Tarantula feeding schedule?

[TonyL]

I just purchased a 14 month old Brachypelma boehmi female Tarantula. I read up a few caresheets and her home is all ready.

I had planned on a baby T but purchased a T that is approx.
3 1/2 inches and absolutely stunning :)

The husbandry looks fine but I did have a question as to what the feeding schedule of crickets (and whatever else) you tarantula keepers feed to your similar sized tarantulas?

In other words, how many of what how often?

Thanks in advance.

[Pixie]

Congratulations on your new T, and a female b. boehmi too! I am soooo jealous :) That T has been on my wish list for quite some time.

Personally, I prefer purchasing sub-adult females opposed to spiderlings. That way I'm garanteed a female that will live a long time and be nice and plump. They are also more robust at that age and can be more forgiving in husbandry care that spiderlings, not that that's what you want to do!

As for feeding, generally feed your T as many crickets as it will eat in a period of 30-60 minutes 2-3 times a weeks (at that age, I believe that's about right). Personally I don't feed crickets cause I have a phobia of them (funny, I know) so I feed my T (b. smithi) pinky or fuzzy mice every 2-4 weeks. I breed my own mice for my snakes and it's a very filling meal so it's quite convenient for me.

Here's my Charlotte starting on a fuzzy mouse:
http://pixie.magazoo.com/Charlotte-Mygale/charlotte14.jpg

And here she is finishing up about 24 hours later:
http://pixie.magazoo.com/Charlotte-Mygale/charlotte15.jpg

My suggestion is to try different things and see what works best for you and your new tarantula.

You WILL have to post some pictures of your new girl and tell us her name! :2yellow:

Pixie

[marisa]

Pixie its nice to see someone else feeding strickly mice to their T. I have been thinking about doing this for Maude since she eats a ridiculous number of crickets at a time now and seems to have lost interest in them. I am glad your T is doing so well on them, that helps me feel more comfortable making the switch....

And yes lamanna like Pixie said, 2-3 times per week for her at that size, as many as she will eat in say an hour or so. My tarantula catches each and every cricket, adding it to a ball of slime and then procedes to eat. Some T's eat each cricket one at a time and others like mine, prefer to catch all of the crickets available in cage first, then eat.
:)

Marisa

[Pixie]

Marisa: I had no problem switching my T to mice for food. The first time I offered her one, she was on it in less than 10 seconds. After that I fed crickets (more like had my friend feed the crickets!) a couple of times and then went on to mice exclusively.

Your T will let you know the frequency she needs, some eat more than others and if she's still growing she's bound to eat about one pinky a week maybe even two. On the other hand, she might take just one every week or two weeks. Don't be surprised if at one point she goes on a little fast. Mice can be very filling and after a few meals they just stop eating for a few weeks, my T did that twice for a period of about 6 weeks each. Don't worry as long as the abdomen stays nice and plump, in my case, I didn't even notice a decrease in size at the end of her fasts.

Good luck :)

[Matt_K]

wow, those pics are great Pixie!! The damage that thing has done to the mouse is unblievable. LOL. Very nice colors on it as well!!

[Pixie]

Thanks Matt :), my Charlotte does quite a job with those mice!!! What's left is usually just a dry bag of skin and fur along with bones, everything else is sucked up!

Once, she brought down her fuzzy down into her burrow to eat (I can easily see in her burrow through the glass) and when she was done, she had brought out the empty bag of skin and fur back out on top but left the bones in her burrow. It was really neat and cute in a sick way I guess! You could tell what some of the bone were: ribs, leg bones... She had her very own little cemetary! Since the bones were dried out, I just left them there for extra decor (am I sick??!!!).

Unfortunately I never took pics of that and did a complete tank cleanup a few months ago so they're gone.

[Lizzy001]

lol its funny....most people are scared of spiders while u are scared of its food!

lol

sorry thats probilly my sence of humor!

LIZ

[Pythonian]

Pixie Thats what spider poop looks like?!?!?! this is weird but do u have a bette rpic of spider poop? i've never seen it before!

mike