My T seems hungry all the time...normal?

Hi there,

I am a newbie here and to owning Ts. I just acquired 3-year old G. pulchripes a few days ago from a couple who were moving and looking for new homes for their pets. When the previous owner gave the T to me in a small critter carrier, she put 6 crickets in there and the T immediately grabbed and toted three around with her. Two days later, my husband found a wounded katydid and placed it onto its back in the cage and the T ate it, and then later the same day she ate another cricket. I've been reading that they don't need to eat but a few times a week, and she looks healthy, but I'm wondering....she seems hungry all the time, and is this normal? Will she simply not eat if she is not hungry? I don't want to over- feed her.

Thanks a bunch for your help!
Jen

Congrats on the T, G. Pulchripes are one of my favorites. the fact that it eats everything doesn't surprise me that much, they're known to have amazing feeding responses and great appetites (one of the reasons they're my favorite lol).

Just 3-4 crickets a week for a 3 year old G. Pulchripes is enough, these guys can overeat if given the chance, they don't usually know when to stop haha. I'd stick to just offering the amount that I want it to eat to avoid arachnid obesity

Don't feed wild-caught stuff to your spider.

Feeding that species once every week or two is plenty.

xhexdx said:

Don't feed wild-caught stuff to your spider.

Feeding that species once every week or two is plenty.

Click to expand...

Agreed. I feed my two one to two crickets a week.

Jenthevet said:

... I am a newbie here and to owning Ts. ...

Click to expand...

Welcome to the hobby!

Welcome to this forum!

May you live to enjoy these fantastic, fabulous creatures half as long and half as much as we do!

Jenthevet said:

... I just acquired 3-year old G. pulchripes a few days ago from a couple who were moving and looking for new homes for their pets. When the previous owner gave the T to me in a small critter carrier, she put 6 crickets in there and the T immediately grabbed and toted three around with her. Two days later, my husband found a wounded katydid and placed it onto its back in the cage and the T ate it, and then later the same day she ate another cricket. I've been reading that they don't need to eat but a few times a week, ...

Click to expand...

Actually, it's a few times a month!

You have a lot to learn about tarantulas. These are not the simple, primitive creatures that everyone assumes they are. Prepare yourself for a surprise, some would call it a shock!

I strongly urge you to read Stan's Rant at http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/stansrant.html.

And, I would strongly urge you to read the four books mentioned in that webpage. Notice that I didn't say you need necessarily buy them, although you may if you think they're worth it. Instead, I'd urge you to visit your friendly, neighborhood, public library to see which titles they have on their shelves. You can have the library order the missing titles through the Interlibrary Loan System.

If possible, read them in the order they are listed in our webpage. But you needn't be too obsessive about this.

Only try reading one at a time. Do not order all four at once from the library. That will be way too much reading all at one time, especially since the Tarantula Keeper's Guide (for instance) has something like 385 pages of some pretty hefty information to absorb. (Many people read these books from cover to cover two or three times, trying to absorb everything.)

Jenthevet said:

... and she looks healthy, but I'm wondering....she seems hungry all the time, and is this normal? Will she simply not eat if she is not hungry? I don't want to over- feed her. ...

Click to expand...

To answer this question you need to understand two characteristics of tarantulas:

1. They are cold-blooded creatures. That means that they either control their body temperature by behavioral means, or they don't bother controlling it at all. They don't expend (there are those of us who would use the term "waste") vast amounts of food energy to maintain an artificially high body temperature as we do. And when they're not actively doing something, they idle along at so slow a rate that we almost have to take a pulse to tell that they're still alive.

For the average tarantula, 4 to 6 crickets is about all that are required PER MONTH!

2. These creatures will eat out of instinct until they can't eat anymore. They simply become massively obese. They should not be allowed to do this.

Ooops! My laptop battery is dying. Got to go. READ THE BOOKS!

xhexdx said:

Don't feed wild-caught stuff to your spider.

