reducing impaction

[Whitelightning777]

Are there certain feeders, such as soft bodied wax worms, silk worms or maybe even Earth worms that are known to reduce the risk of fecal impaction syndrome and death in tarantulas?

Basically is there a spider version of prune juice?

Another one of my spiders (L Klugi) has a taste for Earth worms and tends to relieve herself massively after consumption. Of course, an Earth worm is bigger then a meal worm.

One of my spiders recently had this and it's probably passed away by now. I performed one last ditch effort to keep it alive that only has a 1000 to work chance of working.

Prevention is the best thing. I'm just wondering if it's worth the trouble to see if all of them can be persuaded to accept a wiggling earthworm or section thereof once a month or if it's just a water off time.

Currently, all just eat crickets and mealworms. One will eat crickets and small roaches (P straita) when available. The other will eat anything that moves including feeding tongs. (L Klugi). The last one successfully eats mealworms and crickets but I haven't found a roach small enough to try it with yet.

 

[Metalman2004]

Unfortunately there is just no real information to be had on this subject outside of a small bit of speculation. An experiment on this would take lots of spiders and years to complete so i doubt we’ll have any real facts on it for a long time, if ever.

In the meantime, just go with what seems to be working. If earthworms seem to keep things moving then stick with it. I am using mealworms these days more just because of the ease of keeping them, but the extra juicyness of them can’t hurt anything.

I’ve had one assumed impaction death and it was on a steady cricket diet. Can’t say whether or not that had anything to do with it though.

 

[Whitelightning777]

That's good to know. I can confirm death at this point. Who knows? I've read quite a bit about this. In many cases, no mold is mentioned at all.

Either way, she was doomed.

So, what to get next..... Hmmmm

 

[TheVez2]

This is a relatively new topic for me, but I was under the impression that impaction was a result of some sort of external factor like feces stuck to anus and drying, or substrate causing the same type of sticking/drying. Is it really an internal thing? I mean, everything that enters their body is a liquid, so what is there to cause a blockage?

 

[Arachnoclown]

In 35 years of raising 100s of tarantulas I've only had one case of it. I'm still doing things the same as for the diet. Personally I believe it has something to do with molting or internal injury. No one really knows....