Well this is new!!

Chris

Arachnoknight
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I came home last night to a foul smell in my apartment... the kind of smell that only a dead mouse can emit.

The only thing that had a dead mouse in the past day or so has been my female T. Blondi... but I didnt see it anywhere.

This morning I looked in again because the smell was stronger... I saw a clump of mould in the corner of her cage... when I scooped it out there was the mouse... under the dirt!

She had buried the damn thing!!! I have seen dogs and squirrels do this but its new to me in the world of tarantulas lol I swear these things never cease to have a new surprise for me up their sleeves (or should I say hidden in their hair)
 

Vayu Son

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I dislike feeding vertebrates to the T's simply because of increased bacterial growth and decay.

-V
 

Chris

Arachnoknight
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I feel that strictly insect diets don't accurately mimmic what a T eats in the wild. There is far more minerals and nutrients in a mouse than in a pinky and they normally have them eaten down within a couple of hours anyway.

I always try and vary the diet so that they cannot possibly be lacking anything they need.
 

Vayu Son

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I find it unlikely that they get constant vertebrate prey in the wild. Given the location of natural habitat(especially arboreals) unless they are actively searching for mouse holes and are particularly intent on getting meat, my guess is that its a rarity.

That said, I usually only do the mice for larger specimens and then after a molt or prepping them for a sac. I have had no problem raising slings to beautiful adults with only gutfed crickets.

-V
 

Chris

Arachnoknight
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And you could survive on a strict diet of fried food... but it isnt necessarily good for you. While no, a tarantula probably doesn't have a steady source of vertebrate meals, it is just as unlikely that the tarantula eats nothing but crickets. Variety is what I am stressing because tarantulas have evolved to eat anything that comes in front of them as long as they can take it.

This is one of the things that make this hobby (ad these forums) so much fun... everyone has their own ways of doing things. Obviously a lot of them aren't really right or wrong.
 

Vys

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I agree, to a point ; Variety is really fun, when it comes to insects; I'd never feed mice to T's.

I might get a moth-culture soon, or perhaps cockroaches... appearantly locusts were too frightening.
 

Vayu Son

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Its a possibility. But i dont think we are going to see any national geographic slow-motion videos of a 2" Poecilotheria nabbing a fruit bat ;). Variety is good, and i really am not qualified to create an accurate portrayal of their diet in the wild, but the point of gutfeed is to make it so alot of different nutrients are going into these crickets that normally wouldnt.

Chris,
actually, I dont think a human surviving only on fried food would live very long or be very beautiful, The analogy is boot to begin with given the different natures of invertebrate/vertebrate digestive networks. With that in mind, a 8" T on crickets will probably be one of the beautiful people right along with the meat-eater.



-V
 

Chris

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Vayu,

There gets a point where the T is just too big for crickets... a Blondi with a 12 inch legspan and inch long fangs just can't seem to catch an inch long cricket very well. This is when I switch them to a diet of large roaches and dead pinky rats and mice.

And nothing in my experience fattens up a T like a vertebrate meal... its what I always feed them after a molt.
 

arachnopunks

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we feed fuzzies, anoles, crickets, etc. to our T.blondi. In response to Vayu Son,
>>But i dont think we are going to see any national geographic slow-motion videos of a 2" Poecilotheria nabbing a fruit<<
http://www.birdspiders.com/archive/1/0124.htm
This is a pic of a A. urticans, from Rick West's site, eating a frog.
http://www.birdspiders.com/archive/1/0063.htm
This is a pic of a L. parahybana (ground dweller) eating a bat from the same website.
A tarantula will eat it if the prey makes the fatal error of wandering near. We watched a program on Discovery Channel about Tarantulas and they showed a L. parahybana pounce on a Fer-de-lance (a highly venomous snake) and win. We're not poking fun at you at all when I say this but you sound like you are probably a vegetarian. Try not to let you're personal choice of diet effect your T's. While you may find it cruel to the mouse consider that these mice are bred for feeders over pets. If you have a T. blondi you will notice when it gets to be 6"+ it is not easy to maintain on gutload crickets alone. We tried but eventually realized that they are Large spiders that will readily take and seem to appreciate the large prey items.
Johnny and Jill
 

atavuss

Arachnoprince
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Originally posted by Chris
I came home last night to a foul smell in my apartment... the kind of smell that only a dead mouse can emit.

