Sick videos on Youtube

[Mez]

How 'set-up' are the Nat Geo programs? Like when they find a T. blondi in the wild in its burrow, is that going to be a wild T. blondi or is it going to be a 'planted' T. blondi? As ive seen them eat mice on programs like this, and there is videos of this on youtube. Dosnt mean to say its not 'staged' though, as i know a lot of snake 'finding' type tv progams are planted snakes.
I dont feed my Ts mice. I like to see them feed, and i cant really feed them a mouse every week. I also dont think theres any need to. Ive often heard of a possible calcium problem with feeding mice relating to moulting. Ive never heard of any problems due to the lack of mice or other small mammal in the diet.
Just my opinion.
Mez

 

[Pociemon]

I'm still waiting for documentation on the whole calcium thing which no one to date has provided, otherwise this whole, ahem, debate is a wash. So...anybody have said documentation?

Dont expect anyone to have proof. It is just opinions. Some do it, some dont, it is the same deal with handling. The only thing you know will happen is a heated debate when these topics occur, and that´s a fact ;-)

Your opinion is as good as anyones in here. I only very rarely feed mice to my T´s, only before breeding i consider offering a female one, otherwise not because of the risks involved.

 

[Obelisk]

Is there any evidence that shows that captive T's need to be fed vertebrates? Generations of healthy T's have been bred and raised on crickets, roaches etc.

Wild T's do eat the occasional lizard/rodent, though it's most likely because they'll go for anything they can get their fangs on. I'm not offended when I see videos of T's eating live mice or whatever. However, I can't help but see the weakness in their stating that the T's need it, when all they can say to support their claim is to say that a tarantula in the wild would go for one. It's merely a way of justifying their feeding of vertebrates for entertainment reasons.

 

[Scorpendra]

What these guys are making videos of is bloodsport, not innocently feeding their spiders. The mice they throw in can do some serious harm.

Tarantulas feed opportunistically, they eat whatever they can get. But at the same time, they are not at the top of the food chain and countless ones die every day from things like predation and injury. That's why eggsacs contain so many offspring. Mimicking the natural environment to the point where your terrarium includes this part of their lives is missing the point of owning them as pets. If "It happens in the wild" is your argument, you might as well be encouraging fungal growth and parasites.

 

[zonbonzovi]

Dont expect anyone to have proof. It is just opinions. Some do it, some dont, it is the same deal with handling. The only thing you know will happen is a heated debate when these topics occur, and that´s a fact ;-)

Your opinion is as good as anyones in here. I only very rarely feed mice to my T´s, only before breeding i consider offering a female one, otherwise not because of the risks involved.

Thomas, I understand, it's just tiresome to see people get eviscerated over a topic that we have no evidence for. Specifically, that feeding rodents to tarantulas leads to a calcium overload leads to wet molt/death/explosion/insanity/etc. I'm mostly bothered that, in previous threads on the subject, some folks are admamant that this is the case even though it's strictly conjecture at this time. I don't mind the debates or opinions. It's the flogging of dead horses that gets to me

 

[hassman789]

I was looking to see if there were any tarantula apps for my ipod and I found this japanese app that was called "bug arena". It was horrible, they made tarantulas fight with a bunch of stuff (I saw their pictures) and they weren't just using a common G. rosea they were using like colbolt blues and stuff, It was horrible. From their app pictures I could see the tarantula bleeding.

 

[Chris_Skeleton]

How 'set-up' are the Nat Geo programs? Like when they find a T. blondi in the wild in its burrow, is that going to be a wild T. blondi or is it going to be a 'planted' T. blondi? As ive seen them eat mice on programs like this, and there is videos of this on youtube. Dosnt mean to say its not 'staged' though, as i know a lot of snake 'finding' type tv progams are planted snakes.
I dont feed my Ts mice. I like to see them feed, and i cant really feed them a mouse every week. I also dont think theres any need to. Ive often heard of a possible calcium problem with feeding mice relating to moulting. Ive never heard of any problems due to the lack of mice or other small mammal in the diet.
Just my opinion.
Mez

They are very staged. That's like how my nephew loves Ts also. He's 10 and a few weeks ago he brought home a book called creepy creatures or something that was filled snakes, bats, bugs, and spiders. I immediately flipped to the T section to see the stuff they got wrong. So I'm looking at the pictures and I see the caption "desert tarantulas often feed on lizards." The sad part was it was an Aphonopelma hentzi eating a leopard gecko. :barf: Yeah.. Like that could ever happen in the wild. Two different continents :wall: I can't believe the crap people do just to have a picture of it in a book. That book also said that "the tarantulas real name is mygalomorph."

As Mez said, there is a possibility of calcium contributing to bad molts. Yeah it's not been proven, but there is no risk whatsoever in NOT feeding them mice, so why risk it.

