How much should I feed my spiderlings?

[Steven Williams]

Hi everyone,

I own some Chaetopelma sp spiderlings and all of them are doing well at the moment. My question is: how much should I feed them? I got them a month or so back (they had all moulted before I got them) and they have all had one cricket (the cricket was about the same size as the spider's abdomen) and they all look like healthy, not over-fed, spiderlings now. However, reading other posts on this forum I've seen people saying something along the lines of: "my spiderling just ate two crickets back to back" and "my spiderling is eating loads at the moment". How do I judge when is the best time to feed them? Obviously if the spider looks thin or a week or so after it's moulted I should try it with a cricket but what about at other times? Is it just a case of put another cricket in and see if they take it (remove after 24 hours or so if it isn't taken of course)? I don't want to end up with fat spiderlings and I'm not interested in watching my spider destroy hundreds of crickets in front of my eyes, I just want my spiderlings to grow up to be the beautiful spiders that they will be at a natural rate.

Thanks,

Steven

[Stephen jordan]

Hi Steven, I ponder the same question, I've just bought my first two Cyriopagopus shioedtei slings and I feed them the same as my other T's but twice a week instead of once. There on 1st instar crickets at the moment and they seem to be fine, I feed 4 at a time and wonder wether that is too much but next morning there are no crickets left in their pots and the spiders seem to be settling in well. In comparison the crickets are roughly half the size of the spiders abdomen.

[Peter Lacey]

There's a variety of opinion on this but the important thing is not to overfeed your slings as this can be detrimental to their health. Check the size of the abdomen, if it looks bursting there's no need to feed.
Tarantula are opportunistic feeders so they'll keep eating what you supply but a more sensible approach is 1 cricket the size of its abdomen 2 or 3 times a week. Feeding multiple crickets can cause issues when the crickets find a hiding spot and your tarantula decide to moult, its a common way to lose a spider to a cricket that seeks retribution
Stanley Schultz quotes 6 crickets a month for an adult tarantula.

[Phil Rea]

Stanley Schultz quotes 6 crickets a month for an adult tarantula.

US size crickets or metric?

[Steven Williams]

Cheers Peter. The spiderlings don't look stuffed but they do look healthy. I'll try them each with a new cricket again later.

Steven

[Stephen jordan]

Thanks Peter, I'll adopt this feeding regime right away...the last thing I want is to damage or put those spideys in danger!