How Often Should You Feed a Tarantula

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how often is too often to feed

• Thread starter maudie
• Start date Mar 6, 2016

• #1

is there such thing as feeding a t too much? would feeding a t as much as it would eat be bad for it? or should people stick to just once a week?? thanks in advance

• #2

I feed once a week(if that) and everyone seems happy. I try not to fatten my spiders too much since it can cause problems, either falling or dragging the abdomen. However some people are proponents of power feeding to grow tarantulas and haven't had any issues. Essentially, obesity isn't a huge issue for the spider, but there are risks. I think hydration is more important than consistent feeding.

• #3

Most of the time my Ts will not eat any food when they are not hungry. (except for lasiadora difficilis)

I drop the cricket in for them, if they are not hungry i pull it out.

• #4

I feed mine when they want to eat, generally. Some of them will over do it and get obese, when they do I ease up on feeding them. Most will refuse if they've had enough, and you'll get a general sense of when they're full, and when they might be hungry. Big south American terrestrials are the ones to watch, they will eat and eat and eat..

• #5

Some of my personal general guidelines...

For my slings: I feed them twice a week, one cricket of small/medium size (depends on the size of the spider: I don't give them a cricket bigger than their body, usually they are the size of the cephalo, maybe a little bit bigger) each time. Whenever they eat, I feed (even if the abdomen looks plump as a tick!).

For the subadult - adult, I follow a rule same as Mass said: I feed them once a week, one big cricket (two the following weeks after the molt). If the abdomen looks too big, I slow down. If the T refuses to eat, I wait two weeks before trying again. If they the T still doesn't eat, I assume he/she prepares a molt and I wait (after two months, maybe, I try again if nothing is happening...). Well, almost... The key is to observe the behavior of your T. With time, you'll notice what are his/her needs.

For the very big adult ones (L parahybana, T stirmi, A geniculata, P rufilata, etc.), I give them one or two grasshoppers a week, then I follow the same rules as for the aformentioned ones. If the abdomen looks thin, I increase, if it looks plump, I give less. I'm particularly cautious with T stirmi, because they can eat and eat... and then become so fat it can maybe cause some health/molt problems.

For some Ts (specially the burrowing ones), it's easy to see when they are hungry: they stand at the entrance of the burrow, ready to hunt. It's a good clue.

Most of the times, our T in the hobby are overfed.

• #6

Everyday is too often. Though it depends on the size of the prey provided. If your tarantula gets very fat and stays that way when not in premolt I would think is a sign that you should feed less often. The ones I have are good at knowing when too much is too much. They won't eat

• #7

• #8

Messages

3,565

Location

Idaho

i feed my slings twice a week, the smallest sometimes 3 times a week. When they're full they won't eat. My son's A. chalcodes ignored a super worm we put in the enclosure 3 weeks or so ago, and it burrowed away under the hide and we couldn't get it out. Last night we checked on her while feeding the others and she was munching on the super worm.

All of mine know their limits, even the little LP

• #9

How often to feed is something you develop with each T, based on their activity level, feeding behaviors, and abdomen size. As a general rule I try to keep the abdomen about the same diameter as, or slightly bigger than, the carapace. An overly obese tarantula is is at a much higher risk of abdominal rupture in a fall.
Tarantulas are opportunistic feeders, if prey if present they will eat. In the wild they never know when meal is going to be available, so they will gorge at every opportunity.
When they stop feeding it is because of the premolt process progressing to the next level and triggering the the tarantulas biological functions to prepare for the impending molt.

• #10

You can't really overfeed a T. They will stop eating, eventually. However, allowing them to become overly fat does increase the risk of a ruptured abdomen, and possibly decreases the lifespan of the T.

• #11

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• #16

I'm worried it's from over feeding because this happened after I fed her/him 2 large crickets yesterday...

• #17

@Jeanette
Start a seperate thread for this so its seen and folks can help you more,
Lot of folks don't always recheck a thread once they've read it.
did this T fall by chance?

• #18

• #19

• #20

@Jeanette
Start a seperate thread for this so its seen and folks can help you more,
Lot of folks don't always recheck a thread once they've read it.
did this T fall by chance?

Not that I'm aware of, but it is possible.

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