How Picky Are Your Bigger Spiders?

[liquidfluidity]

So, I have a massive colony of Dubia. I started them when I got my first 6 Theraphosa. Most Theraphosa will eat anything that moves. I actually have a few bigger tarantulas that just won't touch them. 4x Cobalts and a N. chromatus to name a couple. The Chromatus is well over 5" and not young by any means. The Cobalts are prolly around 4" with the oldest being a bit bigger. It's just a no go for these guys. So, they just get crickets as I don't mess with meal/super worms. Unfortunately, there's no other feeder insects in my area. I do have a colony of Banana roaches coming up but that will be quite a while yet before I can feed from that colony.

How many picky eaters do you have and what won't they eat?

 

[m0lsx]

I started a couple of colonies of roaches several years ago. I had both Giant hissers & Dubia, but I found that only a few of my T's responded to them. So I am back with crickets, which they all respond to.

 

[Jeef]

I remember how excited I was when I started my dubia colony. Especially when I saw what the local shops were charging for them. Then reality set in.

I have a G. pulchra that will eat anything. After that it is hit and miss as to who will eat what. I try superworms once in a great while. Those are hit and miss as well. My G. pulchra is the only one I could ever get to eat a hornworm. I should mention the rest of my big ones are Aphonopelmas and Brachypelmas with a T. albo thrown in for good measure.

In the interests of economics, I do crickets more than anything else. Even the little guys get little crickets. Every few months I'll do dubias for the bigger ones, but I've learned to crush heads one at a time. If the first one doesn't immediately take it, give it to the next one until someone eats it. It has been my experience with dubias that if they don't immediately take it, you'll be picking it out of the enclosure the next day.