over feed????????????????

[Eleanor]

Females can be mature before they reach their maximum size, so it is probably more common than people realise for males and females to become mature at similar times.

A couple of examples which spring to mind among my lot are three T. apophysis siblings I raised in identical conditions. The female was very interested in the first of the two males to mature, so she was obviously ready to breed before the second male was. I have a subadult/adult female B. boehmei, but her brother is still very small and has quite a few sheds to go before he matures. I've found a lot of variation in rate of growth among siblings, which is not always related to their sex or conditions they are kept in. Sometimes you'll get an unusually fast growing one which turns out to be a female, sometimes you'll get an unusually fast growing one which turns out to be a male.

[Martin Huber]

Females can be mature before they reach their maximum size, so it is probably more common than people realise for males and females to become mature at similar times.

dito, most females are much earlier adult (size), than most people would expect.

[chris carter]

BTW, some time ago (if I remember right), on the t-store forum someone posted a photo of a tarantula with a bursted abdomen, which was allegedly caused by overfeeding.


I dont believe you can feed a Tarantula to bursting point, they had probally dropped it and were trying to cover up, you can overfeed a tarantula to obesity and probally shorten its lifespan, but it will likely refuse food if it has been overfed.


Chris

[James Box]

BTW, some time ago (if I remember right), on the t-store forum someone posted a photo of a tarantula with a bursted abdomen, which was allegedly caused by overfeeding.


I dont believe you can feed a Tarantula to bursting point, they had probally dropped it and were trying to cover up, you can overfeed a tarantula to obesity and probally shorten its lifespan, but it will likely refuse food if it has been overfed.


Chris

if they're anything like scorpions, you may be right Chris... i suppose for those cold-hearted scientists () it might be something to test... but most of my spiders refuse food unless they want it. however, i do probably feed more than they need cause i find it difficult to keep seasons straight in my head.
my original point was based on how slim the spiders often are in the wild, from everything i've read on here and other places...so i suppose to mimic the wild they'd probably have some protracted times without much food, and then the rainy season (or whatever brings the bugs to their neck of the woods) would come and they'd fill up in preparation for the next season, as well as mating.
it may be possible to confuse that instinct with continual "wet seasons" or similar, though??
i dunno, it's an interesting topic...
seasoning things like that is probably key to mating with difficult species, i bet.
as usual, i'm probably oversimplifying things lol

[chris carter]

Go back to our ancestors they were hunter gatherers chasing down thier prey, gathering roots etc therefor they were lean and fit. If suddenly a great hand dropped 100 big mac meals on the tribes head every few days they would stop hunting and gathering and become couch potatoes like me.

Wild Tarantulas can lose food sources to climatic conditions, they have to put effort into gathering thier food they have predators to fight off so they are lean.

Captive Tarantulas have crickets dropped in front of them by adoring owners, so become couch potatoes, the trick is matching the feeding to likely food intake in the wild.

I have Speeded up the maturing moult of some my males for breeding by overfeeding and raising the temperature slightly

Chris

[Martin Huber]

BTW, some time ago (if I remember right), on the t-store forum someone posted a photo of a tarantula with a bursted abdomen, which was allegedly caused by overfeeding.

I dont believe you can feed a Tarantula to bursting point, they had probally dropped it

yep, probably not bursted by feeding alone. But a full "balloon" and something spiny or sharp...

Pterinochilus lugardi:
>> photo 1 <<
>> photo 2 <<
>> photo 3 <<
>> photo 4 <<
>> photo 5 <<

[chris carter]

yep, probably not bursted by feeding alone. But a full "balloon" and something spiny or sharp...

Pterinochilus lugardi:
>> photo 1 <<
>> photo 2 <<
>> photo 3 <<
>> photo 4 <<
>> photo 5 <<

Agreed! only way for that injury is dropping or piercing, both should never happen though. Get the 1st T in photo one to celebrity fit club asap

Chris