The only thing that had a dead mouse in the past day or so has been my female T. Blondi... but I didnt see it anywhere.

This morning I looked in again because the smell was stronger... I saw a clump of mould in the corner of her cage... when I scooped it out there was the mouse... under the dirt!

She had buried the damn thing!!! I have seen dogs and squirrels do this but its new to me in the world of tarantulas lol I swear these things never cease to have a new surprise for me up their sleeves (or should I say hidden in their hair)
it never ceases to amaze me how badly a small rodent can smell when dead! I fed out a bunch of rat pups the other day, the next day I was going to take out the ones that were not eaten, my adult female g. pulchra had killed her rat pup but left it, next thing I know she is eating it and it had to have started to get a bit "ripe".
she ate all of it too!
Ed
 

Gillian

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Chris,
Yep, you aren't the only one. I think a very big part of the allure of keeping tarantulas (at least for me), is you never know what's next. Not to mention, unlike other pets, you're constantly learning. Have you re-named your blondi fido??=D

Peace,
Gillian
 

Vys

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Finches! For all you vertebrate-sacrificialpits.
Otherwise, King Crickets? Locusts ?
 

arachnopunks

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We once uncovered a pinky graveyard when changing our Female P. murinus' substrate. Luckily she burried it well enough for us not to have smelled it, but it was gross nonetheless. Our T. blondi always sets his leftovers outside of his burrow like the trash.


-Jill
 

Vayu Son

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Actually, i am about 85% carnivore. I feed pinkies after molts and when fattening up females. My original post simply illustrated why I do not think it is neccesary and why I dont like dealing with the smell. If a 8" Pamphobeteus nabs a pinky and leaves it in its 8" burrow than i have a problem I dont like dealing with at all.

That said, I understand the need for larger prey ;)

and thanks for the bat pics, very cool.

-V
 

Lasiodora

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Originally posted by Vys
Finches! For all you vertebrate-sacrificialpits.
Otherwise, King Crickets? Locusts ?
I don't believe you can legally buy locuts in the US.
Mike
 

Theraphosa

Arachnoknight
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Originally posted by arachnopunks
we feed fuzzies, anoles, crickets, etc. to our T.blondi. In response to Vayu Son,
>>But i dont think we are going to see any national geographic slow-motion videos of a 2" Poecilotheria nabbing a fruit<<
http://www.birdspiders.com/archive/1/0124.htm
This is a pic of a A. urticans, from Rick West's site, eating a frog.
http://www.birdspiders.com/archive/1/0063.htm
This is a pic of a L. parahybana (ground dweller) eating a bat from the same website.
A tarantula will eat it if the prey makes the fatal error of wandering near. We watched a program on Discovery Channel about Tarantulas and they showed a L. parahybana pounce on a Fer-de-lance (a highly venomous snake) and win. We're not poking fun at you at all when I say this but you sound like you are probably a vegetarian. Try not to let you're personal choice of diet effect your T's. While you may find it cruel to the mouse consider that these mice are bred for feeders over pets. If you have a T. blondi you will notice when it gets to be 6"+ it is not easy to maintain on gutload crickets alone. We tried but eventually realized that they are Large spiders that will readily take and seem to appreciate the large prey items.
Johnny and Jill
I saw that video.. did they showed the part when a Centipede eat a Curly hair? but that part with the snake.. oh damn.. it was awesome....
 

Chris

Arachnoknight
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I saw one show on Discovery channel where a baby monkey fell from the tree and a huge T. Blondi came along and nailed him.

It freaked out everyone in the room but fascinated me :)
 
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