What is your stable food source for your tarantulas?

[Arachnopuppy]

I have only started feeding mice to my tarantulas recently. Before that, it was crix, beetles, worms, and anything else I could find in my parents' yard, garden, and the forest behind their house. I now keep a colony of beetles and mealworms in a tank as my stable food supply for the tarantulas. About once a month I would go out and by a couple dozen crix as a change. As for the mice, I want to avoid emotional attachments so I buy them and drop them into the t enclosers right away.

 

[Bry]

I feed mine mainly crickets with occasional treats of small children.

Bry

 

[skinheaddave]

Crickets, mealies and telemarketers.

Bry,

Would you be willing to trade a starter colony of small children for a starter colony of telemarketers?

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Bry]

Dave, how about this, due to the children's small size, I'm willing to throw in a starter colony of Jehovah's witnesses. Email me, and we'll talk.

Bry

 

[Pyrdacor]

I feed locusts to my bigger T's and crickets to the smaller ones. Crickets are available in many pet shops around here. So I can take that as a stable source. The locusts are the exactly opposite. They are not always available, especially in winter. That's why I already thought about starting an own colony with them.

 

[Mojo Jojo]

Mealworms have become my staple of choice. They even have mini meal worms that I can get for my small slings. I still get crickets too. But not as much as I used to. It has been ages since I used a rodent baby.

Jon

 

[Pyrdacor]

Might be an old discussion but don't have mealworms too much proteins in them. Makes them unbalanced food imo. But I guess if you also feed crix sometimes everything will be allright.

 

[Mendi]

I feed mine crickets and a variety of different roaches from my colonies:
Blaptica dubia, Nauphoeta cinerea, Blaberus discoidalis, and Gromphadorhina portentosa. Occasionally they get beef heart too or frozen pinkies

 

[Arachnopuppy]

Do you guys actually keep colonies of stuff you feed your tarantulas or do you go out and buy a whole bunch from petshops?

 

[Venom]

I feed mine a diet of crix only. However, I feed my crickets on high-quality dog food and veggies, to ensure the crix are nutritious.

 

[Mendi]

Originally posted by lam
Do you guys actually keep colonies of stuff you feed your tarantulas or do you go out and buy a whole bunch from petshops?

I keep the roach colonies and buy the crickets 1000 at a time to freeze them. My Ts don't mind eating freshly thawed crickets, pinkies, or other red meat. They have their live food when they get the roaches for dinner

 

[pixi14369]

At first i feed my T's only crickets..but then i got tired of driving 12 miles to the nearest store to get them..so i started looking in my back yard...and i have a pleathora of goodness to feed them...I live in central florida so you can only imagine what i can find.......

Crickets, Anoles, other lizards, Dragon flies, some beetles(rarely), thinking of trying a nightcrawler..not sure though, since they have that slime on them...Sometimes ill even get other spiders i find around the house.

As for keeping colonies, I dont know how you guys do it....I cant even keepa few dozen crickets, not matter how much food i put in there for them they end up either dying or eating eachother...with in a few days. If anyoe can give me some hints on this I would love to hear it...

 

[KerryKing]

I could use some help on this topic as well- for me, crickets cost 50 cents each, and my spider (a Brazilian salmon/Lasiodora parahybana) goes through about $5 worth a week. That adds up to a good $20-$25 a month, and he's just a juvinale. Seriously, I really need another alternative to buying crickets all the time.

 

[Arachnopuppy]

I would recommend starting a beatle colony. Just get a whole bunch of mealworms and start feeding them. I have found that potting soil is the best substrate for them. They eat any kind of fruits you put in. Give them some depth in the soil for them to burrow. Spray water every other day or so to keep them moist but not wet.

I have tried crix colonies before and they are the most annoying things to keep. First of all, they smell. Crickets have very short lifespan so they will die very quickly. They seem to crap all the time too. I found over time that I had to spend more time than I was willing to give picking out dead crickets.

 

[Professor T]

Originally posted by KerryKing
I could use some help on this topic as well- for me, crickets cost 50 cents each, and by spider (a Brazilian salmon/Lasiodora parahybana) goes through about $5 worth a week. that adds up to a good $20-$25 a month, and he's just a juvinale. Seriously, I really need another alternative to buying crickets all the time.

First of all crickets are delicious and nutritious, try one! I ate a cricket in a lolly pop at a reptile show in Tampa and it was really good...surprisingly good!

Secondly, its easy to raise your own crickets. Armstrong Cricket has a nice white plastic setup. Its fool proof. They do it for a living, and they have a simple yet effective setup. I feed my crickets Armstrong cricket chow. I even give cricket chow to my AGB millipedes.

Thirdly, T's can live off crickets just fine without anything else. The legs come off a cricket really easy if you want easy to catch prey. They develop in many sizes, so you have sling food as well as adult food. Cricket are the best, ask any T!

Check out the link below:
http://www.armstrongcricket.com/display.htm