Feeding amounts

[Nurse Ratchet]

So I have read and reread so much on feeding, but I find the information lacking. For my experienced friends I ask advice, not on how often, but on how much to feed. Not worried about my sub adults, but concerning slings and juveniles.
For my slings I am offering one small cricket on M/W/F and removing if not eaten in 30 min. I feel ok-ish about them but would appreciate input.
My juvenile A. avic is offered one small cricket weekly overnight. I remove in morning. It has only eaten one cricket in the last 5 weeks. Stubborn thing. Is there a secret I'm missing to feeding advice?
My fresh out of hiding juvenile T vagans looks emaciated! So skinny. Tried to photograph, but super shy right now.
I gave a super worm on Saturday, small cricket and super worm today. Still so skinny. Should I offer more?

 

[supremebananus]

I tend to feed my slings around twice a week, a small mealworm or dubia roach nymph. I only feed juveniles once a week and if they’re thin I’ll give them a large mealworm or two, especially after a molt. It sounds like you’re offering a nice amount of food imo, just a weird spider. It wouldn’t hurt to give them more though. I’ve also had a couple juvies that were taking forever to gain weight after a molt and I fed them more/larger feeders than usual for a while.

 

[Nurse Ratchet]

Ty. The avic just annoys me because I have to fish out the tiny cricket while trying not to hurt it every week. Just eat it!
This will sound dumb, but I didn't want to give my T vagans an upset stomach by feeding too much after fasting so long.

 

[supremebananus]

Ty. The avic just annoys me because I have to fish out the tiny cricket while trying not to hurt it every week. Just eat it!
This will sound dumb, but I didn't want to give my T vagans an upset stomach by feeding too much after fasting so long.

Not dumb at all, it’s an understandable concern considering that’s how it works for mostly any other animal! I’ve never heard of problems with feeding them a lot at once though so I’d say go for it

 

[WolfSpider]

I feed based upon abdominal size. I have a big booth C. darlingi that I feed approximately once every season, and I have a skinny P. gigas that I can't feed enough. She is 4 inch DLS and gets 4 large crickets per week.

 

[octanejunkie]

It's a very reasonable question that a lot of beginning hobbyists tend to struggle with. I found that you can pretty quickly gauge what your T's appetite is by how often it asks for food.

Understanding their behavior will give you insight into when they're hungry and when they're not. In the meantime, it's very possible to overfeed your tarantula, but unless you completely neglect it it's kind of difficult to underfeed it with detrimental effect; the converse however, is not true.

Underfeed vs overfeed

I am happy to share my observations, and philosophies, accumulated from keeping and feeding tarantulas in re feeding frequency. If you read no further; less is more when it comes to feeding tarantulas. Tarantulas are wild animals, they are not domesticated, and like most animals are...

www.tarantulaforum.com

I don't ascribe to the size of the carapace versus thickness of the abdomen versus phase of the moon barometer.

 

[Cor]

I don't ascribe to the size of the carapace versus thickness of the abdomen versus phase of the moon barometer.

How about when Venus is or isn't in retrograde and Mercury is ascending?

 

[octanejunkie]

How about when Venus is or isn't in retrograde and Mercury is ascending?

Buy 2 lottery tickets

 

[WolfSpider]

I don't ascribe to the size of the carapace versus thickness of the abdomen versus phase of the moon barometer.

I couldn't disagree more.....but then again, I am not a moderator.

 

[joshcowin]

Even if you don’t go on abdominal size would it be better to underfeed then feed a bit too much (I’m a noob too). I mean some of the more stubborn ones sit behind a dirt door for months at a time so can’t be that hungry.

 

[Nurse Ratchet]

Look who came out for "Wednesday water dish cleaning". After 2 super worms, 3 small crickets and 1 small dubia over 5 days, we finally got a little booty back. Perfect amount of junk (food) in the trunk IMO, just slightly smaller than carapace.
I'll skip "Friday food offering" this week and start offering next week. Thanks for all the advice.

 

[Oursapoil]

As usual, although there is pros and cons about it, I'll stick with if the T's hungry feed it

 

[Nurse Ratchet]

I caved in and fed it on Friday. It looked hungry just sitting out in the open staring at me with those cute shiny eyes. I'm a sucker for a sweet face.

 

[Oursapoil]

I caved in and fed it on Friday. It looked hungry just sitting out in the open staring at me with those cute shiny eyes. I'm a sucker for a sweet face.

Nobody can resist those eight wonders

 

[Tn tarantula]

I have a t vagans sling I just got into the hobby mine eats with no problems I feed it twice a week right along with my LP slings the T vagans abdomen is good sized so I'll skip one feeding

 

[Tarantula Trooper]

When I started back in the hobby 3 years ago I was writing down when they were eating and feeding my new slings every 3 days like clockwork!!! Well I got more slings as the first batch got bigger (didn't take long old world baboons, except the King of course..LOL) and repeat a few more times in a year again and I now have a modest sum of T's standing at 26 babies, juvies, and a few sub /adults. I kept writing down when so and so ate and so and so molted till the paper work was starting to take the fun out of it, at least for me. Now, my schedule consist of the following parameters: Is it my day off (work 12hrs, schedule! Most days worked in a row is 3), are my T's visible and been out and about, and are abdomens fat and shiny! I'm off, T's out, and not fat and shiny T gets a shot at a meal!!! Trying to always keep up with who, what, when and where eating wise took a lot of the fun away so I made it simple and much happier doing so!!! Still write my molt dates down as that does bring feeding to a standstill for the appropriate time span or until T eats. Have a Blessed T filled day.