What do you feed to your tarantulas on a regular?

[gottarantulas]

Recently, I had a fellow hobbyist over to check out my tarantula collection y and he asked a question about my preferences for feeder insects after noticing that had a couple of bins of dubia roaches and a bin of super worms. Additionally, he asked my opinion on feeding crickets to your Ts in light of him having heard that crickets can pass on parasites such as pin worms onto your tarantulas. My take and viewpoint was that: 1) I offer my Ts a variety of feeder insects in general, 2) some of my Ts are picky eaters and stick to one food source or type, 3) most of my Ts are fed some species of roach (dubia, orange head nymphs or red runners) that are raised by me (as such I know what said roaches have been fed, what conditions they've been kept in and and if they're gutloaded), 4) I also my larger T species feeder grasshoppers bred and captive raised, 5) in addition to roaches my juvenile Ts are offered super worms and Black crickets (as the parasitic pin worms have been found to prevalent amongst the commonly offered brown crickets) and finally any slings I might have are offered small crickets or super worm halves. An interesting question was then posed to me..... What do I think most tarantula and scorpion hobbyist feed their animals? My answer was crickets.

So the question is, what do you predominantly feed your Ts?

 

[kingshockey]

meal worms as slings then super worms once they are big enough

 

[Hardus nameous]

Crickets and dubia mostly, with occasional hornworms, wax worms and wax moths.

 

[DomGom TheFather]

Runners mostly

 

[Liquifin]

Slings are mostly fed on cut mealworms and juveniles and adult tarantulas are fed red runners and dubias. Now that is how I feed my tarantulas on the regular basis, but there are exceptions somedays.

 

[darkness975]

Banded crickets, meal worms, super worms, roaches.

 

[mack1855]

Runners and hornworms.I finally found a local waxworm supplier,so those have been great.Cut up mealworms for slings.

 

[spideyspinneret78]

Crickets, mealworms, hornworms, and nightcrawlers for larger species ( sourced appropriately).

 

[Mustafa67]

Recently, I had a fellow hobbyist over to check out my tarantula collection y and he asked a question about my preferences for feeder insects after noticing that had a couple of bins of dubia roaches and a bin of super worms. Additionally, he asked my opinion on feeding crickets to your Ts in light of him having heard that crickets can pass on parasites such as pin worms onto your tarantulas. My take and viewpoint was that: 1) I offer my Ts a variety of feeder insects in general, 2) some of my Ts are picky eaters and stick to one food source or type, 3) most of my Ts are fed some species of roach (dubia, orange head nymphs or red runners) that are raised by me (as such I know what said roaches have been fed, what conditions they've been kept in and and if they're gutloaded), 4) I also my larger T species feeder grasshoppers bred and captive raised, 5) in addition to roaches my juvenile Ts are offered super worms and Black crickets (as the parasitic pin worms have been found to prevalent amongst the commonly offered brown crickets) and finally any slings I might have are offered small crickets or super worm halves. An interesting question was then posed to me..... What do I think most tarantula and scorpion hobbyist feed their animals? My answer was crickets.

So the question is, what do you predominantly feed your Ts?

Locusts

 

[mealworm]

dubias, crickets, mealworms.

 

[viper69]

My neighbors

 

[Smotzer]

I honestly change it up over time and feed a variety depending on what I have plenty of and also just feel like feeding at the time. I personally think crickets are great feeders but don’t think they’re any better or worse than any other feeder.

 

[Pedipalpable]

I only feed mealworms at present, since both my Ts are small juveniles. I also feed them the mealworm pupae. It will likely stay that way for the time being as the next Ts I plan on getting will all be slings ranging in size from 1/4” to 1/2”. Those I plan feeding cut up mealworm pieces.

...the parasitic pin worms have been found to prevalent amongst the commonly offered brown crickets...

This is the first mention I've seen on here of such a thing. I can’t imagine captive raised crickets having much risk of acquiring parasitic infections unless they are fed something that is contaminated. Which I would imagine any sensible cricket farm would take measures to ensure does not happen.

My neighbors

Whole or in parts?

 

[gottarantulas]

I'll preface by saying that pinworms are not prevalent but tarantula hobbyists do encounter them from time to time. If one has been in the hobby long enough and particularly has bought or raised crickets long enough for the purpose of feeding to other animals one becomes aware of the parasites. Crickets can carry a number parasites ranging from mites to nematodes to pinworms. Typically any mites found on crickets are harmless to tarantulas as they are the type that typically feed on wheat or grain based products fed to the crickets coming from cricket farms.
A couple of years ago apparently I sold someone a tarantula that probably had pinworms. I realized this in hindsight after I had a discussion with someone that had been in the hobby for over 20 years who had a similar experience firsthand in his collection. He himself thought at the time that the source were crickets that he bought from a local pet store that were not necessarily kept in the best conditions. He discovered this after cutting a cricket up for the purpose of feeding the pieces to slings and noticed a worm.

 

[vancwa]

Crickets and Superworms.

 

[vancwa]

Banded crickets, meal worms, super worms, roaches.

What do you like about Banded Crickets?

 

[Royal Rover]

Tiny mealworms to some spiderlings & crickets to the others, including subadults & adults.
In fact, I'm thinking of switching to mealworms all the way due to the difficulty of keeping crickets alive (still inexperienced in this). But some species seem to be a picky eater, often touching the worm briefly before retreating.
Besides, it is said that mealworms are not preferred for digging into the substrate which may turn into a threat to a molting spider. They can be easily overlooked & forgotten after being thrown into the enclosure.
Roaches are the most frequently heard feed for their nutrient contents, but they give me goosebumps! I'm not gonna touch them shortly.

 

[Benson1990]

I feed meal worms and mori worms only at this point, so much easier, when I was feeding crickets they were hard to keep alive were annoying to catch.

 

[darkness975]

What do you like about Banded Crickets?

From reputable breeders they are far more hardy and have notably longer life spans.

 

[F1tarantula]

Crickets, most available around my area.