Too much calcium?

CEOAirsoft

Arachnopeon
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Aug 17, 2016
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So I just fed one of my young tarantulas it's first vertebrate. It just so happened to be a small frog. Do you think it will be consuming too much calcium that will make it difficult for it's next molt? I don't plan on giving her any other vertebrates for a couple years.

P.S. A quick reply would be nice because she's eating it right now.
 

magicmed

Arachnobaron
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Truthfully I don't know if anyone can tell you the amount that's going to cause problems, but it's really just not recommended to feed any vertebrate to a T, especially wild caught vertebrates. I personally would definitely not risk it
 

Flexzone

Arachnodemon
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They're has not been any scientific study to my knowledge that specifies that excess calcium from a vertebrate causes molting problems, that being said the problem that stands out in my head is that feeding vertebrates to your T's can lead to it receiving an injury by the vertebrate prey item should your T get overpowered and secondly if it is WC, who knows what that prey item may have came into contact with.
 
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Poec54

Arachnoemperor
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The calcium warning is pure nonsense with no foundation in fact. Feeding wild caught animals of any kind to tarantulas is not a good idea with all the chemicals they could have been exposed to.
 

CEOAirsoft

Arachnopeon
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They're has not been any scientific study to my knowledge that specifies that excess calcium from a vertebrate causes molting problems, that being said the problem that stands out in my head is that feeding vertebrates to your T's can lead to it receiving an injury by the vertebrate prey item should your T get overpowered and secondly if it is WC, who knows what that prey item may have came into contact with.
So should I pull it away from my T?
 

SC Tarantulas

Arachnoknight
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I personally don't understand the logic or reasoning of feeding vertebrates to captive Tarantulas aside from the amusement of the owner. Stick to insects is my suggestion.
 

REEFSPIDER

Arachnobaron
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412
You shouldn't feed your t things you find. Jesus. I don't even know where to begin but if you caught the frog outside I would be worried about pesticide/chemical exposure and the presence of parasites in the frog.


That being said; why?
 

magicmed

Arachnobaron
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So should I pull it away from my T?
I could be wrong but I wouldn't risk pulling it away, I'd just be worried about breaking a fang. Just me personally but it's just too late to do anything about now. Just make sure to clean out the frog as soon as it is done.

Someone more experienced may correct me, I could just be being paranoid about the broken fang
 

CEOAirsoft

Arachnopeon
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Aug 17, 2016
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I could be wrong but I wouldn't risk pulling it away, I'd just be worried about breaking a fang. Just me personally but it's just too late to do anything about now. Just make sure to clean out the frog as soon as it is done.

Someone more experienced may correct me, I could just be being paranoid about the broken fang
It dropped the frog and I took it out. Glad that's over. I don't know what I was thinking. XD
 

antinous

Pamphopharaoh
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As others have said, never feed wild caught prey items. As for vertebrates, they eat them from time to time in the wild so why not? I don't personally just because I don't want to have to deal with the smell haha.
 

REEFSPIDER

Arachnobaron
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As others have said, never feed wild caught prey items. As for vertebrates, they eat them from time to time in the wild so why not? I don't personally just because I don't want to have to deal with the smell haha.
when you drop a dubia/locust/cricket/worm or other insect feeder into your t enclosure and it gets the double pointy things, you can rest assured that the insect in question is not in fear for its life and it is not in pain, because such insect prey items lack a brain and the ability to feel anything it is much more humane. A mouse/rat other small mammalian or in this case even amphibian, posess a brain, they posess conscience thought and they know when they are in danger. They're also alive for up to an hour while the t is eating their still twitching and half devoured bodies. If you get any kind of enjoyment out of this kind of thing then I don't know why you would keep animals to begin with.
 

antinous

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when you drop a dubia/locust/cricket/worm or other insect feeder into your t enclosure and it gets the double pointy things, you can rest assured that the insect in question is not in fear for its life and it is not in pain, because such insect prey items lack a brain and the ability to feel anything it is much more humane. A mouse/rat other small mammalian or in this case even amphibian, posess a brain, they posess conscience thought and they know when they are in danger. They're also alive for up to an hour while the t is eating their still twitching and half devoured bodies. If you get any kind of enjoyment out of this kind of thing then I don't know why you would keep animals to begin with.
I don't get any enjoyment out of feeding any animals to other animals. If I did have to feed vertebrates to Ts I'd surely do F/T, but that's just me. I've had to feed live to snakes who wouldn't eat F/T. Did I enjoy it? No. But I did what I had to do.
 

