Mature Males

[kirsty smith]

Hello Every one!,
Its been ages since ive been on,but i would appreciate some advice!. Louis is still going strong,but im finding if i feed him every week he doesnt eat the crickets & i have to take them out again!. But if i leave it 10 days between feeds he munches 4 or 5 crickets no problem!,so it works out 12 - 15 crickets a month.
Im a bit worried though as he is quite "scrawny!" looking though!. I realise that males can be smaller,but its been hit home to me how small he is as ive a friend with an 8yr old female chile rose! Looking on the bright side i should be getting B. Smithi & B. Emilia (2cm) slings within the next 6 weeks!
The bottom line is am i feeding Louis enough????

[Colin D Wilson]

in a short answer...Yes..
whether or not spiders are small, large, mature etc they are, at the end of the day, oportunistic feeders.
12-15 crickets a month is probably more than he would be able to find to eat in the wild, so he's eating well and has enough...especially if he leaves some.
Some males do look scrawny in comparrison to others (and other males of the same species sometimes) but again, if he's feeding then no problems.

As another comparisonfor you, i have a mature male Grammostola rosea (matured 2 years ago) that hasn't eaten anything for over 20 months (maybe longer) and only seems to want to drink water. He looks the same as he did when he matured well...maybe a little smaller abdomen wise.

Keep feeding as you are, can't see a problem myself.
smithi and emilia are very nice spiders to add to your collection, good luck with them.