Tarantula nutritional needs

[JesusV]

I was hoping to start a discussion on the nutritional needs of tarantulas.also, I was wondering if anyone could share a good recipe on dry gutload

 

[cold blood]

I was hoping to start a discussion on the nutritional needs of tarantulas

Any of the common feeders are fine for a healthy t...although there has never been any indication that variety is needed, most of us do switch feeders up from time to time...but not all do, and their ts do just fine as well.

I was wondering if anyone could share a good recipe on dry gutload

Gutload? Reptile term...you just need to feed your feeders. Any dog kibble or even fish food works....as do carrots, potato and lettuce or other greens.

Its not critical to do anything "special" with your feeders like it might be with reptiles...they have no need for supplements and none should be used.

 

[JesusV]

Gutload? Reptile term...you just need to feed your feeders. Any dog kibble or even fish food works....as do carrots, potato and lettuce or other greens.

Its not critical to do anything "special" with your feeders like it might be with reptiles...they have no need for supplements and none should be used.

Is fish flacks or kibble the only way or could I get away with more plant based protein,like rabbit pellets because I was wondering about the high protein in fish flacks or kibble

 

[cold blood]

Is fish flacks or kibble the only way or could I get away with more plant based protein,like rabbit pellets because I was wondering about the high protein in fish flacks or kibble

What feeders are we talking about? Roaches, for instance, need a certain amount of protein....but really feeding isn't a huge concern as long as they are eating something.

You could literally use any kind of kibble from dog food to monkey chow.

 

[Theneil]

So for my meal worms they get mostly wheat bran and carrots/potatoes/oranges/whatever for hydration.

The roaches dubias and lateralis get assorted fruits and veggies as well as sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, wheat bran, dog and or cat food, and ground up split peas. Sometimes i give water crystals as well if i don't have much for fruits and veggies.

When i had crickets they got basically the same as the roaches.

Might sound complicated but it is actually whatever i can get cheap at the grocery.

Also for the record. i haven't been doing this for that long so i can't state anything about long term effects of anything.

 

[StampFan]

Gutload? Reptile term...you just need to feed your feeders. Any dog kibble or even fish food works....as do carrots, potato and lettuce or other greens.

Its not critical to do anything "special" with your feeders like it might be with reptiles...they have no need for supplements and none should be used.

Is fish flacks or kibble the only way or could I get away with more plant based protein,like rabbit pellets because I was wondering about the high protein in fish flacks or kibble[/QUOTE]

I would caution around anything alfalfa based like a rabbit pellet. From experience can get kinda smelly. But try it and see.

We know next to nothing about the nutritional needs of Ts.

 

[viper69]

Is fish flacks or kibble the only way or could I get away with more plant based protein,like rabbit pellets because I was wondering about the high protein in fish flacks or kibble

What's the concern about high protein? Are the feeders on a diet? HAH. You could use fresh veggies, or Fluker's cricket chow etc etc

Is fish flacks or kibble the only way or could I get away with more plant based protein,like rabbit pellets because I was wondering about the high protein in fish flacks or kibble

I would caution around anything alfalfa based like a rabbit pellet. From experience can get kinda smelly. But try it and see.

We know next to nothing about the nutritional needs of Ts.[/QUOTE]

Somewhat true, but a DVM did publish a paper on the nutrional needs for a T. I believe it was more along the lines of caloric intake that would yield growth.

 

[boina]

Personally, I make sure to always mix some high quality protein into my feeders diet, like cat kibble or fish flakes. Even my mealworms get those and my roaches anyway. For true spiders it has been shown that a balanced protein/lipid ratio is important. I'm somewhat suspicious of the low protein diet a lot of people feed their feeders.

high protein in fish flacks or kibble

@JesusV what's wrong with high protein? Protein is important.

 

[Pseudo]

I'm somewhat suspicious of the low protein diet a lot of people feed their feeders

Do you have any advice on what to feed dubia rockroaches? I have been feeding them bananas, oranges, and apples thus far.

 

[NukaMedia Exotics]

I pretty much have only fed feeders lettuce til recently and it was working out fine for the mealworms but not so much for the crickets I think lol so I'd add carrots at least or maybe some other veggies/fruit.

 

[Nonnack]

Actually one guy made experiment. He split first instar slings from one egg sack of P. cambridgei into four groups. One he was feeding only Tenebrio molitor, second only Acheta demestica, third only Shelfordella lateralis, and fourth one mix of all above. He made very detailed notes and observations, but to sum up. first group was growing slowest, fourth was growing fastest and biggest.

I have link to article, but it is very long and in Polish.

