Wild feeding?

[martiannova]

I had a question about varying tarantula diets. Ive heard some people will catch wild insects to feed to their t's as a means of increasing diet variety. Is this a good idea? My T's live off a staple of dubias, with crickets and mealworms sprinkled in now and then. Should I be doing more to vary their diet?

 

[PanzoN88]

I had a question about varying tarantula diets. Ive heard some people will catch wild insects to feed to their t's as a means of increasing diet variety. Is this a good idea? My T's live off a staple of dubias, with crickets and mealworms sprinkled in now and then. Should I be doing more to vary their diet?

No, it is not. Insects from outside could've possibly been exposed to various pesticides, therefore if they are consumed by a captive tarantula, whatever the insect(s) was exposed to will in turn be passed on to the tarantula.

 

[menavodi]

Tarantulas seem to do fine with crickets and roaches that we buy or breed. I don’t see a need to feed insects from the “wild” even if there would be no such things like insecticides.

 

[Arachnoclown]

Ive feed tarantulas for 20 years on the same prey item before. No need to create a variety of feeders. Just feed your feeders a variety of nutritious food items.

 

[MassExodus]

Just for the sake of argument, if you live out in the country and own property you KNOW hasnt been sprayed with pesticide, you could use grubs and other flightless ground dwellers as prey. When I dig up a grub, they go to my spiders. Big fat juicy grubs never harmed any of my spiders, I've been doing it for years. Just sayin. Flying insects are different, you have no idea where they've been.