The ratio between cephalothorax and abdomen

[mozkaynak]

I am reasonably new to this hobby and still doing research in order to provide best care to my Ts. I recently read in one of the forums in this site that the tarantulas should be fed when the cephalothorax is bigger than the abdomen. Is that true? In my case I have NEVER seen my Ts' abdomen smaller than their cephalothorax. Have I been overfeeding them? I am not sure about that because my Ts was fed last on September 15. I offered them food 2 days ago, One of them refused to eat the food. And today, I took its picture (sorry that it is not a good picture) and as you can see its abdomen is still bigger than its cephalothorax after not eating anything for a week.
I am really confused about the ratio between cephalothorax and abdomen.
Could anyone provide some information about this issue.

 

[TalonAWD]

When they have big abdomens and are small they will molt faster. Its technically almost like power feeding when you constantly keep their abdomens large like that. Since tarantulas don't move often feeding once a week should be plenty. And even if you don't feed it for a month in most cases the abdomen would not have shrunken much.
I had to put my B. boehmei on a 2-3 month diet because her abdomen was large. Don't worry too much. For me I like the abdomen to big only slightly bigger than the carapace. To me that is the ideal tarantula look.

 

[Fran]

A well fed tarantula will have a larger abdomen than cephalotorax.

Dependying on how much the tarantula feeds,of course, it will be bigger or smaller. There are t's, specially arboreals and old world t's that wont have an enormous abdomen,but any new world specie should have a pretty rounded abdomen, and bigger than the cephalotorax.


About the overfeeding...
The never ending dilema. To me its quite simple. Tarantulas wont eat till explode,if they eat is because they are hungry and the instinct says that they have to eat. Feed them till they dont pay attention to the prey,then dont feed them for a couple of days, then try again.

 

[Roski]

^^^What he said. It's personal preference for the owner of how their T looks, as they will keep eating until they are bloated and refuse food on their own (I've heard that A. genics can be overfed, not sure what that entails... yet!) Tarantulas have incredibly slow metabolisms! The abdomen size won't really undergo significant decrease within a week.

Yes, it is possible fro Ts to have abdomens smaller than their cephalothorax. They can still be considered healthy at this point, but the urge to spoil them takes over

As someone put it in an older thread, captive tarantulas are morbidly obese compared to their wild relatives

As for the "rule" that the cephalothorax has to be bigger than the abdomen to feed, again, it is personal preference. Most keepers just don't want a bloated tick for a T. For slings, a cricket a week is sufficient, and two is plenty. (Aren't I the redundant one )

 

[Fran]

I just always feed till they refuse pray. I personally like fatty looking t's rather than skinny ones .

 

[Roski]

I just always feed till they refuse pray. I personally like fatty looking t's rather than skinny ones.

Do you give them each 8 little sets of dumbells too? Good lord.

 

[Fran]

Lol yeah, looks like.All my t's are pretty fatty

I think one of my Blondis bench presses...Really

 

[Roski]

Isopods are pretty crappy spotters, be careful

@ OP: check out the Chilobrachys thread right below this one (or somewhere hovering near the top) That pic shows a pretty slim T, but it's healthy enough Not saying I wouldn't throw it a dubia or 3...

 

[night4now]

My .02

I debated this with my husband, over and over, and we came to this conclusion:

If they can 'decide' (in the case of rosea's at least) to NOT eat, then they should be able to decide TO eat. I offer food every 3 days, and if they take it, fine. If not, fine. Although they are small, I figure they are smart enough to know if they want/need food or not, and decide for themselves.

 

[gvfarns]

For immature, growing T's I wouldn't stress about overfeeding. Feed them as much as they and you want. The more food the faster they will grow up.

When they are adults, you can start having more restraint with when to feed them (just like with people). Adult T's can overeat in some cases and get some pretty big abdomens, which keep them from being as agile and can make them more delicate when it comes to falling off walls, which they are also more likely to do when fat. But for NW terrestrial tarantulas the abdomen is generally larger than the cephalothorax, as has been pointed out.

Anyway, your T is small so my advice feed as much as it is willing to eat.