Is overfeeding T's possible?

[steaksauce357]

I'm only a couple months into this and pretty sure a T will eat if it's hungry but not excessively to the point where it harms itself. Right? Lol.

Basically a little B. albiceps update: it's a little less tiny now and am happy to find it will take live food now. I attempted to feed it a live small mealworm on the 18th and it was definitely interested and digging it up but I guess confused also because it wouldn't bite into it, just dig it up (would just run away from any movement before molt). So after a couple hours I gave it a crushed mealworm and it nommed it happily (and now is FAT). Now it's two days later and I just happened to check on the T's and find little B. albiceps digging up the mealworm that has been burrowing around the enclosure enjoying dirt and well RIP original mealworm.

There's no risk of complications cause by overeating with T's right?

 

[steaksauce357]

I have pics to follow, can't find my SD card reader so probably will post tomorrow

 

[Casey K.]

You can never feed them enough. They know when to stop eating. I like my T's nice and fat, lol. It causes them to grow faster, though.

 

[timc]

Most tarantulas will just fast and refuse food if they’re not hungry but this doesn’t usually happen in their spiderling phase. The only real two drawbacks to “over feeding” is if a spider has a big enough abdomen and falls from too far a height it can rupture and kill the spider (avoidable with proper husbandry) or you end up with a big fat spider that fasts for months on end and doesn’t molt for what feels like forever. Your brachypelma, as a slow growing species will be susceptible to this when it becomes a juvenile. However, at the sling stage and in your situation, feed them until they look like they’re going to pop and turn up the heat. It’ll likely molt sooner or later.

 

[timc]

Just as an example here is one of my A. chalchodes slings. Looks like a fatty right? Yeah, well, i’m going to keep offering food every few days until it refuses. At this stage they’re pretty much little garbage disposals lol

 

[steaksauce357]

thanks y'all

 

[Casey K.]

thanks y'all

You're welcome!

 

[testdasi]

There's no risk of complications cause by overeating with T's right?

Just to make it more reassuring, I have experimented with Lasiodora parahybana of various sizes and found out that feeding a prey about the same size as the abdomen per day has no negative impact.
The T's just grew faster and would stop eating if it was too full (i.e. not pre-moult related).

Risk of falling injury is obviously higher with a big abdomen but that is easily mitigated.

There was a hypothesis that big abdomen may cause rare abrasive worn on the bottom side of the abdomen, which is supposedly so heavy that the T can't raise it up and drags it on the substrate.
While it seems logical, I have not seen it happening at all in my experiment and all the subsequent tarantulas that I feed with the "let the tarantula decide" regime. And I use pure coco fibre, which is on the more abrasive end of substrate so if anyone would see it, that should be me.