#115 - ON THE FEEDING OF SPIDERS

For over forty years I have fed little bugs to bigger bugs and rodents of all sorts to snakes and such. For geckos I used assorted arthropods and mollusks, but many are omnivorous (e.g., nectar feeders), which to leads to all sorts of concoctions of bee pollen, fruit mashes and other sticky messes. Believe me, I've used it all. I've gone through cycles of preferred prey items for my captives regardless of invertebrate or vertebrate; herbivorous, frugivorous, insectivorous, or carnivorous. Some prey item acquisition was interesting; as when I used to build termite traps in Nashville to feed my dart frogs. For those who don't know, using termites as dendrobatid food will allow the natural toxins to return to their skins. I've bred my own Zoophobas, Tenebrio, countless roach species and, of course, crickets. I've raised prey as small as D. melanogaster fruit flies and springtails to mega food like jumbo rats.

For feeding tarantulas I've always gone through phases. I've documented in many places my disgust with crickets and my allergy to them. After all, I am the author of "Crickets Suck". Yet over the decades I've always found myself returning to their use. On paper roaches are so much better, but in practical use they present their own problems, and when it comes to convenience the domestic cricket reigns supreme.

This morning a box arrived from Armstrong Crickets. Now that I am down to only 33 spiders, feeding has become a bit more problematic as I don't need a lot of prey. That makes bulk buying wasteful and raising food myself to be time and resources wasted. However, I am cool with the wastefulness of bulk buying as I can afford to splurge a bit. I weigh the cost of buying a box of 500 crickets for $18 and paying an equal amount for next day shipping (today's invoice was for $36.52) against the astronomical price of pet store crickets or the two hour round trip drive to our local little fleabag all animal show and the 30 minutes of browsing time spent. The All Animal Expo in Wheaton, IL requires 2 1/2 hours of time, a $5 entry fee and dealing with a crowded old fairgrounds hall where people sell everything from roosters to piglets to puppies to sugar gliders in addition to herps and arachnids. Fuck that. Sure I can pickup 1000 crickets for $15 ($20 if you include entry fee), but I'd rather shop the way I buy every single thing except for groceries. That is, on the Internet. (Truth be told, that last bit about groceries really just means fluids and the microwave Lean Cuisine dinners I eat because I don't really cook and frequent restaurants).

So, $36 bucks for 33 spiders it is. Once the weather is milder I'll be able to save a bit with two day shipping. At least half of the 500 crickets will be set free in my backyards. I like to watch the birds swoop in an pick some of them off. I simply cannot use 500 crickets. However, I am completely fine with spending $36 a month to feed the spiders. Fortunately, all of my spiders can be fed from one size – at least until I hatch something. Currently I order 2/3 grown. The smallest are immediately selected for the smallest spiders and I feed off as many as I can after I give them two days to gut load on the chow I offer. I give them my own homemade cricket gel (from polyacrylamide crystals I buy in bulk from watersorb.com - just add one 2 oz. condiment cup of crystals to one gallon of water and let sit overnight) for hydration, Fluker's cricket diet as their primary food and occasionally (actually, rarely) some thawed-frozen mixed veggies and dark greens. I clean the cricket's holding cage once a day without fail. One week from now the 2/3 grown crickets will begin to molt and become winged. At this point I will feed off as many males or females that have yet to display long ovipositors to the spiders again. I feed my spiders very heavy [as often as possible] for the first 7-10 days after receiving fresh crickets, and pick out smaller crickets for the spiders that need them. Once the spiders begin to chirp, mate, die off and otherwise disgust me, it's off to the ponds next to my house where I scatter them on the surrounding grasses. The birds, bullfrogs and toads are happy. I go two weeks or so without any crickets in my house. Smile.

So what about my days of breeding roaches and crickets? Simply put, it is unwarranted for 33 spiders. It's nice to every now and again be able to acquire some Blaberus sp. adults to feed my adult female Poecs and M. balfouri. My bro Apple has been helpful here. When he visited two weekends ago he brought me about a dozen big Blaberus. I have one adult female Poecilotheria rufilata that hasn't regained weight since she double-clutched and, over the course of four or five days, she ate about five herself. Thanks John! When I was away in Costa Rica, John was kind enough to bring some roaches by my house, but unfortunately they were Blaptica dubia. This species is shite unless you have bearded dragons or monitor lizards or similar. There is no mystery to why they are commonly called the Guyana burrowing roach. Unless you're into offering from forceps (I'm not!) or are fortunate enough to have a ravenous tarantula immediately pounce on one, a dubia tossed in the terrarium becomes a cohabitant. It probably won't harm the spider. It will burrow out of sight and scavenge on detritus. You will see them occasionally at night or after a misting. Rarely, if ever, will you see them between the chelicerae of their intended predator. As I've discovered the dubia Apple tossed in my tanks I've removed them and tried to get M. balfouri to eat them. If I find them live in their enclosures I will toss them on my next door neighbor's balcony. I'm not fond of them or the roaches.

Ordering 500 crickets for 33 spiders is a bit daft. But it is my interim solution. Long-term I want to further reduce my collection. Eventually I suppose I'll just buy a couple dozen crickets at a pet store like some n00b. Better still, I'll get down to zero and have no worries. I'll just have to keep buying parrot food as Jesse is going to outlive me.

Cheers, MJ