why is power-feeding bad?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Widowman10

Arachno WIDOW
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 25, 2007
Messages
4,212
ok, so i've heard both sides of this argument and wondering why or why not? i have 2 L. parahybana s-lings and want to power-feed them until they get to be about 4 or 5 inches. i know power-feeding makes them grow a lot faster then normal feeding and shortens their life spans, but if you want a big tarantula fast, then why not?
 

cheetah13mo

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 10, 2006
Messages
2,151
It has to be a controlled power feed. T's will eat so much before they stop for pre molt that it can damage internal organs or rupter the abdomen during molt when the exoskeleton is at it's most plyable. Death may be the result of careless power feeding. So many just dump as much food as they can in the T's cage and that can cause problems or death. Just monitor things and don't go overboard and you should be fine.
 

Code Monkey

Arachnoemperor
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 22, 2002
Messages
3,783
ok, so i've heard both sides of this argument and wondering why or why not? i have 2 L. parahybana s-lings and want to power-feed them until they get to be about 4 or 5 inches. i know power-feeding makes them grow a lot faster then normal feeding and shortens their life spans, but if you want a big tarantula fast, then why not?
Why not indeed, then again, why?

If what you want is a big spider fast, then buy yourself a $15 adult G. rosea and don't feel too bad when you neglect it and let it die 2-3 years from now after you've grown tired of the hobby, it is just a spider after all. While we hobbyists may be rather fond of them, ethically, they're not real high on my concerns for animal cruelty.

Because what you've got to consider is that this hobby isn't about big spiders NOW, it's about years followed by years followed by more years with every lowly spider we bring into our homes. I've got small juvenile spiders that I've been rearing since they came out of the sac for more than half a decade, it'll may be another half a decade before they're full adults, and then they may possibly be with me for the rest of my natural life.

So, to me, it isn't whether or not that powerfeeding shortens the total lifespan of a spider, it's not important, and it won't amount to much of a difference anyhow. If, for example, you condense 5 years worth of normal paced moults into 2 years, all you've done is change its potential lifespan to 17 versus 20 years. It's not even that important that my suspicion is that many moulting problems stem from overfeeding, again, it's just a spider and it's your money. If trying to get some spider to adulthood in 2 years versus 4 is worth the risk to you, hey, who am I to try and talk you out of it, and besides, it's just my suspicion anyhow. And if you do have a good reason for it (e.g. males for breeding), then I definitely have no beef with you...

BUT, the I want a big spider sooner than later reasoning raises flags about why you're in the hobby in the first place, and it raises flags about just how good of a picture you have of the hobby. Dogs require less commitment than many tarantulas, and nobody in their right mind would go out and fill their home with dogs without some reasonable hope of being able to provide for them a decade from now. In the end, it doesn't matter whether you powerfeed or not, it's just some (expensive) bugs, but you should be honest with yourself about why you think it's worth trying to rush to the end, because there really isn't a whole lot to this hobby other than watching the slow pace of development over many years.

Other than 3 spiderless years, I've owned at least one tarantula going back to about 1982, and I don't powerfeed ;)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top