Over feeding?

I got a bunch of extra crickets from petco a few days ago and they have me 20+ more than I needed for free - which was nice of them, but ends up being a burden on me... I want to continue feeding them the crickets but don't want to over feed them either... Any insight for anyone? Suggestions? Thx...

What size are they?

---------- Post added 08-28-2014 at 09:55 PM ----------

because you could catch some true spiders and feed the spares to them?

They are large crickets bigger than house spiders over here :-$

freeze them and feed them to slings as frozen thawed? I've heard that works well, except you'll have to remove it sooner, like within a couple of hours if it goes uneaten...

Put a piece of carrot in with them, they'll eat that and they'll last longer.

I'm really more curious and interested about if I could accidentally over feed my Ts, rather than about what to do with the extra ones- anyone know if over feeding is a common prob?

The biggest danger with over feeding is the spider becomes more vulnerable to abdominal ruptures should they fall. If your tarantulas are already really fat, refraining from feeding them the rest would be okay. Odds are, though, it's okay for you to feed them. Many species will ignore their food (or kill it and leave it there) if they are well fed and not particularly hungry.

MrsHaas said:

I'm really more curious and interested about if I could accidentally over feed my Ts, rather than about what to do with the extra ones- anyone know if over feeding is a common prob?

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Its very unlikely for the vast majority of species. They will stop eating when they go into premolt. Most OW's will kill off anything live without eating it if its bothersome to them.

There are a few exceptions though. I've heard from more than one experienced keeper that Pamphobeteus species can be blown up by overfeeding. And after keeping a few the species, I can see why, they will jump on virtually anything to eat it. One of my Nigricolors ate a cricket 6 hours before a molt.

dredrickt said:

Its very unlikely for the vast majority of species. They will stop eating when they go into premolt. Most OW's will kill off anything live without eating it if its bothersome to them.

There are a few exceptions though. I've heard from more than one experienced keeper that Pamphobeteus species can be blown up by overfeeding. And after keeping a few the species, I can see why, they will jump on virtually anything to eat it. One of my Nigricolors ate a cricket 6 hours before a molt.

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I can attest that my C.darlingi will drown or decapitate any crickets she does not want so I never worry about over-feeding her. As for Pamphs mine has never had an issue with over eating, she has gone on several hunger strikes when she was full. Though when my Ts, especially the slings, do get rather fat I will skip a meal or two to see if they slim down or molt. If they do neither then I feed them less often to combat the chance of rupture and I also do my best to not spook my fat spiders so they don't try to bolt off and then hurt themselves. A T will figure out that it's full and usually won't bust itself.

LordWaffle said:

The biggest danger with over feeding is the spider becomes more vulnerable to abdominal ruptures should they fall. If your tarantulas are already really fat, refraining from feeding them the rest would be okay. Odds are, though, it's okay for you to feed them. Many species will ignore their food (or kill it and leave it there) if they are well fed and not particularly hungry.

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oh thank you !

Ok how about something like a grammastola species? My G. Rosea/Porteri has widened her abdomen a bit since I got her a few months ago.

I used to feed her about 3 crickets a week maybe a combo of a worm and a cricket or two. But she was always hungry. So she became the dog eating all the scraps too. Especially since my L.P.s are on a hunger strike and better be molting lol.

Now I figure ok my Rose Hair will know when she's full.... But I've been cutting down to 1 or 2 crickets every 7 to 10 days. She's already 4"ish and I fear doesn't overfeeding a species like her encourage the fasting behaviour?

gobey said:

Ok how about something like a grammastola species? My G. Rosea/Porteri has widened her abdomen a bit since I got her a few months ago.

I used to feed her about 3 crickets a week maybe a combo of a worm and a cricket or two. But she was always hungry. So she became the dog eating all the scraps too. Especially since my L.P.s are on a hunger strike and better be molting lol.

Now I figure ok my Rose Hair will know when she's full.... But I've been cutting down to 1 or 2 crickets every 7 to 10 days. She's already 4"ish and I fear doesn't overfeeding a species like her encourage the fasting behaviour?

