Tarantula Mansion

[Vanan]

My H. sp. "vietnam" took a f/t pink for me once. Wouldn't recommend feeding pinks too much though. So BW you'd still need to get more of them nasty crix! lol!

[Linds]

Great looking setup!

[Dragoon]

Hahaha, you guys will love this one....

The guy who I got Courtney (my T.blondi) from, has fed her three F/T rat pups A WEEK for the past year.

That's a ton of food....

And yes, I'm going to try and vary the diet, hold up on the typing there, Tarcan! LOL You already let me know about mammal diets for T's! Thanks, LOL.
D.

[Vanan]

My gawd! She must be a FAT T by now! lol!

[morph]

Is it bad too feed pinkies only? The rosie I have has been eating 4 a week for quite a while.

Scott

[BWSmith]

That sounds like an awful lot of food to me.

[snakebeginner]

Nice tarantula cage. I ve owned tarantulas forever and never made a cage that looks that cool. some tarantulas get stressed if its to big but some tarantulas love it and like to check it out.

[BWSmith]

Well this one is retardedI think. She is so funny. All of the sudden bolted across the cage and sat in the water dish giving me a dirty look because it was empty. Poured some water in, ran across the cage and then straight back. When she finished drinking, there was a droplet on her thorax. She went APES**T! Ran around the cage backwards with 3 legs trying like mad to get the drop off. I slid out of my chair laughing so hard.

[morph]

Are you able too overfeed a T? I was under the impression that just wouldn't eat.


Thanks
Scott

[OttawaChris]

Originally posted by morph
Are you able too overfeed a T? I was under the impression that just wouldn't eat.

It depends on how you define overfeeding I guess...

You can't overfeed a tarantula to the point of it popping or killing itself... they do have an off switch eventually.

BUT... "overfeeding" can result in undesireable effects. First and foremost, the T will become obese. Apart from just looking disproportionate (I dont think it looks nice when a spider's abdomen is too large) it suffers a much higher risk of injury from a fall or any other mishap. Think of it like this... the more you inflate a balloon the easier it is to pop.

The other effect it can lead to is a spider going on what seems like a hunger strike. Arid and semi arid species (ie. G. Rosea) can go a very long time on a single meal because they have evolved to have a slow and very efficient metabolism. In the wild, meals are often few and far between so they take any opportunity they get to eat. When they have an abundant food source, as they do in captivity, they will naturally have the urge to gorge themselves.

Lets say for argument's sake that a G. Rosea can live off a single cricket for 2 months. If she has eaten 10 crickets within a month she gets full, so her body tells her not to eat anymore. Unlike us people, who after a big meal just lie back and undo our jeans for an hour or 2, the rose hair takes 20 months to burn that off (keep in mind I am using relative timelines for argument's sake).

This is part of the reason Rose hairs go on their famous "hunger strikes" that can last in excess of a year.

[BWSmith]

Yeah, she only wants to eat every 3 months or so.

[morph]

thanks guys

Scott

[girraffasaurus]

I think I may be looking at the picture wrong or something, but an you explain how she gets into the tube? Thanks.

[BWSmith]

If you look to the right of the base of the piece of wood, there is another tube leading down into it.

[girraffasaurus]

thanks