another beginner with questions

[syzygy]

Looks like we will be getting a BD in October. We already have tarantulas (and a breeder colony of lateralis roaches for their food), but the kids want something more interactive and allergies prevent our being able to have a "normal" pet. We did some research and voted on a few options and the BD won unanimously.

I'm expecting we'll get a baby...something around 6" or so. I've got about 1000 lat nymphs now and by October I'll have 3-4K. I've purposely ramped up my breeding for the BD. I was imagining I would feed them out in the opposite order they've hatched and start with the nymphs and then work backwards to get to the ones that have grown bigger as the BD gets bigger as well. This would be ideal. With supplementation with crickets and/or some type of worm (for variety) I'd hoped this would mostly get me through the 1st year.

This leads to my first questions. Will the lat nymphs be too small for a 6" BD? And...can I feed them out in some sort of dish in the beginning so that I can get a good feel from how many he is eating (versus those that escape and hide under his branch or rock or whatever I decorate his home with)?

I'm sure I'll have lots more questions soon enough. Maybe some others here have questions about tarantulas that I can help with.

 

[syzygy]

I'm also just realizing my introduction has no info about me. I'm in the Austin, TX area and my kids are 5 and 8. I've pretty much always had tarantulas...I have 11 at the moment, but plan to dwindle that down a bit soon. We also have a 36 gallon freshwater fish tank with various community fish and lots of live plants. Additionally, from spring to fall we typically have 5-10 various caterpillars that we've found on our plants that we will raise inside and release. At the moment we have 1 Gulf Fritillary and 1 Queen that will be released today now that the rains have stopped and 6 more queen caterpillars that are less than 1" long.

 

[Canicke]

what's a lat ? what size are lat nymphs? too small ? probably not - but you may need to feed a bunch of them. feed in a dish? try it

 

[syzygy]

what's a lat ? what size are lat nymphs? too small ? probably not - but you may need to feed a bunch of them. feed in a dish? try it

Ha...sorry. Blatta (Shelfordella) lateralis is an alternative to dubia's. Also know as red runner roaches or Turkistan roaches. They are soft bodied and cannot climb, but adult males have wings and can sort of flutter or glide...not really fly. They are really fast and are largely preferred over dubias for tarantulas because they don't dig and tend to move around more, but I can see that dubias are the staple for BD's. They are smaller than dubias...nymphs are 3/16" and adults get to around 1.25".

 

[diegothediggy]

as long as what u are feeding ur beardie is no bigger than the space between its eyes then ur gud to go

 

[diegothediggy]

a baby will eat a lot more than an older beardie... wanting live prey 3 times a day.... sone ppl limit how much. when mine where small they went through a hell of a lot of locus... u will save a lot of money if ur breeding ur own... if what you feed them can bite tho u would have to take any uneaten ones out b4 lights out.

 

[BeardedHippy]

Sounds like you are good to go, I can attest to the money you will save having that colony. I have 2 (dragons) and they each cost more to feed each week than a medium sized dog, dubia breeders must be making a fortune. Theres no such thing as too small as the nymphs go, but it will eat quite a lot of them. Thats the good thing about a colony though i guess, theres always more on the way. If your spiders eat the excess adults as well, its a win win.

 

[Yvonne G]

Welcome!