Tarantula Food Nutrition

Mojo Jojo

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 3, 2002
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So far, my favorite food to feed to my tarantulas are meal worms. They come in all sizes. They don't stink unless they are dead and rotting. They don't make noise.

Someone on this forum stated that they might be bad for tarantulas if they are the main staple in the diet. Can anyone substantiate or refute this?

I do supplement OCCAISIONALLY with crickets. What would be the problem of not supplementing with crickets.

Jon
 

stu

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 16, 2003
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Ive never fed mealworms to any of my T's - the only reason being I dont know any where to buy them from.

Crickets seem to do the job for my guys. Ive never found that they smell, but yeah the noise from mature males can be annoying sometime - just grab the culprits and feed em to the T.

Can you feed Locust to T's when they get bigger? I always have a big tank of these hanging around for my beardies.

Stu.

Hmm, after reading this I dont seem to have answered any of your questions dragonfly.

I guess in my limited experience that just feeding mealworm may be bad as they are high in fat? This may be something I have read before or just something I dreamt up on the spot.

'shrugs'

*edit - in fact thinking about 'high in fat' isnt that pinkies? or another dream?
 
Last edited:

si_sleaf

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
May 2, 2003
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177
Originally posted by stu

Can you feed Locust to T's when they get bigger? I always have a big tank of these hanging around for my beardies.

I feed my bigger T's locusts as an alternative to crickets, they seem to like 'em. They have a habit of hanging around at the top of the tank where my terrestrials don't find them though, so I drop them straight in foront of them, hehe.
 

SpiderTwin

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 17, 2003
Messages
910
I have always fed my T's crickets. I have fed them mealworms a couple of times just to give them something different. From what I have read, it is a good thing to give them some variety, different foods have different things to offer them. I haven't heard about mealworms being too high in fat.

The only thing I worry about when feeding mealworms is the mealworm biting the T, but i have smashed their heads at times to eliminate that possibility.
 

luther

Arachnodemon
Old Timer
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Apr 8, 2003
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679
I have fed superworms (black beetle larvae) to my T's and they were gobbled up happily. The only problem I have with larvae is that the dig under the substrate if they have a chance and can haunt a tank for weeks, possibly annoying the T. Having said that, I've seen my G.rosea actively dig them up when it senses that they're near the surface.

I think that they work well for tanks with little substrate and for arboreals, dropped onto the web. I doubt that they have much nutritional difference to a cricket once they have been chewed and sucked up. Still, variety in your pet's diet is normally a good thing.
 

Mojo Jojo

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 3, 2002
Messages
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Well, it seems to me that I heard that superworms contain a special protein that might not be healthy for tarantulas when eaten as a staple. Quite frankly, I don't really believe that. But I still thought that I would rut it by the experts.

Jon
 
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