A question about feeding crickets....

[SpiderLady]

Ok here in Indiana as well as I am sure other places we have these huge black crickets out in our yard and my kids love catching them for the T's but my question is before we let them eat them is it ok? I mean we don't know what there eating I am sure its probally $*!# lol but I was just wondering cause there everywhere. I also know I think I heard some crickets shouldnt be feed to our T's something about shell's? Also my B.smithi do I need to kill the cricket before I feed it to him I was told I might have to or feed it cricket legs untill it get's bigger?

[xhexdx]

No No No No No No.

With all due respect, you might want to do a little more research regarding proper care/feeding/etc. of tarantulas. There are plenty of threads around here that have addressed these types of questions before, and if you use the search function, you can probably get all the answers you will ever need without having to post new threads.

And whoever told you not to feed crickets because of shells is a moron.

No, don't kill the crickets first.

Depends on how big your smithi is whether or not you would want to feed it legs. I personally find something smaller rather than ripping legs off of live crickets.

[reverendsterlin]

field crickets are not a good choice, you never can tell what they have been subjected to (chemicals/pesticides ect). Crickets in general are great feeders, I personally prefer roaches (Dubias) for several reasons but that's my choice. Crickets can cause some problems but that's mostly because of the store or supplier (mites and stuff). Roaches are quiet, usually don't smell, and survive adulthood far longer than 2 weeks. Many folks will feed cricket legs or cut them into smaller pieces for little slings (best done with frozen crickets lol), I could get pinheads locally. Fruit flies are another option but not very nutritious. Meal worms as well, they also can be cut into pieces. I'll stick to my own roaches, well fed vegans lol and nymphs are small enough for nearly all slings.
Rev

[SpiderLady]

field crickets are not a good choice, you never can tell what they have been subjected to (chemicals/pesticides ect). Crickets in general are great feeders, I personally prefer roaches (Dubias) for several reasons but that's my choice. Crickets can cause some problems but that's mostly because of the store or supplier (mites and stuff). Roaches are quiet, usually don't smell, and survive adulthood far longer than 2 weeks. Many folks will feed cricket legs or cut them into smaller pieces for little slings (best done with frozen crickets lol), I could get pinheads locally. Fruit flies are another option but not very nutritious. Meal worms as well, they also can be cut into pieces. I'll stick to my own roaches, well fed vegans lol and nymphs are small enough for nearly all slings.
Rev

I thought about roches but the thought of one getting loose in my house creeps me out a cricket not so much thats what the cat is for LOL

[reverendsterlin]

I thought about roaches but the thought of one getting loose in my house creeps me out a cricket not so much that's what the cat is for LOL

That's what I like about Dubias, they can't climb smooth sides , I keep mine in a rubbermaid without a lid and have not had an escapee in two years.
Rev

[mcliff1]

That's what I like about Dubias, they can't climb smooth sides , I keep mine in a rubbermaid without a lid and have not had an escapee in two years.
Rev

Head crush or no head crush? If not, how do you deal with the "burrowing" tendency of the Dubias? It drives me CRAZY!

[reverendsterlin]

Head crush or no head crush? If not, how do you deal with the "burrowing" tendency of the Dubias? It drives me CRAZY!

most of my T's are used to roaches and get them as soon as they hit the substrate. For the stubborn or new T's I clip one side of the legs and drop them on their back, I have also heard you can clip the antenna. Using mature males as first feeders to get the T used to roaches works best, mature males don't seem to freeze or dig like the nymphs and females. For the webbers and arboreal just toss them on the web. I will crush the head for slings, just seems to work better.
Rev

[Mina]

I thought about roches but the thought of one getting loose in my house creeps me out a cricket not so much thats what the cat is for LOL

It shouldn't be a concern. Feeder roaches can't survive and breed in a clean normal house, no food, not enough humidity, and not enough heat.
And who says cats can't catch roaches as easily as they do crickets? Mine would be happy to prove you wrong.
Seriously, I would never go back to crickets now that I have my roaches, they live so much longer, they don't smell anywhere near as bad even when really dirty, and no noise!!!
Plus the people that have gotten nematodes into their collections from feeding crickets really worry me.

[SpiderLady]

Plus the people that have gotten nematodes

Ok WTF are those???? LOL

[Aurelia]

Nematodes are nasty little parasitic worms that are essentially a death sentence for a tarantula.

[gvfarns]

Field crickets are great food, except for the fact that they are wild caught and, as has been pointed out, they may have been exposed to pesticides, parasites, or illness (which may have contributed to your being able to catch it in the first place). But that doesn't stop a lot of people from doing it. It's certainly and risk, and not recommended.

If you only have one tarantula, it's probably best to buy crickets at a pet store. Roaches are good but a colony of them will take far more work than your single tarantula will and will produce far more roaches than your tarantula will want to eat. Roach colonies are really for those with a number of tarantulas in my opinion.

But if you do want a colony, don't worry about infestation. Dubia, in particular, are easy to control, slow, and incapable of infestation.

[HcUnderoath]

to point out again tropical roaches wont infest your house, no high temps no breeding

ppl get grossed out by the word roach but they are cleaner, smell better, they dont eat each other which means you can keep all sizes in 1 container, and they dont jump everywhere

i had a beardie that i didnt have any more food for and i wasnt going out to get crickets til the next day.. so i caught a bunch of those black crickets you have around your house, fed em to him and he died pretty quickly from it.. and now i blame myself for it. so dont feed your T wild caught insects

[xhexdx]

I would like to state that the roaches I have in my house breed readily with no additional heat. B. dubia and G. portentosa, specifically.

[Moltar]

I would like to state that the roaches I have in my house breed readily with no additional heat. B. dubia and G. portentosa, specifically.

Ditto on B dubia for me. Their breeding did slow waayyy down when I took them off the heat but they didn't stop. Even so, winters in temeperate zones should mostly take care of escapees. Keep your house clean, no food scraps lying around and they won't have much to eat. They may be able to struggle along in meager numbers but I don't think they'd ever reach what you'd call an infestation. Now if you live in Florida it may be another story altogether...

I also keep B lateralis and I'm very careful with them. In spite of what i've been told I do believe they could get established both in my house and possibly as an invasive species. Those things reproduce faaaaast. I've never had them on heat and have gone from 30 to roughly 1000 in about 6 months

[gvfarns]

I would like to state that the roaches I have in my house breed readily with no additional heat. B. dubia and G. portentosa, specifically.

Just as a clarification, you mean they have escaped and are breeding loose in your house or they are breeding in your colonies?