Bad for a Tarantula to eat too many crickets in one day?

Ewok

Arachnoangel
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Sep 23, 2005
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My tarantula ate 5 or more crickets today, they escaped over the divider panel and in to the tarantulas side of the cage. Everytime I checked on it, there it was with a cricket in its mouth or wiggling its butt around and catching another one. Do taranutlas know when to stop eating, or are they like other animals and eat themselves to death?
 

AfterTheAsylum

Arachnodemon
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Aug 13, 2005
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This outta be fun... more controversy from me. Tarantulas will not eat themselves to death. Some of mine eat 10 crickets a week. I feed them until they get their fill. This will cause them to molt faster and get bigger faster, and some people (as I know you will see after this post) disagree with feeding them their fill because they feel it shortens life. The T will reach it's maximum size (it won't die at half its size due to power feeding). Some people feel that a Ts life is limited to a number of molts. But no, your T will not eat to death; however, if your T eats a mass amount and goes climbing a cage wall and falls... this greatens the chance of death.

The Sickness
 

Waryur

Arachnosquire
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Oct 4, 2005
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the answer is basically yes and no. Yes its possible for them to eat to much to wear they actully burst. But that really dosn't happen it's not something i would worry about. T's will eat when they are hungry be 1 cricket or 5.

I'm a novice i asked the same question to my T dealer with my first T thats what he told me.... but i would wait for a more expierenced answer
 

Elmolax

Arachnoknight
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Aug 7, 2005
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Don't worry.
The T SHOULD know when its full lol.
If it ate all5, i suggest not feeding it for a week or 2 weeks., depending on the crick size
 

Puppet Master

Arachnoknight
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Jun 14, 2005
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I feed my G. rosea 5-7 crix every other Monday. your T will not die from over eating they eat till they are full just dont do it to offten you dont want a very fat T cause thy can hurt them selves very badly

Some T;s are like bottomless pits always eating.
 

surena

Arachnobaron
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Feb 5, 2005
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It has been addressed before that power feeding can reduce the life of a T . There are some good discussions about it here if you search for them. So in away yes it is bad for a tarantula to eat too much (that is if you care to see you spider live longer).
 

Ewok

Arachnoangel
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Sep 23, 2005
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yeah I don't want it to grow too fast :embarrassed: , so I think I will hold off on the crickets for a few days.
 

AfterTheAsylum

Arachnodemon
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Well, if it is a slow grower, I would say power feed the hell out of it just to get some damn size... then cut back. I am one out of probably a billion that power feeds though. I have my reasons {D

The Sickness
 

becca81

Arachnoemperor
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Sep 17, 2004
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Soulsick said:
Tarantulas will not eat themselves to death.
True

This will cause them to molt faster and get bigger faster,
Again, true.

.... they feel it shortens life.
True - but *not* because a tarantula has only a certain number of molts before it dies, but because it will only live so long as an adult. By shortening the amount of time it spends as a sling, you aren't adding that time to its adult life.

For a female B. smithi or A. anax, this reduction in time may be negligible, since they live for so long. However, for a male P. murinus that matures in less than a year, you could just about cut its life span by 50%.

When mine are tiny slings, I tend to feed them more to get them to a size where I can feed them more easily (and possibly determine sex) and they are a bit easier to manage overall. Actually, I don't have the time to feed every day or even every other day, so my version of "really feeding" slings is probably someone else's version of slowing them down.

Once juveniles or adults, I only feed once every week or two and even then it's only a few crickets.
 

dirtborder4life

Arachnoknight
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Jul 19, 2005
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169
How much to feed

I feed all of my T's until they ignore,or show no interest in eating any more.After a molt this may be 2 pinkies and 10 crickets,one right after another,or when not in pre/post molt,this may be 3 cricks twice a week.Some people say,"A hungry T is an active T",this is true,but cruel.I dont keep my t's constantly hungry,i feed them until they are full,it only makes since to me.I dont want to see my t's constantly out in the open,walking around,looking for food,i want to see my t's happy,and healthy,and whatever behavoir that entales.So to summarize my opinion,if your t is hungry,it will eat,if it isnt,then it wont.Simple as that.
 

Farom

Arachnoknight
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Nov 25, 2004
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Soulsick said:
I would say power feed the hell out of it just to get some damn size
:clap: :worship: :worship: :worship: :clap:
 

becca81

Arachnoemperor
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dirtborder4life said:
I feed all of my T's until they ignore,or show no interest in eating any more.After a molt this may be 2 pinkies and 10 crickets,one right after another,or when not in pre/post molt,this may be 3 cricks twice a week.Some people say,"A hungry T is an active T",this is true,but cruel.I dont keep my t's constantly hungry,i feed them until they are full,it only makes since to me.I dont want to see my t's constantly out in the open,walking around,looking for food,i want to see my t's happy,and healthy,and whatever behavoir that entales.So to summarize my opinion,if your t is hungry,it will eat,if it isnt,then it wont.Simple as that.
Hmmm...

In the wild, a tarantula doesn't always "know" when its next meal will arrive and it will, therefore, eat as much as it can when available so that it's okay if food is scarce for awhile.

However, in captivity, there is no need to feed a tarantula until it can hold no more. The spider's instincts are to eat until it can't eat any more (not "full" in the same way that we think of "full"), but within the confinements of a glass enclosure - that can be dangerous a dangerous thing....
 

AfrooDah

Arachnopeon
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Oct 28, 2016
Messages
14
so my brachypelma akbopilosum which is very docile and calm but yesterday i gave him 1 cric and today it still aggressive i mean i try to clean up the tank and he was trying to grabbed my brushes (brush for cleaning the cave or anything) and i gave him another crick is it ok if he is eats more than it should? how do i know when my T is no longer hungry?
 

magicmed

Arachnobaron
Joined
Jun 4, 2016
Messages
404
Man,you guys make me feel like i'm starving my ts. adults get 1 or two large crickets/superworm a week. slings get fed every other day. am I underfeeding? abdomen sizes aren't getting smaller
 
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