reply to can spiders be used as a safe food source

[Chris Sainsbury]

Unless your hypothetical snake existed then no, I doubt very much they could.

To be honest yes I think they could if thought was put into it. It can be very easy to breed certain species that produce a high number of young that grow quite quick. An example that springs to mind is L. parabana. If you just concentrated on this species I think you could provide a substainable food source for some reptiles. Off course not all but that can be said the same for crickets also. You are right though there is no real need to set this up though. Still think its an interesting idea though.
Cheers
Chris

[Craig Mackay]

Tarantula farming would be an interesting prospect. There would be all different sizes available I'm sure. Could you imagine buying micro tarantulas to feed baby lizards, hehe! But yeah, I'm sure if the need ever arises then that could be set up pretty fast. Many a year ago the same was done with crickets, locusts and roaches so I can see no reason why it couldn't be done with T's. What I should have said was would rather than could.

[Chris Sainsbury]

lol Soething that for some strange reason just sunk in, is that if you did get a good stock of tarantulas to be used for live food, you would also need a good stock of crickets to feed you tarantula stock! If I am honest I think you are right as in the end you would say sod feeding the crickets to the tarntulas if they could also be used for the reptiles. hehehe

[Craig Mackay]

Hehe, of course. We have both failed to spot the obvious. Dearie me. Also, think how much space you'd need for all the tanks.