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She will fast soon enough, grammies can get really fat and I've seen that some of them don't really slim down after they molt like other genus do. Spiders know when they are full, you generally don't have to worry about them.

I would say it depends on a few factors here. How big are your tarantulas? How big are the crickets? How many Ts do you have? Are we talking about 20 crix for one T? Or 20 crix over many (10+) Ts? Feeding 20 to one might be an issue, but even then, not likely.

In my experience, I would say that if you are worried about over-feeding, you are likely not over-feeding them, and they would have much more room to expand. And one of two situations develop, depending on the size of your Ts.

1. If you have juveniles, they will fatten way up and you would think they are going to burst, but I have only known of one possible case in my experience where that has maybe been the case (not my T either). But mostly, they will fatten way up, stop eating, then molt sooner. And I have seen quite a number of FAT Ts in pics online and in my collection.

2. If you have adults, they simply will stop eating when full. I am sure there are exceptions, and I take note of the above comment about Pamphobeteus as I have an 8" P. antinous that I will be careful with. But even there, she hasn't eaten in weeks, and is most assuredly premolt. Even my 7.5" Acanthoscurria geniculata, and my 8.5" Lp have refused many a meal this past year. At one point, the manority of my 30+ adults weren't eating. That took some getting use to as a year before, I couldn't keep them fed enough!

In all this, I would say the biggest risk, as already pointed out is injury and rupture.

I even read an article a few years ago from Stan Shultz presenting the risks of over-feeding: obesity, rupture, and/or possible infertility (especially in males). Of these, I would likely discount the third. I have a MM G. rosea RCF who was fed plenty on his growth to adulthood. He sired a sac of 270 last winter, and is still making sperm webs, so I have paired him again with the same mother. Time will tell.

Of the other two risks, I would say both are factors. Risk of rupture has been discussed, but obesity (and specifically power-feeding to quicken arrival to adulthood) could very well have the affect of shortening lifespan.

But a few extra crickets in a week are certainly not going to hurt your T. They live in the wild as opportunistic feeders, going from feast to famine as food is available, so they are accustomed to taking on occasional big meals.

Feed those crix off so you don't waste your money.

I use to get a bunch of overcount crickets at Petco almost everytime I shopped there. A female employee seemed grossed out by them and would scope the crickets and toss them in a bag. No counting, just scoop and bag. Once i was given 19 large crickets for the price of 3, and at least 70 smalls for the price of 20. Anyways it got to the point I would just throw the survivors in the garden or in a bucket of river rocks I have behind my house.

I'd rather see them free then have them die one at a time in a container. If you are afraid of overfeeding, maybe you can just set them free in your garden?

sr20det510 said:

I use to get a bunch of overcount crickets at Petco almost everytime I shopped there. A female employee seemed grossed out by them and would scope the crickets and toss them in a bag. No counting, just scoop and bag. Once i was given 19 large crickets for the price of 3, and at least 70 smalls for the price of 20. Anyways it got to the point I would just throw the survivors in the garden or in a bucket of river rocks I have behind my house.

I'd rather see them free then have them die one at a time in a container. If you are afraid of overfeeding, maybe you can just set them free in your garden?

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i dont know when its the season for crickets but the fact that they are born in captivity and its getting winter i dont know if they are going to survive?

Not unless you have a big Theroposa, Acanthoscurria, Lasiodora or Pamphobeteus in your collection. Those are 8 legged feeder disposal units. lol

ratluvr76 said:

freeze them and feed them to slings as frozen thawed? I've heard that works well, except you'll have to remove it sooner, like within a couple of hours if it goes uneaten...

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This is a bad idea. Crickets aren't very nutritious to begin with. By freezing them you will significantly reduce all the protein content quality in a cricket.

---------- Post added 08-30-2014 at 04:17 PM ----------

ManlyMan7 said:

and/or possible infertility (especially in males). Of these, I would likely discount the third. I have a MM G. rosea RCF who was fed plenty on his growth to adulthood. He sired a sac of 270 last winter, and is still making sperm webs, so I have paired him again with the same mother. Time will tell.

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Technically you couldn't discount it based on a sample size of 1. One would have to do numerous controlled studies.