REEFSPIDER

Arachnobaron
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I don't get any enjoyment out of feeding any animals to other animals. If I did have to feed vertebrates to Ts I'd surely do F/T, but that's just me. I've had to feed live to snakes who wouldn't eat F/T. Did I enjoy it? No. But I did what I had to do.
I agree because for some reptiles there is no choice but to feed live rodents. Because they are finnicky and no one wants to lose a 1-5k snake over the feelings of a poor little rat. But why would you even offer F/T vertebra to your t if their is no scientific proof that it has any benefit to there life compared to insect protein. I dont understand why you would even feel the need to give rodents to T's. Live or pre killed.
 

magicmed

Arachnobaron
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I don't get any enjoyment out of feeding any animals to other animals. If I did have to feed vertebrates to Ts I'd surely do F/T, but that's just me. I've had to feed live to snakes who wouldn't eat F/T. Did I enjoy it? No. But I did what I had to do.
There's actually a few ways you can get a stubborn snake to accept f/t food. I've actually never had any snake refused a warmed to body temperature and zombie dancing f/t though personally.

I've heard of f/t being dipped in chicken broth or fresh killed rats being used to tempt a stubborn snake, like I said though warm it up and make it dance and you should be good with any captive bred snake.
 

lunarae

Arachnobaron
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I see no enjoyment in feeding vertebrates to T's. With that being said however. I see nothing wrong outside of the danger it can present the T by doing so as it could cause the T injury. As well as wild caught does present the possibility of pesticides and parasites that can be an issue.

However, I do see a benefit to providing vertebrates when looking at it from a nutritional level. In the wild T's are known to eat small mammals and reptiles, things that they can over power. While insects give them most of their diet it's not hard to believe that the occasional vertebrate may help them a bit more in the regards of nutrition. I'm sure one could argue that perhaps wet molts are caused more due to insufficient diet.

I'm not saying people need to start feeding their T's vertebrates, I haven't and probably wont unless it was proven beneficial and even then have a pretty hard doing so. But it's something to consider from a scientific perspective on the subject.
 

JumpingSpiderLady

Arachnobaron
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Also, you can crush the skull and squish some brains out. Gross, but apparently makes it smell more alive or something.
 

antinous

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I agree because for some reptiles there is no choice but to feed live rodents. Because they are finnicky and no one wants to lose a 1-5k snake over the feelings of a poor little rat. But why would you even offer F/T vertebra to your t if their is no scientific proof that it has any benefit to there life compared to insect protein. I dont understand why you would even feel the need to give rodents to T's. Live or pre killed.
I agree. But some people enjoy it. To each their own, I'll stick with crickets and worms.

There's actually a few ways you can get a stubborn snake to accept f/t food. I've actually never had any snake refused a warmed to body temperature and zombie dancing f/t though personally.

I've heard of f/t being dipped in chicken broth or fresh killed rats being used to tempt a stubborn snake, like I said though warm it up and make it dance and you should be good with any captive bred snake.
I've had many snakes refuse F/T. It only works for some. I always warm my frozen thawed regardless since it's what you're supposed to do, but there are snakes that just won't take F/T sadly. A retic I worked with never took to them, the previous owner never tried to feed it, and it was a bit of a hassle to feed her live rabbits. Not only that, I didn't enjoy pushing the rabbit to it's death.
 

REEFSPIDER

Arachnobaron
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There's actually a few ways you can get a stubborn snake to accept f/t food. I've actually never had any snake refused a warmed to body temperature and zombie dancing f/t though personally.

I've heard of f/t being dipped in chicken broth or fresh killed rats being used to tempt a stubborn snake, like I said though warm it up and make it dance and you should be good with any captive bred snake.
I am quite aware of these methods also, I have never offered live rodents to reptiles. Watched a sub adult peach throat monitor take down a live baby chick once at a LPS. I was young and it was disturbing. I'll never forget those images. Needless to say it is nature and people can argue that. But then again we could argue a lot on the "nature" of keeping these wild animals in tanks and how "natural" that is. I keep exotics and I do question myself sometimes. On these very same premises. But as a caretaker for these animals in my care I don't personally feel like it's "natural" for me to give my Animals living mammalian prey items.
 
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