 

[Theneil]

@boina

i am by no measure an expert on the subject, but from what i have read (most specifically regarding dubia roaches) they are extremely efficient at converting whatever food they are given into protein so the protien content of the roach isn't changed too dramatically by a high protien diet, instead it promotes more rapid growth. Additionally if fed a Excess of protein (generally only a concern in adults), they convert it to uric acid for storage which apparently is harder to process for most of the 'end users': Most the information i have found is directed toward feeders for reptiles so i don't know how much the uric acid is a concern to inverts. I will go out on a limb and say that you could make a more educated guess about that than i can.

if only i had gotten tarantulas in high school i might have actually paid attention in biology class...

 

[sasker]

Low carb, high protein for Ts. They like a banana milkshake after their workouts. I tried vegan for my roaches, but they like fish flakes too much so I stopped this diet. They are still on a plant-based, whole foods diet + some fish flakes/cat food.

 

[cold blood]

Do you have any advice on what to feed dubia rockroaches? I have been feeding them bananas, oranges, and apples thus far.

Its as easy as that....I just leave dog kibble as the base substrate (if you want to call t that), this provides protein for the roaches...which they need to reproduce from what I understand.

 

[Theneil]

Not all of the information is specifically dubia but hopefully this helps.

dubiaroachdepot.com/guidance/dubia-roaches-dietary-protein

 

[boina]

Do you have any advice on what to feed dubia rockroaches? I have been feeding them bananas, oranges, and apples thus far.

I pretty much have only fed feeders lettuce

First of all, lettuce is about the wost thing you can feed. It basically only contains water and fiber and nothing else. It's extremely low in any kind of nutrients and if it's the sole food there are very few specialized animals who can actually survive on it. I wouldn't even include it in any kind of diet.

Roach food: People have this strange idea that if veggies and fruit are good for you, they not only must be good for anything else, but they must be the only thing needed. That's very wrong. Fruit and veggies are high in vitamins, yes, but they don't provide much energy (fat) or protein. Both is needed. You need a base of more profane things for a nutritionally complete diet. Oatmeal is actually very nutritions and contains more vitamins than most people would think. After all it's oat grains and therefore contains everything a seedling needs to grow. Personally I provide a base of oat meal mixed with cat/dog food and then add fruit and veggies.

Additionally if fed a Excess of protein (generally only a concern in adults), they convert it to uric acid for storage which apparently is harder to process for most of the 'end users':

So that's where the protein phobia stems from! Thank you for that article. As always the secret lies in the dosis. The article is pretty good actually if you read it completely and thoroughly. They by no mean state that protein is bad, on the contrary, they say that protein is good and necessary, only extremely high doses of it get problematic. It's reasonable to aim for a 25% protein diet and that's actually a lot higher than a purely veggie diet will provide. So, yes, protein is good and necessary, just don't start feeding your roaches or anything else a purely carnivorous diet, but who does that anyway.

 

[Theneil]

Yeah, my first post was from memory then then i went and found/re-read the article.

i've always just offered multiple foods that are separate from each other and never tried to calculate any numbers, i'm too lazy to put that much effort for feeder roaches. LOL

 

[Robert Marley]

This is an interesting subject. Someone on another forum told me to feed my sling a small cricket rather than fruit flies, because they don’t have as much nutritional value. However after researching it, from what I’ve read fruit flies have higher protein and nutritional value than crickets.
Do you think this is a myth being spread without research? People think since a fruit fly is small it doesn’t have as much nutritional value, so they think it doesn’t, even though they haven’t researched it? I’d be curious to hear your thoughts. The big red flag about them not being nutritious, is how many frogs depend on fruit flies to get their nourishment.

 

[Swagg]

This is an interesting subject. Someone on another forum told me to feed my sling a small cricket rather than fruit flies, because they don’t have as much nutritional value. However after researching it, from what I’ve read fruit flies have higher protein and nutritional value than crickets.
Do you think this is a myth being spread without research? People think since a fruit fly is small it doesn’t have as much nutritional value, so they think it doesn’t, even though they haven’t researched it? I’d be curious to hear your thoughts. The big red flag about them not being nutritious, is how many frogs depend on fruit flies to get their nourishment.

I’m sure they are nutritious. They are a pain in the butt though lol.
as far as the research I have no clue. They are only available here every now and then so I never bothered doing any.

 

[Kitara]

I’m sure they are nutritious. They are a pain in the butt though lol.

100% I fully admit blindly jumping on the "they are not nutritious" train haha. Actually, I don't think I've ever said that to anyone (I may have), but I always say how crappy they are to deal with. They are such a pain. If I didn't have to use them for the mantises I never would have used them at all. Thankfully the mantises are grown now and don't need them anymore. I'll never get another animal that eats fruit flies.