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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dave Jay" data-source="post: 144102" data-attributes="member: 27677">I always wash fruit and veg before feeding the feeders, some like apples I just don't use the peel. Not much is really known about the nutritional needs of tarantulas and what feeders should be gutloaded with.I use carrots and spinach/chard as staple foods for feeder insects. The chard or spinach provides thiamine, vit B.Wild prey animals usually have a diet high in thiamine and this is often missing in captive feeders.Some seafood (freshwater too) contain thiaminase, which breaks down thiamine so it's very important to supplement vit B for any animal that eats raw seafood.Lizards are often vit A deficient. The carotene provided by the carrot is better than supplementing with vitamin A as the body will only convert as much carotene as is needed, avoiding overdosing.So that's why carrot and chard are staples, but how important to tarantulas these reasons are I don't know, not enough information is available.I also feed a wide variety of other vegetable scraps to my feeders, but carrots and chard I make sure I always have on hand.I scrub the carrots pretty well, I've observed the mealworm beetles avoiding unwashed carrot pieces while swarming over the washed pieces so I feel there must be something left on the skin that they don't like.</blockquote>