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Aphonoplema
Based on the experience of those here in the States whom I know have watched them in their native habitat, and listening to their advice for keeping them close to natural conditions: - I only offer my Aphonopelma food once a month when it is cool, sometimes twice a month when it is very warm. when it hits their natural winter season here, all but one of the seven or so I have kept sealed their burrows for 4-6 months. On that feeding schedule, they are far larger of abdomen than they were when we caught them in the wild.
I have changed my feeding to my "pet rock" terrestrials to a similar schedule, and I keep an eye on the more active ones (and faster growers) and arboreals, Looking to keep them well fed but not fat. Most are doing good on a bimonthly schedule, and the ones over 5 inches I am trying out largers meals, less frequently.
I tend to feed the males a bit more food at each feeding than the females, because they mature faster- the observation of one keeper whose work I read who has spent a couple of years researching this observed that feeding did not effect the speed of maturity so much as the size at maturity, and i think I want my boys to be big, so they can lift the ladies(and not resenble lunch too much), and I wonder if that effects how virile they are? Becuase I would like to contribute to the availability of more tarantulas.
I am also heeding advice I have been given to vary the diet-tricky if you've decided to raise your own- you may have to start selling feeder stock, or get more tarantulas.
If you cant buy the crickets by the "eaches" I recommend feeding everyone as much as they will eat the week you buy them until the crickets are gone, and then wait two or three weeks before you buy more- or get more tarantulas!
Based on the experience of those here in the States whom I know have watched them in their native habitat, and listening to their advice for keeping them close to natural conditions: - I only offer my Aphonopelma food once a month when it is cool, sometimes twice a month when it is very warm. when it hits their natural winter season here, all but one of the seven or so I have kept sealed their burrows for 4-6 months. On that feeding schedule, they are far larger of abdomen than they were when we caught them in the wild.
I have changed my feeding to my "pet rock" terrestrials to a similar schedule, and I keep an eye on the more active ones (and faster growers) and arboreals, Looking to keep them well fed but not fat. Most are doing good on a bimonthly schedule, and the ones over 5 inches I am trying out largers meals, less frequently.
I tend to feed the males a bit more food at each feeding than the females, because they mature faster- the observation of one keeper whose work I read who has spent a couple of years researching this observed that feeding did not effect the speed of maturity so much as the size at maturity, and i think I want my boys to be big, so they can lift the ladies(and not resenble lunch too much), and I wonder if that effects how virile they are? Becuase I would like to contribute to the availability of more tarantulas.
I am also heeding advice I have been given to vary the diet-tricky if you've decided to raise your own- you may have to start selling feeder stock, or get more tarantulas.
If you cant buy the crickets by the "eaches" I recommend feeding everyone as much as they will eat the week you buy them until the crickets are gone, and then wait two or three weeks before you buy more- or get more tarantulas!
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