your questions.

 

[yodaxtreme545]

BigBoy, I appreciate your honesty and bluntness. This does bring up another good question for me to ask since I havn't had any T's of mine molt yet. Is it true at all the feeding a pinky to your T a week after it molts is good to get it back some lost nutrition? Thanks

 

[Bigboy]

BigBoy, I appreciate your honesty and bluntness. This does bring up another good question for me to ask since I havn't had any T's of mine molt yet. Is it true at all the feeding a pinky to your T a week after it molts is good to get it back some lost nutrition? Thanks

A frozen thawed pinky is a fine way to fatten up a tarantula after a molt but in all honesty I much prefer a big fat well fed home raised dubia roach. If you are serious about getting into tarantulas or you keep any sort of insectivores really, a dubia colony is a brilliant investment.