Size of Crickets?

[JarvyvV]

What size crickets should I feed a 1/4 inch B. vagans?

 

[Hobo]

No larger than how big the spider is if alive, Any size if it's dead.
With tiny guys like that, I just feed cricket parts.

 

[JarvyvV]

Is it better to get a small culture of Fruit Flies or 25 pinhead crickets, Which will last longer on a standard weekly diet for the sling?

 

[Zurc]

Feed them parts of appropriate size and u shoud be ok...

 

[reunsch]

I'd also rather just feed pre-killed crickets or parts. Freeze them/cut off their heads and then just drop them in for the sling to scavenge. You can then remove the leftovers the next day. If you're going for pinheads I'd suggest fewer than 25. With a sling that small it's going to be moulting more often, so it won't be eating during pre-moult or post-moult. By the time it comes around to eating again the pinheads could have moulted and become to large to live-feed.

 

[SuzukiSwift]

Pre-killed is the best way to go, you can try really small pinheads or fruit flies, but chances are the T wouldn't accept them at that size. Cricket legs are great

 

[Squiddyboy]

In my experience, they can take down anything roughly the size of their body. Although, I would skew slightly smaller than the body.

I gave my little L. parahybana a cricket that was a little too big for it to easily take down. I put my finger in the cup and crushed the little cricket's head. Minutes later, my little LP was snacking on pre-killed cricket.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BobGrill]

It also can depend on how aggressive of a feeder it is. Some slings will take down prey nearly as big as they are. Others will scurry away from prey items of this size. My 1 1/2 inch OBT just took down a full size cricket with no trouble.

 

[Spidergrrl]

What size crickets should I feed a 1/4 inch B. vagans?

I fed my quarter inch B. vagans pre-killed baby crickets for the first month or two, then live ones. I bought her as a 1/4 inch sling in July. S(he)'s now about 1.25 inches DLS and eats small live crickets with no problem. Great little spider. Almost ready to go up a size in enclosure.

Cheers,

Spidergrrl

 

[friendttyy]

When I got my b.albopilosums they were quite small since they were ewls when I got them and I fed them small pinheads and pulled the hind legs off the pinheads and they fed quite nicely on the pin heads.

 

[obtkeeper]

What size crickets should I feed a 1/4 inch B. vagans?

I feed the smallest crickets I can find, just crush the head and attempt to feed while the cricket is still twitching. I've tried fruit flies and that was a disaster. They were everywhere.

 

[Jterry]

Pre-killed is the best way to go, you can try really small pinheads or fruit flies, but chances are the T wouldn't accept them at that size. Cricket legs are great

My 1/2" C. fasciatum and 1/2" A. paysoni won't take live prey. Even little tiny fruit flies make them run the other direction. I usually pull off a cricket leg while I'm feeding my larger T's and drop the leg in with the little guy. They usually go for it, and it's pretty cute to see such a little guy with a big cricket leg.

 

[Stan Schultz]

What size crickets should I feed a 1/4 inch B. vagans?

The basic rule of thumb is not to feed a tarantula anything larger than its abdomen. Yes, I know that lots of people violate this rule. I'm just taking the conservative "high road" because I don't want to be responsible for killing your favorite tarantula! It's called CYA.

Offer your baby tarantulas (see Growing Your Own) up to six such crickets a week (or the body mass equivalent if you're using some other prey item). As soon as they go into the "Tweens" stage start tapering back on their food intake so that by the time they're about half grown they're only eating what would be normal for them as adults.

How much would that be? That depends on the kind of tarantula and is a subject for nearly an entire chapter in a book! But briefly, adult Chilean roses (Grammostola rosea will thrive on one (1) fully grown cricket a week or four (4) to five (5) a month. Very active tarantulas (e.g., the ornamentals, genus Poecilotheria - thanks for the tip, Rick - may need twice or even three times that much food. The giants among tarantulas (e.g., Theraphosa blondi - goliath birdeater - or Lasiodora parahybana - Brazilian salmon tarantula) fall into a special class of seemingly ever hungry, garbage cans all by themselves!


Like most things about tarantulas, the questions are simple. The answers are marvelously, sometimes maddeningly, complex!

---------- Post added 12-23-2013 at 11:50 AM ----------

Is it better to get a small culture of Fruit Flies or 25 pinhead crickets, Which will last longer on a standard weekly diet for the sling?

Fruit flies would be much too small for most spiderling tarantulas. See Growing You Own for more information.

There have now been a couple of semi-formal studies on the efficacy of feeding fruit flies to spiders, and the general results are that fruit flies are not a balanced diet. It would probably be okay to use them as a cost cutting strategy as long as you augmented them with regular feedings of crickets or roaches to round out the diet, however.

Winged fruit flies have a nasty habit of escaping their culture bottles at every opportunity. And, I find them to be maddeningly disconcerting as they buzz around my head while I'm trying to read something under a living room lamp after dark. And, they leave little, black, fecal specks on everything they land on!

And the wingless varieties will gradually lose their reproductive vitality after several generations. So, you either need to buy a fresh culture every few weeks, or learn how to outcross them with the wild kind, then inbreed them to resurrect the wingless trait.

Bottom line #1: Fruit flies may be interesting to experiment with just once. Until your family, house or room mates realize what you're doing and throw you out of the house on your fundament!

Bottom line #2: If you can, use crickets or roaches of appropriate size. If you can find a pet shop that sells the right size, go for it! Otherwise, neither crickets not roaches are that difficult to breed. I will leave you to deal with your family, house or room mates on that one!


Now I'm going to the Dairy Queen for a Chocolate Extreme Blizzard. And I, like most other less evolved creatures, DO swallow solid food!