Vegetarian/vegan tarantulas

vickywild

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May 29, 2011
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Ha. Random I know but we are currently discussing cat and dog food and vegetarians/vegans trying to turn their dogs/cats the same and it got me thinking about tarantulas.

Has anyone ever heard of a vegetarian spider? Would it even be POSSIBLE?
 

Hobo

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vegetarians/vegans trying to turn their dogs/cats the same
My blood... it BOILS.:mad:


Apparently, there have been reports of tarantulas eating things like grapes in captivity, BUT The fact remains that they are carnivores.
Please don't make your carnivorous pet a vegetarian/vegan at the cost of their health. No, they don't want to be vegetarian/vegan. They don't even know what that is.
Bother your friends and family instead!

Oh, and here's an article on a recently found spider that feeds on acacia buds.
It's not a tarantula though.
 

jbm150

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There's a spider, I believe a jumping spider, that has adapted to feeding on flowers or buds...my memory is hazy. Check the Trues forum, I think it's been talked about there
 

vickywild

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@Hobo oh dont worry I would never do that. I'm a vegetarian myself, but I've even discussed with my fiancee the fact that when we have children they wont be automatic veggies aha.
The crap thats in vegetarian dog food is ridiculous.
 

Anonymity82

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No offense to Vegetarians/Vegans. To each his own. Just don't stop feeding your pets food they should be eating because of your own views. If you can't feed you pets what they should eat because your views then give your pet to someone who will take care of your pet properly. If you think the meat is bad for them, then buy organic, grain fed meats/dog foods to feed your pet
 

Thobby1982

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Sep 25, 2011
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My blood... it BOILS.:mad:


Apparently, there have been reports of tarantulas eating things like grapes in captivity, BUT The fact remains that they are carnivores.
Please don't make your carnivorous pet a vegetarian/vegan at the cost of their health. No, they don't want to be vegetarian/vegan. They don't even know what that is.
Bother your friends and family instead!

Oh, and here's an article on a recently found spider that feeds on acacia buds.
It's not a tarantula though.
Tarantulas are insectivores, NOT carnivores!

Actually if you want to get technical, they omnivores. They will eat vertabretes and invertabretes alike.
 

Hobo

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Tarantulas are insectivores, NOT carnivores!

Actually if you want to get technical, they omnivores. They will eat vertabretes and invertabretes alike.
No.
They are carnivores.

That's like saying a B. smithi is a tarantula but not a spider.
I purposely left it that way since they eat vertebrate prey as well.

AND, if you want to get technical, they are NOT omnivores, since they don't take non animal food (aside from the odd grape or moistened fish pellet in captivity).

So THERE. *smug*
 

jayefbe

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Tarantulas are insectivores, NOT carnivores!

Actually if you want to get technical, they omnivores. They will eat vertabretes and invertabretes alike.
Insectivores are a type of carnivore, so they are carnivores. And tarantulas are not omnivores (omni = all), technically, as they don't eat plant material.

EDIT - must type faster!
 

Shrike

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Tarantulas are insectivores, NOT carnivores!

Actually if you want to get technical, they omnivores. They will eat vertabretes and invertabretes alike.
As Hobo and Jayefbe already pointed out, you're wrong on both counts.

Since we're getting technical here:

vertebrates

invertebrates

The red line underneath the word means you didn't spell it correctly.
 
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Louise E. Rothstein

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The talk about "vegetarian" spiders is ridiculous too.
Although these creatures do take some acacia buds they eat a probably significant number of arboreal ant larvae.
 

Jquack530

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Jan 26, 2012
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LoL! Hopefully if there was to ever be a vegan tarantula that it wouldn't preach at the other tarantulas for eating crickets. :sarcasm:
 

8leggedloverlassie

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Well,sometimes I feed my crix with herbs and then I take a gutloaded one (you can see th green food in it!) and feed it to my t's. Does that mean that th t eats veggies too?? Or is that totally different??
 

Metlock

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lol not, the T isnt eating it separately and I dont think it would choose to eat the veggies without them being ingested by the cricket :biggrin:
 

Bill S

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Oh, and here's an article on a recently found spider that feeds on acacia buds.
It's not a tarantula though.
Well, as long as everyone is correcting terminology - the spider in the article does not eat acacia buds, despite the error in the article that claims they do. They feed on something called Beltian bodies - an exudate on the acacia leaves. Still vegetable matter though. However, since the spider also eats insects it can't honestly be called a vegetarian.
 

paassatt

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However, since the spider also eats insects it can't honestly be called a vegetarian.
An article was incorrect regarding information about a spider? I'm completely taken aback... :sarcasm:
 

jakykong

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Well,sometimes I feed my crix with herbs and then I take a gutloaded one (you can see th green food in it!) and feed it to my t's. Does that mean that th t eats veggies too?? Or is that totally different??
I'm not sure whether the stomach contents of the cricket are eaten or not. I think it might depend on the contents: although the tarantula clearly processes the gut (it's certainly not intact in the bolus), they won't consume anything that their digestive fluids can't dissolve to sub-micron particles. In other words, I suspect that the gut-loaded contents are in the food bolus, not in the tarantula. :)

I would have to search for the thread again, but I was reading on this not too long ago here... gut loading is more or less a carry-over from the herp hobby, where it might actually be useful.
 
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