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Confused new tarantula owner!

JenosaurusRex

New Member
3 Year Member
Messages
3
Hello everyone! My name is Jen, and I'm finally getting into tarantulas after wanting them for years. I've wanted a tarantula since I was in high school, but my parents said absolutely not. Then my husband has always been adamantly against having spiders as pets, but he then surprised me about a couple weeks ago by ordering my first two tarantulas ever! A Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens and a Grammostola rosea. The GBB is arriving tomorrow and despite a lot of research, I'm feeling totally unprepared. I think I have the enclosure down after some research, so I'm feeling good about that. My biggest question....what to feed. Both of the ones he bought me are adult females (he chose females as they live longer and he knows I get attached to pets), and I'm somewhat unclear about prey size and what is actually good for them. What I have readily available are superworms, crickets, and mealworms from my local Petco. My original plan was to feed them gut loaded crickets but, I've read that dubai are better. So, I've looked into starting a colony for my girls, but I'm worried about having way too many of them since I only have a "collection" of two, and no other reptiles or anything to eat them.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

And a little about me. I'll be 25 this month, I'm married, a nurse (studying to be an NP), and I love animals! My pets are my life and I love to spoil them! I have a dachshund, 3 cats, 8 snakes, 4 hamsters (they're pets, not snake food), several fish tanks, and now finally the proud owner of two Ts!

I'm really excited to be a part of this community!
 

hellknite

Active Member
3 Year Member
Messages
367
hi there! I am a new member as well. Actually there are different benefits with the diffetent feeders. As for example, roaches and crickets have high protein content. Superworms have high fat and moisture. Soldier flies and other larvae have high calcium. So might as well give it a balance diet if possible.
 

LauraMI

Active Member
3 Year Member
Messages
127
Nice husband. Two proven MF's? Expensive... :)
Agree on the roach colony...unless you start getting other pets who will eat them, then go for it.
 

JenosaurusRex

New Member
3 Year Member
Messages
3
Great. Thanks for the help guys! Any advice on what to feed the crickets before I give them to the spiders? I've read so many different things, and the only thing that seems to be consistent is to not feed them something with extra calcium because it might have an effect on molts.
 

Martin Oosthuysen

Well-Known Member
1,000+ Post Club
3 Year Member
Messages
2,461
Location
South Africa, Free State Bloemfontein
Hello
I know you only have two T's, but see it this way from what I've read local supply is only crickets and mealworms ? You could still start a colony, and supply locally to other hobbyists thus creating an offset and cash flow to put into your own T's and other pets. Feeding them different prey items is for consideration, since crickets are good but I've seen and experienced that some can be bad for your T's due to parasites etc. Mealworms are also a good food source,so are the others that have been mentioned. As for calcium from prey items,you could actually take a Roach and give it certain foods and calcium powders and all nutrition comes from that one item. Roaches do not bite small slings,whereas crickets do. I'm for roaches when feeding my T's,personal choice not law. Like I said,build a colony and supply others if you can if not use the other prey items. Another huge benefit,roaches have the longest longevity of all the prey items.
 

LauraMI

Active Member
3 Year Member
Messages
127
We feed our crickets fruit/veggie scraps. Prevents cannibalism too as they grow. Just keep the container clean & dry to keep fruit & phorid flies frm producing.
 

JenosaurusRex

New Member
3 Year Member
Messages
3
Hmmmm. Well, I was reading the care sheet from the roachcafe.com and they said that they have to be kept at 85-95 degrees to breed. Would this mean that I could just buy, say like, 25 or 50 and be set for feeding for awhile? Or would they eventually become too large for the Ts? Sorry if I'm being incredibly dumb with this, I just want to make sure I'm doing everything the best I can!

And one last question, I have a friend who is selling his Mexican red knee sling, and I'm considering buying it from him. What would I feed a sling that is about 1"?
 

MatthewM1

Well-Known Member
3 Year Member
Messages
639
Location
Cortland, NY
Hmmmm. Well, I was reading the care sheet from the roachcafe.com and they said that they have to be kept at 85-95 degrees to breed. Would this mean that I could just buy, say like, 25 or 50 and be set for feeding for awhile? Or would they eventually become too large for the Ts? Sorry if I'm being incredibly dumb with this, I just want to make sure I'm doing everything the best I can!

And one last question, I have a friend who is selling his Mexican red knee sling, and I'm considering buying it from him. What would I feed a sling that is about 1"?


They don't grow nearly as fast as crickets do that would work fine.

You could feed it small crickets, mealworms or roaches. Also could feed it chunks cut off larger prey items or prekilled larger items
 

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