Click to expand...

what he said.
and WELCOME TO THE ADDICTION!

but my G. pulchripes seems to eat a lot aswell, never ever refuses a meal.
couple times a week is fine though, but i dont think that feeding it more then that would hurt it.

Thanks so much for the great advice! I wondered about the katydid, as I thought wild-caught was frowned upon, but then I read posts about folks feeding grasshoppers and roaches, and since we don't fertilize or use pesticides on our land, I thought it would be okay. Now I know.

I also thought I knew a lot about Ts...did lots of reading and research, but now that I own one, I am quickly realizing how little I do know. I didn't want to choose a pet flippantly but it looks like I have lots to learn. I appreciate all the advice and I'm sure I will be back for more.

You must be near Raleigh. I got 3 Aphonopelmas from them this week. I already had a G. pulchripes and yes it is always pouncing on a cricket thrown in there.

I have always heard about not feeding wild caught but have never heard of bad experiences. I am sure these are healthier for the spider as they have a naturally mixed diet that the spider gets when feeding on them. Any thoughts on this? People talk about a risk of pesticides but I doubt that is a major problem (maybe none at all) especially since the insect was live and healthy.

k2power said:

You must be near Raleigh. I got 3 Aphonopelmas from them this week. I already had a G. pulchripes and yes it is always pouncing on a cricket thrown in there.

Yup! I drove up from Fayetteville. This was my first T. Found an aquarium on CL's here in Fay., was searching for a T to call my own, called the folks in Raleigh and she offered the G. pulchripes, said it would be a good match. Was meant to be! I'm looking forward to the exotic animal show in Raleigh in Sept. There's a guy in Sanford area that has two tiger rumps at a rescue--said they were nasty, tho. Congrats to ya!

I have always heard about not feeding wild caught but have never heard of bad experiences. I am sure these are healthier for the spider as they have a naturally mixed diet that the spider gets when feeding on them. Any thoughts on this? People talk about a risk of pesticides but I doubt that is a major problem (maybe none at all) especially since the insect was live and healthy.

Click to expand...

Part of its wing was torn off. We literally live in the middle of 60 acres of woods so I felt comfortable that it was not laden with chemicals and was local. My T pooped a big white blob today. Must be katydid goo. Thanks for the reply!

Re: Wild caught prey: just because you don't use pesticides or fertilizers on your property, doesn't mean they aren't used on neighboring properties. Also, if a prey animal doesn't look sick, doesn't mean it isn't carrying something that may be toxic or detrimental to a tarantula.

I don't use any chemicals on my property, but, the county crop dusts the whole area for gypsy moths and has a drive-by fogger to keep mosquitos in check in some areas.

Granted, tarantulas in the wild are exposed to many of these same toxins and many of them survive. I'd rather not risk taking a chance to see which if any of my Ts would survive exposure.

I have heard stories of individuals losing large numbers of their T collections when their neighbors sprayed for bugs.

Captive bred prey animals can be offered a wide variety of foodstuffs to insure their nutritional value for Ts. Wild caught prey may not have the same variety depending on locale. Comparable to the difference in venison if it lives in the mountains and eats primarily mast or lives in a farm area and pilfers crops. The farm-fed venison will be less gamey and possibly more nutritional.

Pesticides are not the only problem.
It's internal/external parasites that those wildcaught prey may be carrying, such as worms, nematodes, fly larva/eggs, etc that can go visit the insides of your tarantula... and they may eventually die 2weeks or months, later...

example: some parasites get out of the critter they are currently inside because they feel it is dying and go hope on the next (some worm thing i saw do this)

woo...the power of nature.

Feeding captive bred prey reduces the risk of parasites.

I'm with all of you on the wild-caught prey. I understand captive raised is safer. Just tossing around ideas but I know I made my first boo boo with the katydid. Thanks for all the info!

I need to cut back on feeding mine also - she is always hungry and grabs all the food she can but she is getting too fat. This thread made me realize I am overfeeding her.