My argument isn't that the calcium does/doesn't do anything. It's not proven so I can't argue that, but the "it happens in the wild" excuse is purely ridiculous.

 

[Suidakkra]

I'm still waiting for documentation on the whole calcium thing which no one to date has provided, otherwise this whole, ahem, debate is a wash. So...anybody have said documentation?

Thomas, I understand, it's just tiresome to see people get eviscerated over a topic that we have no evidence for. Specifically, that feeding rodents to tarantulas leads to a calcium overload leads to wet molt/death/explosion/insanity/etc. I'm mostly bothered that, in previous threads on the subject, some folks are admamant that this is the case even though it's strictly conjecture at this time. I don't mind the debates or opinions. It's the flogging of dead horses that gets to me

Of course, that is your opinion, and I have mine. There are plenty of keepers out there that noticed wet molts from increased calcium intake of Theraphosa, coincidence, possibly but I see no benefit of feeding mice to risk it.

There are plenty of topics covering it in this here forum, as well as others. Are there any published reads on the subject? , who knows, but until there is documentation to prove either/or, I will refrain from feeding my larger tarantulas mice.

There are plenty of food alternatives that are as just as nutritious without introducing any possible risk.

So do you have documentation to prove that it doesn't cause issues with a molt?

See how that works?

 

[2oCHEVYo0]

Actually those were facts, not opinions

I'm curious how anyone even knows they come across mice in the wild. Do the arboreal species come across them? No. I'm sure many tarantulas in the wild NEVER cross paths with a mouse. Has it been documented? Honestly the "it happens in the wild" argument is an excuse to do it. I don't think anyone feeds mice because it happens in the wild, but because mice are the available alternative. Saying "it happens in the wild" is just a way to justify it. If pet stores sold "feeder geckos" and they were common such as mice, and no one used mice as feeders, then your argument would be exactly the same. In reality, it's the availability why people do it. Simply put.

I doubt tarantulas come across mice as much as people like to say they do.

How do you know they don't come across mice in the wild? Sounds like an opinion to me And there's no actual evidence that you can provide that actually says that calcium is bad for a spider, so your argument is irrelevant... It is your opinion, and I have no problem with it. Don't feed me crap though about how I am wrong, when you have nothing to prove anything I've done is wrong...

And also, what you stated earlier about the whole, "If it's captive it's never been exposed to it so how could it possibly have a craving for it" or at least somewhere along those general lines... So you're saying if you were never exposed to other types of food and had no idea something existed, you'd be just fine? Well you might think so, but different types of food have different types of nutrients. If you were only exposed to say water, you might think you're okay, but good luck making it past a month. I'm not saying that it's a huge staple in there diet, I just said it's better for them to be exposed to different types of food, so you don't miss anything they might need.

That is my OPINION, deal with it... You can't change the way I think, unless you can give me some hard evidence to prove that I am wrong

 

[Mez]

I dont see how there can be evidance to suggest mammals need to be incorporated into a Ts diet, because there is evidance that it dosnt. Wouldnt you count multiple generations of captive bred from wild origin Ts being fed an invert only diet, decent evidance that they dont require them to thrive?

 

[Chris_Skeleton]

How do you know they don't come across mice in the wild? Sounds like an opinion to me And there's no actual evidence that you can provide that actually says that calcium is bad for a spider, so your argument is irrelevant... It is your opinion, and I have no problem with it. Don't feed me crap though about how I am wrong, when you have nothing to prove anything I've done is wrong...

And also, what you stated earlier about the whole, "If it's captive it's never been exposed to it so how could it possibly have a craving for it" or at least somewhere along those general lines... So you're saying if you were never exposed to other types of food and had no idea something existed, you'd be just fine? Well you might think so, but different types of food have different types of nutrients. If you were only exposed to say water, you might think you're okay, but good luck making it past a month. I'm not saying that it's a huge staple in there diet, I just said it's better for them to be exposed to different types of food, so you don't miss anything they might need.

That is my OPINION, deal with it... You can't change the way I think, unless you can give me some hard evidence to prove that I am wrong

How do you they do come across mice? And that would be a fact, not an opinion, because it could be proven if they do or don't. I'm also not arguing the calcium thing because it has yet to be proven.

I never once said you or anything you did was wrong.

So if I don't feed my T mice they won't make it past a month? You can't prove that there is a single thing in mice that they need. However, I can tell you that there are plenty of people who don't feed mice and never have and their Ts are doing just fine.

Well you haven't gave any "hard evidence" to prove you are right.

I'm not saying what you are doing is wrong, just that there is no need, and I'm not arguing the calcium side to it. Just pointing out that the "if it happens in the wild" argument is flawed.

