varied diet

[Lee Hoggarth]

Hi i am new to the world of t's and want to know what i should feed my g.rosea to make sure she has a varied diet, the pet shop told me black crickets but couldn't suggest anything else, sorry for the amateur question, i just wanted to ask you as the internet is full of contradictions and i want the best for my t. Many thanks

[Peter Lacey]

insects and worms is the easy answer, but if you collect these from your garden I'd suggest you try to make sure they don't carry pesticides etc.
You can try locusts, roaches, morioworms, mealworms, waxworms, grasshoppers, earthworms, beetles, earwigs, moths, etc. Just stay clear of house or garden spids as some of these are far more aggressive than tarantula

[jason holland]

also the odd "dead. eg frozen then thawed out" pinky or fuzzy mouse. but not often. most people wont even feed them mice, ive fed my smithi one baby baby pinky since ive had him

[Peter Lacey]

yep feeding mice is often mentioned, I'd just add make it very occassional. Personally I wouldn't feed any of my Ts mice unless it was to build them up for breeding. That's not a rule, just my decision, and there's suggestions saying that regular feeding of mice could shorten the life of your T.

[Lee Hoggarth]

thanks for the reply's i will have fun trying out different things seeing what she likes best. Don't think i will try anything wild caught as i live reasonably close to a field which i imagine has pesticides used on it. Again, many thanks

[Andrew Ferguson]

If you like me, you have a lot of wooded areas that don't get any pesticides, hunting for bugs is fun. Bring along a small plastic container (camera film case etc etc) and a small child (preferably your own!) and go hunting. My son now has a box full of pet snails and slugs!! But they don't go any where near my tarantula though.
If you do collect bugs for food, make sure the size is right. My wife got this for me. It was about the same body length as my T but the jaws made me think No! A bit of research on the 'net and it was a definite no no. Its now back in the wild.

[Colin D Wilson]

That is almost certainly Ocypus olens, The Devils Coach Horse Beetle.
Not one i'd consider attempting to feed a tarantula, they have a powerful bite and are quite aggressive.

[Mark Pennell]

There is no real evidence to suggest just that feeding varied array of invertebrates to tarantulas has any effect on thier health and they will thrive, breed and live long healthy lives just on good 'ol crickets!

Risking your prize tarantula with garden or woodland creatures is at best dodgy, yes I know in the wild they have access to this sort of thing all the time. Mind you they are not trapped in small glass tanks and can escape "have a go hero" insects unlike our charges in their inclosures.

Plus you risk bringing in potentially dangerous chemicals.

Locust's are in my book also a no go. They can kick and split an abdomen on a tarantula very easly. As captive tarantulas are often over fed and they are not as fast to react to food sources as wild tarantulas. So prey can generally wonder round causing all sorts of problems.

Cheers
Mark

[Anthony Killick]

I now use maggots and a mix of dubia and red runner roaches for my spiders and scorpions, not a fan of wild caught stuff, too risky.

[Mrs Linda Street]

varied diet

yep feeding mice is often mentioned, I'd just add make it very occassional. Personally I wouldn't feed any of my Ts mice unless it was to build them up for breeding. That's not a rule, just my decision, and there's suggestions saying that regular feeding of mice could shorten the life of your T.

interesting that, we have a mature female C. Crawshii and she will not eat anything other that fuzzys, one every 3 to 4 weeks she simply refuses anything else. she is active and in excellent condition. We do not like to feed her mice, but cannot see her without food, we left her 6 weeks once, but would still only take a fuzzy. Any suggestions?

[jason holland]

dunno.. bit wierd... try glue-ing lots of crickets.. or maggots together in the shape of a mouse lol.. i have no idea... have u tried dead crickets etc...

[Phil Rea]

interesting that, we have a mature female C. Crawshii and she will not eat anything other that fuzzys, one every 3 to 4 weeks she simply refuses anything else. she is active and in excellent condition. We do not like to feed her mice, but cannot see her without food, we left her 6 weeks once, but would still only take a fuzzy. Any suggestions?

Maybe try leaving her longer and offer her large crickets or roaches. If she's hungry then she should eat pretty much whatever's given to her.

[James Box]

some have tried small cubes of fresh meat...and apparently the T's have taken it.
not really tried it myself though.
personally i use crickets (brown usually...less noise), maggots (yuck...but they're cheap and do well for juves and under), locusts (though the point raised about them kicking has me reconsidering), mealworms, superworms, and occasionally waxworms/moths.
crickets are the main staple...when i do use locusts it's with the big girls!

[Oli Dodds]

also the odd "dead. eg frozen then thawed out" pinky or fuzzy mouse. but not often. most people wont even feed them mice, ive fed my smithi one baby baby pinky since ive had him

yep feeding mice is often mentioned, I'd just add make it very occassional. Personally I wouldn't feed any of my Ts mice unless it was to build them up for breeding. That's not a rule, just my decision, and there's suggestions saying that regular feeding of mice could shorten the life of your T.

I feed my larger species adult rats when they are mated with great success. Tarantulas such as the ones in the Theraphosa, Lasiodora, Acanthoscurria, Citharischius and Cyriopagopus genus' are the ones i give the rats too.
However, I must state that i feed them only adult rats when gravid, and I feed maybe one rat per spid per month, maximum.
Hope this is of interest to someone

[Steve Coe]

I'm nervous about feeding wild caught Insects too, So I've started to breed Dubai Roaches as a supplement to the crickets etc....

I haven't tried any with the T's yet though, I thought I would wait until the roaches were "breeding like gooduns".