Why are superworms called "unhealthy" for tarantulas/inverts?

[TZach]

I met a dealer at a reptile expo a mont back. Hes been collecting Ts for 25 years. He said that they had a very high-fat content. I've used them before for my GBB. She blew up like balloon so I quit using them

 

[ZergFront]

Yeah, lots of good points have been made here about how useless the nutritional chart is without knowing what exactly the tarantula body needs. It's probably best to vary the diet as best as can be done by the keeper.

Anything good for the body can be bad in excess or useless because most of it gets passed in the waste. You can actually cause cells to burst with too much water though I've never heard of anyone dying from over-hydrating. A small portion of fats can actually be good. Until we know more about the tarantula body, I don't think we can say what is bad for them except the obvious; of course tick remedies are going to be toxic to a T. Heck, we don't even know much about the natural flora and fauna that interacts within their body or on it. A pet tarantula dies and what likely happens if an organism is found on the carcass is that life form is blamed for the animal's demise without knowing those organisms can be found on virturally any healthy tarantula. What kind of naturally occuring bacteria or fungi are damaging to a tarantula if in high numbers? Yeast and certain bacteria can be found in healthy humans; its just when the numbers get out of control does it cause discomfort or illness to us.

I hope I didn't make what I was trying to say hard to understand. Biological stuff always gets me rambling on. X-D

 

[natebugman]

You can actually cause cells to burst with too much water though I've never heard of anyone dying from over-hydrating.

Many people have died from over-hydrating. There was a contest on a radio morning show a few years back in which the contestants were seeing who could drink the most water before they had to urinate (or something ridiculous like that) to win some big prize, and one of the contestants died from what I think they called water intoxication. Not all that relevant to this discussion, but that fact had to be stuck in my brain for some reason, right?

What kind of naturally occuring bacteria or fungi are damaging to a tarantula if in high numbers? Yeast and certain bacteria can be found in healthy humans; its just when the numbers get out of control does it cause discomfort or illness to us.

E. coli is naturally occurring bacteria in our digestive systems, but still if you get the wrong melon or spinach or lettuce that is tainted with E. coli, you can end up very sick or even dead. Is something similar possible or even likely in the case of tarantulas? Some sort of naturally occurring organism or substance that is harmless in their normal environment or even in their internal systems, but when introduced from an outside source such as an infected feeder insect, etc, it becomes a pathogen. I don't have a clue where I'm going with this...just that we need more tarantula researchers...anyone know a spider pathologist?

 

[Kazaam]

Whether it's healthy or unhealthy is a swiss cheese discussion, there are too many holes in it that need to be filled before we'll get the answer.

 

[S2000]

I've had a very difficult time trying to find scholarly research articles on the tarantula's digestive system and biological needs. The biggest problem being that there are none out there!


Tarantulas are incredibly adaptable and that's the biggest problem with learning about them and experimentation. They were designed to be able to forage dissimilar types of food.

My own conjecture is that a varied diet is probably best but maybe that's not the case. Perhaps they would be fine on an all superworm diet or all roach diet etc. Maybe, given their low rates of metabolism, any food will do.

 

[cacoseraph]

hold your wee for a wii

 

[blazeit505]

And then you have the issue of what the little guys/gals will eat. For example, if you put in a dubia and the T ignores it but if you put in a cricket he takes it down in a blink, does that mean there are preferences...? hehehe

 

[blazeit505]

I've had a very difficult time trying to find scholarly research articles on the tarantula's digestive system and biological needs. The biggest problem being that there are none out there!


Tarantulas are incredibly adaptable and that's the biggest problem with learning about them and experimentation. They were designed to be able to forage dissimilar types of food.

My own conjecture is that a varied diet is probably best but maybe that's not the case. Perhaps they would be fine on an all superworm diet or all roach diet etc. Maybe, given their low rates of metabolism, any food will do.

My Avic won't touch a dubia but will pounce on a cricket fast.

 

[Trenor]

My Avic won't touch a dubia but will pounce on a cricket fast.

This is a post from 4 years ago. The way the forum is setup it's hard to tell older post from the recent ones when you first start out because they all are in bold like they are new.

I had the same problem. I marked all the posts as read then any new posts that showed up in bold is a new one that people are still watching.

Hope this helps and welcome to the boards.