This article is all about BUGS, more specifically tarantula feeders! I don’t see much information on this but rethinking my tarantulas’ nutrition has been really helpful in keeping them healthy!

You may know this already, but my Grammostola rosea Spidey used to through fasting periods for a year at a time when she was on a diet strictly of superworms. When she DID eat, her appetite was quite irregular even after a molt. She was also plump as ever! I was eventually told that these worms were very fatty and advised to switch to roaches and crickets for their high protein and reduced fat content. Since Spidey was far too slow and clumsy for jumpy crickets, I eventually got her on roaches – and not only did she love them, but her eating habits became a lot better! She actually accepted food on a semi regular basis for over 6 months – something she had never done before with the worms!

So this made me think a lot about the nutrition of tarantula feeders. We all may have our preferences. I personally like roaches best not only due to their nutritional value, but because they don’t smell, are very clean and live forever – unlike the crickets and superworms in my experience. They also reproduce nicely, so it’s easy to keep a supply. Of course, sometimes we don’t have certain feeders available to use so we have to do our best with what is available. However, if you want to rethink or look into your tarantulas’ nutrition more closely, here’s a very helpful chart from dubiaroaches.com:

As you can see, superworms have a wopping 17% fat content, versus the roaches that have just over 7% (and are also higher in protein). Crickets are also very low in fat. I am personally not sure how important fiber is for tarantulas, but that’s also interesting information to know.

I don’t think you have to go overboard or crazy about the nutritional content of your tarantula feeders. I think that as long as you are giving your tarantulas a variety of feeders and not relying solely on fatty feeders, your tarantula will be fine. I hope this is helpful!

To learn more about tarantulas, check out my tarantula guide!