Can You Overfeed A Turantula?

[NYX]

So I am new to actually owning a T all though I have been obsessed for years . I got my first girl Grammostola rosea two days ago. Now while I was at the reptile shop I feed there T's with them. My girl I ended up getting ate 2 gut loaded crickets and the guy gave her a goliath worm. Yesterday when I got home from work She was sitting on top of her hide and just looked hungry to me so I offered her a cricket and she went for it. She tackled three all together yesterday. Now I have read you can overfeed and some say no you can not. Should I see if she wants food today or tomorrow? I know Rosea's can go on fasts and be picky eaters so should I go with the fact she wants to eat now. Also it would be spring/summer in her natural habitat now so maybe that is why she is super hungry? What do you guys suggest?

thanks in advance!

 

[BossRoss]

Strictly speaking you cant over feed a T as they will reject food if they dont want it. They cant eat themselves to death.

Over feeding a T can lead to long fasting periods especially with your specific species.
It can put your T in harms way, since the abdomen could be very larger, if the T had to fall for whatever reason it could cause damage.
Over feeding can also shorten the life span of your T.

As a rule of thumb I feed all slings as often as I can(once a night with one or two feeds) but once the T reaches a juvenile stage I will slow down the feeding to the point where I feed one or two feeds per week.

 

[hellknite]

It's very hard to tell the eating habits of T's. There's just many variables to consider. Many keepers also have different feeding patterns and they have succeeded on it surely. As for me, I have different feeding patterns on my T's.
For slings - 4x a week, 1 feeder
For juveniles - 3x a week, 1 to 2 feeders
For matured T's - 1x a week, 1 to 2 feeders
I don't want to overfeed my T, but I think they would readily refuse food if full. It's quite difficult to tell if we our overfeeding T's. My feeding pattern changes depending on the interest of the T's. This is how I do and my opinion. I don't speak for the forum. Other members surely have different views on this.

 

[BossRoss]

Hellknite is correct, you are just going to get opinions and experiences. There is no unequivocal scientific evidence of eating habits or patterns.

 

[NYX]

I have read that spiders in general only have so many instars. So would feeding her to much cause more molts and shorten her life span. That I certainly do not want. Maybe I'll wait till next week to feed again.

 

[NYX]

Boss Ross I'll take all the info I can get!

 

[BossRoss]

So would feeding her to much cause more molts and shorten her life span. That I certainly do not want.

Not sure if the above was a question or just restating what I said previously Theoretically speaking, yes. Remember Ts have a really slow metabolism, you might only see "the weight they have gained" from feeding long after than you would expect. I am not sure if it would cause more molts per say but it can shorten the time between molts and apparently shorten the life span... Although I think this would be from more excessive long term feeding.

But see what works for you and your Ts... I know if I left my sub-adult B. albopilosum for a week hungry, he would pull some secret ninja moves in the middle of the night, break out and probably start eating me starting with my toes.