What are your takes on hornworms?

tonyiscool65

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Just fed one to my p regalis. What are your opinions on using hornworms as feeders? Are roaches still considered better?
 

Venom1080

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i love them for fattening up my large Pocilotheria after a molt. they are probably higher in nutrition and fat than roaches, but breeding them takes a lot of work as they turn into moths. (or butterflies?) breeding roaches is just easier.
 

truecreature

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Doubt there's a problem with them nutritionally, but they're just way too expensive and have too short of a shelf life for me to bother giving them to my tarantulas. They're also a pain in the butt to breed because they need live tomato plants (or to a lesser extent, fresh tomato leaves) to lay their eggs. I only buy them occasionally as a special treat for my lizards.
 

tonyiscool65

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Okay cool, thank you guys! Yea I only ever buy the hornworms when they are on sale (getting ready to go into to pupa stage) but I'm glad to know! One last question dubia's or hissing cockroaches for feeding?
 

Quixtar

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I prefer using hissers because of the tendency of dubias to burrow. If you're tong-feeding, it doesn't matter.
 

Graves6661

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I havent tried hissers but my tarantulas love the dubias. Especially my A. geniculata. then again that T will eat anything that moves.
 

Jones0911

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I use em some of my Ts will take em some won't.

If you want to feed your Ts these only I don't think it would be an issue just know they grow fast and most are sold in groups of 12 or more....so try not to buy more than you need.

Also these are great because they never burrow

Roaches are always good but some of them will bury themselves if not eating right away that's my only issue with roaches.

Here's one of my Pamphobeteus Platyommas eating a H.W.

 
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Lessej

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I 'thought' hissers had a much harder carapace than dubai and as a result dubai are possibly the better choice. That and dubai breed easier/faster than hissers and may be more readily available for purchase. I could be wrong though.
 

tonyiscool65

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I 'thought' hissers had a much harder carapace than dubai and as a result dubai are possibly the better choice. That and dubai breed easier/faster than hissers and may be more readily available for purchase. I could be wrong though.
I also read hissers are more fatty then Dubia's and that dubia's are overall more "healthy" for T's.
 

DeadlyGecko101

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I've been told that hornworms are very high in calcium which is not necessarily good for your tarantula. Anyone care to follow up or confirm this?
 

bryverine

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I've been told that hornworms are very high in calcium which is not necessarily good for your tarantula. Anyone care to follow up or confirm this?
I've seen a few more senior users say that the whole "too much calcium" thing is blown out of proportion and that there is no fact to prove it specifically is bad for tarantulas.
 

DeadlyGecko101

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I've seen a few more senior users say that the whole "too much calcium" thing is blown out of proportion and that there is no fact to prove it specifically is bad for tarantulas.
Just read exactly that on another thread. Very little is really known about the nutritional requirements of tarantulas in general, so, at this point whatever you feed your tarantulas is much more of personal decision. I don't buy hornworms for my T's, simply because they are more pricey than crickets, dubias, and superworms. I like to mix it up between the three of those feeders.
 

cold blood

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Doubt there's a problem with them nutritionally, but they're just way too expensive and have too short of a shelf life for me to bother giving them to my tarantulas. They're also a pain in the butt to breed because they need live tomato plants (or to a lesser extent, fresh tomato leaves) to lay their eggs. I only buy them occasionally as a special treat for my lizards.
Since we don't actually know what ts actually require nutritionally, we have zero idea as to the role of excess fat, although fatty prey just seems to fatten them a little faster and that's about it.

My understanding is that horn worms sold in the pet trade are raised on something else....ones raised on tomatoes are toxic.
I 'thought' hissers had a much harder carapace than dubai and as a result dubai are possibly the better choice. That and dubai breed easier/faster than hissers and may be more readily available for purchase. I could be wrong though.
Hissers do breed much slower and they eventually get to a size where they're just too large for all but the largest ts. For this reason dubia are a far more popular feeder.

IF you have a huge, long term hisser colony, its less of an issue and you can just remove whatever size is needed.

I also read hissers are more fatty then Dubia's and that dubia's are overall more "healthy" for T's.
Here say, its all speculation as the dietary needs/requirements of tarantulas are basically unknown.

The ONLY feeder that I have ever heard of that can cause issues long term are fruit flies, which are best used as a supplement.

I've been told that hornworms are very high in calcium which is not necessarily good for your tarantula. Anyone care to follow up or confirm this?
The calcium thing is a myth.
 
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truecreature

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Since we don't actually know what ts actually require nutritionally, we have zero idea as to the role of excess fat, although fatty prey just seems to fatten them a little faster and that's about it.

My understanding is that horn worms sold in the pet trade are raised on something else....ones raised on tomatoes are toxic.
True we don't really know anything about their nutrition requirements, I just meant that I don't think there's all that much of a difference in the hornworms' nutrition content vs the usual feeders people use as a staple. But it's been a while since I looked up that info and I'm too lazy to look it up again, lol. From what I recall though I think they're actually low in fat content

And yeah eating the tomato plants are what makes the caterpillars toxic, but the plants used for breeding are to stimulate the moths to lay their eggs, not for eating. Once the eggs are laid I think they're removed into a separate container. It's all a pain in the butt and why I decided not to get into breeding them
 

tonyiscool65

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True we don't really know anything about their nutrition requirements, I just meant that I don't think there's all that much of a difference in the hornworms' nutrition content vs the usual feeders people use as a staple. But it's been a while since I looked up that info and I'm too lazy to look it up again, lol. From what I recall though I think they're actually low in fat content

And yeah eating the tomato plants are what makes the caterpillars toxic, but the plants used for breeding are to stimulate the moths to lay their eggs, not for eating. Once the eggs are laid I think they're removed into a separate container. It's all a pain in the butt and why I decided not to get into breeding them
I saw on another post that hornworms are mostly water so they'd Imo be great for a dehydrated T.
 
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