FAQ #2 - What Do You Feed a Tarantula?

FAQ #2

What Do You Feed a Tarantula?

So this is also a question that I get quite often, so I thought we could go over that today.

First of all lets me just say that tarantulas can eat pretty much anything, in the wild they may eat insects, small frogs and lizards, birds, small rodents and so on.

Now does that mean that you will have to feed your tarantula all of this?

My answer is absolutely not.

Your responsibility is to give your tarantula sufficient amounts of good healthy feeders.

So let me begin with a short list of what I feed my tarantulas, and then we can talk a bit more about the individual feeders.

I usually switch it up from time to time what I feed my tarantulas, some variety in the diet is always good for all animals :D

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This is what I give my tarantulas:

• Flies (Fruit flies and house flies)
• Crickets
• Roaches (Dubia and red runners)
• Worms (Meal worms and super worms)
• Locust

So lets go over the feeders one by one.

Flies:

When it comes to feeding the smallest tarantulas in my collection (the slings) I usually stick with fruit flies and house flies (and meal worm babies, but lets get back to that later)

Now there´s a couple of reasons for that:

#1 The fruit flies are tiny and they will not harm your tarantula.

#2 They will live for a long time if you keep them in the fridge, which is great when it comes to feeders for the slings since they won´t eat as much as a larger tarantula.

#3 They are really easy to get your hands on, at least here.

Now is this the only option when it comes to feeders for slings? Absolutely not.

You can feed your slings meal worm babies, pre-killed crickets and roach babies as well.

Dubia and red runners can be pretty hard to get your hands on here, so I have a small colony of my own and I usually let the roach babies grow to reproduce.

If you can find roaches easily then they make excellent feeders even for slings.

Crickets:

Crickets are probably the easiest feeders to find, most pet stores carry them.

And while they do make excellent feeders for your tarantulas, you always need to be a bit more careful when it comes to crickets.

Crickets can in worst case scenario harm your tarantula, that´s why it´s important to pre-kill the crickets if you are going to feed them to the slings for example.

It may sound like a cruel thing to do, but you need to think about the tarantulas safety as well.

If you want to use crickets as feeders, make sure that your tarantula takes the prey don´t just leave the crickets in the enclosure with your tarantula.

They won´t be able to seriously harm a large tarantula, unless they are molting.

It´s more the slings you need to be a bit more careful with.

Roaches:

So roaches, some of my tarantulas absolutely love roaches and some just won´t take them.

And for some reason roaches are really hard to find here, and when you do find them they are usually pretty expensive.

So a few pros and cons when it comes to roaches:

Dubia roaches gets pretty large in size when they are fully grown so if you have larger tarantulas in your collection they make excellent feeders.

If you breed them on your own, the baby roaches are small enough to feed to the slings.

What I don´t like about the dubias is the fact that they tend to play dead or bury themselves in the substrate, so if your tarantula miss them at first they might not get to them.

Red runner roaches are the favorite choice for many tarantula keepers.

They reproduce fast so if you want to start your own colony of roaches it´s very easy.

The babies are tiny and excellent for slings.

The only downside with red runners for me is the fact that they are almost impossible to find here, most stores don´t want to deal with them.

But I can definitely recommend them if you can find them.

Worms:

And now over to the worms.

There are two types of worms that I feed to my tarantulas, meal worms and super worms.

Let´s start out with the meal worms.

Meal worms are easy to find and they are really easy to breed on your own.

The fully grown meal worms are great feeders for juveniles and sub-adult tarantulas.

You can of course give them to the adults as well, but you might need to feed them a couple of worms to fill them up.

If you do decide to breed them on your own, the meal worm babies are great for slings.

(I will post a guide to breeding meal worms soon as well)

The larger super worms are great for your larger tarantulas, my T. stirmi for example loves them.

But I have a few tarantulas that refuse to eat them as well, most of my poecilothera species prefer crickets or roaches over super worms for example.

What I don´t like about the worms is the fact that just like the dubia roaches they tend to burrow and your tarantula might not get to them.

And also a small warning when it comes to worms, specially the super worms.

They can be pretty mean and can in worst case harm your tarantula so never leave them unattended with your tarantula.

I´ve never had any issues myself but like I said in worst case scenario something might happen so just be responsible when it comes to feeding your tarantulas and you won´t have any issues :D

Locust:

So last but not least, locust.

This is something that I feed my larger tarantulas from time to time, kinda like a snack.

They are much larger than all the other feeders so they will keep your large tarantulas full for a while.

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So a few last words before I end this post.

I would absolutely never feed mice or lizards to my tarantulas, some choose to do so and I guess it´s up to every keeper to do what they feel is the best.

I have a couple of reasons to why I won´t feed my tarantulas any live or dead mice for that matter.

First of all there´s the whole calcium issue.

Some say that it´s a fact that too much calcium will cause your tarantulas to have issues with molting, and some say that it´s just a myth.

I can´t tell you for sure if there´s any truth to it or not, but I won´t take the risk.

#2 I don´t find it necessary to feed my tarantulas mice when there are other equally good options available

#3 Feeding live mice to your tarantula can cause harm to them.

Mice are tough animals, they will struggle and they have a mean bite, if they get a hold of the abdomen of your tarantula they can bite straight through it with ease, so keep that in mind.

#4 It will leave an absolute mess behind. 

When you feed your tarantula insects it leaves pretty much nothing behind for you to clean up, while mice will leave a mess behind that can potentially attract mites and other things you don´t want anywhere near your tarantula.

But like I said before you are responsible for your animal, what you decide to feed them is up to you.

So see this as suggestions, by no means do you have to follow my example.

And lastly all feeders have one thing in common, you need to gut-load them before feeding them to your tarantulas.

I will go over that more in another post, but what it means is that you need to fill them up with food before feeding them to the tarantulas.

So I guess that was all for now.

This post got Really long, but I get the question often enough and I wanted to give you the best answer I possibly could :D

If you have any other questions feel free to contact me either on my YouTube or on my Instagram :D

Take Care Guys!