what is the best food for spiderling tarantula for a smithi (mexican red knee )

[chris willett]

what is the best food for spiderling tarantula for a breed like smithi (mexican red knee ) n is it wise to feed em bugs from the garden

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Chris, I wouldn't get feeding it any bugs out of the garden, they could be toxic. Just small crickets, you could kill a bit bigger one for it, but it depends on how big your sling is, if it's very tiny then fruit flies are ok.

[wayne balcombe]

i agree with linda, dont feed your spider anything you collected from the garden it will probably harm your spider.

stick to small brown or black crickets, anything up to half the size of the spiders body, if the spiderling is very small then as linda says Fruitfly's are a good option as are micro crickets.

[Jennifer Todd]

I feed my B smithi slings on bean weevils, they love them http://www.thespidershop.co.uk/insec...oducts_id=1682

[Peter Lacey]

I have a few cultures of bean weavils available at £4 which includes postage and care sheet. You might be lucky and find others giving them away. They make excellent feeders if you have large amounts of slings. Micro-crickets would be my next choice moving up to size 1 for larger slings. It's fairly easy to rear micros if you get some adult crickets, they'll lay on moist substrate and can produce several layings. Fruit flies as a sole feeder are not recommended as there are reports that suggest this is not a complete diet and therefore has a detrimental effect on the spiders health.
The trouble with insects from the garden is you can never be sure it hasn't come into contact with pesticides and sometimes what we consider to be a good food source can turn out to be a better hunter than your tarantula!

[chris raeburn]

I find bean weevils great for most species (your Brachy will love 'em) and it's so easy to keep cultures going, but i have found some species won't take them. Maybe because they are tough shelled and have a powerful (if micro) defensive kick.

Strangely its my OBT spiderlings, that usually are such ferocious feeders, that wont touch them at all.

all best,

Chris

[chris willett]

ok thanks for the info ppl