 

[Arachnethegreek]

To bring this thread back to heel, let's allow a difference in opinion. Some keepers feeding their t's mice, and other vertebrates, while it is theorized that it can lead to over calcification there is no concrete scientific proof, just as many of the t's listed here don't have recognized scientific names, only descibed species names. As a hopefully nuetral party here I say, if you want to feed vertebrates, go ahead, but do so in moderation. Give the t a mouse once in a blue moon that falls on the second Friday of a month. (aka very rarely lol) it's when you put your t at risk by giving it a prey item that can pose a threat to the t's health that your being an idiot, further, if you can humanely kill it then even better, no venom and fang death. IE. pinky mouse; pencil on the back of the neck and a quick solid rap. Neck broken and cord severed in less than a second. Now to the main topic. these videos exist because unfortunately the majority of human society has a morbid fascination with death and the death of other beings. For a media example use the fictional reference of the movie untracable. People and the persons responsible for these videos are sickening, but an unfortunate facet of human nature.

 

[Vespula]

Some of the videos on Youtube really bother me. Mistreatment of any animal is wrong, and I think that the video makers should get bitten by a thousand OBT's. That's my opinion on the matter.

 

[ChileanRosehair]

Some videos on youtube are really sick. Like those videos where people put a scorpion and a tarantula in the same box and watch them fight 'till death for their own entertainment. And then there is alot of those videos where I think the ''animal rights hippies'' really overreacts. I'm mainly refering to the vids where somebody gives their T's live mice. People allways seem to come up with the argument that the calcium in mice can kill your T. That's probably true. I'm not an expert, but it seems to me that a mouse every once in a while (not very often) isn't so bad for your T. I mean, after all mice are part of many T's natural food list.
And then there are some videos where morrons give prey that are way bigger than the T itself. I remember one vid in particular where someone gave a young G. rosea a mouse that was bigger than the spider and could potentially harm the T.

So in conclusion. There are some videos that really can be considered as animal abuse and ones where people are just overreacting.

 

[Chris_Skeleton]

I mean, after all mice are part of many T's natural food list.

Oh boy :wall:

 

[LV-426]

the worse video i saw was a N chromatus around 3 in tackling a fat mouse that was at least twice its size, freaking ridiculous

 

[ChileanRosehair]

Oh boy :wall:

What's that!? Are you caliming they aren't or what? How about let's say the T. blondi? Mice are certainly part of that species food chain. Along with many other little critters.

 

[Chris_Skeleton]

What's that!? Are you caliming they aren't or what? How about let's say the T. blondi? Mice are certainly part of that species food chain. Along with many other little critters.

If you go back and read my other posts you'll see why I said that.

 

[ChileanRosehair]

If you go back and read my other posts you'll see why I said that.

Ok. I've read your earlier posts now and I respect your opinion, but there's a few things that bothered me. First of some of your ''facts'' are pure speculations. I'm thinking mostly about the claim you made that ''it hasn't been a written report on T.Blondi's eating eating mice''. Ok so there may not have been a written report on it, but come on. Whywouldn't it eat mice? It's not like a mouse have never ever crossed paths with a hungry Goliath in the wild.

Secondly I like your comparison of a CB T with yourself as a captive human eating only vegetables for your whole life. Let's imagine I was in the same scenario. It'll be true that if I was only fed vegetables for the whole time I wouldn't crave bacon, hamburgers and beef and other such delicious food. But on the other hand if I was finally fed some meat I would be happy to finally have a change in my diet
Just my two cents...

 

[Chris_Skeleton]

Ok. I've read your earlier posts now and I respect your opinion, but there's a few things that bothered me. First of some of your ''facts'' are pure speculations. I'm thinking mostly about the claim you made that ''it hasn't been a written report on T.Blondi's eating eating mice''. Ok so there may not have been a written report on it, but come on. Whywouldn't it eat mice? It's not like a mouse have never ever crossed paths with a hungry Goliath in the wild.

Secondly I like your comparison of a CB T with yourself as a captive human eating only vegetables for your whole life. Let's imagine I was in the same scenario. It'll be true that if I was only fed vegetables for the whole time I wouldn't crave bacon, hamburgers and beef and other such delicious food. But on the other hand if I was finally fed some meat I would be happy to finally have a change in my diet
Just my two cents...

It's a "fact" because it can be proven right or wrong. An opinion would be "mice are the best type of feeders." That is pure opinion. Second, no one has even cared to speculate on the chances of a mouse crossing a T. They may be high, they may be low.

I used the comparison because of someone else using that comparison. The only difference is, that we know these other food items exist. Also, we can't know if a T is "happy" to have a mouse. They're gonna eat whatever you put in there that moves. They eat when they have the chance. That's their instincts. And im sure they couldnt care less about their diet as long as they can eat.

Also, I personally don't feed mice or ever will as I feel there is no need and no need to risk it <-(this part is my opinion). BUT if you feed your Ts mice that's fine, it's your T, nothing I can do will change that. But don't use the ridiculous excuse of "it happens in the wild."