I'm a bad parent.....


They are SO FAT!!! I'm ashaimed...

And the problem is that a "diet" doesn't work for them.
They are this fat until the molt.
But it doesn't look too fat to me, perhaps I am over feeding as well :blush:

If my T's are willing to eat, I feed them, and they normally eat till they are that fat.

If they get a bit too fat, I stop feeding for a week or two to let them lose the weight. But other than that, if they are eating, they have appetite, which is fine.

HS

That looks okey. my saying is rather
a bit plump than underfed
what i do is to rotate there diets
one week it is roach's then the week after crickets an in the summer i catch termites sometimes in the winter if i am lucky.

I noticed that my Ts eat much less roaches then crickets. They get fat quicker with roaches as well.

Here is a pic of my currently not eating B boehmei.
Rather big, but not eating, so I stopped feeding. Normally she is very busy, but now she just lounges around like when I got her, so I assume pre-molt behaviour.

Some species (like Acanthoscuria and some Pamphobeteus) tend to look like oversized ticks before a molt. As long as they are adequetly hydrated before a molt i generally slow down or stop their feeding if they look too big.

The danger is that their abdomens can rupture during the molt or even just from a short fall from the side of the enclosure if they are "obese" - i have seen it before with my T's and some friends - especially in species that are aggresive feeders like the T Blondi, T Apophysis, Pamphobeteus, etc.

I have hardly ever seen an underfed T - they can go for very long periods without food as long as (again) they are properly hydrated. i have however seen a lot of under hydrated T's ...

Although your T will inevitably grow "faster" if you feed a lot - it is not neccesarily the best for it - unless you are trying to get a female to catch up to the male ... it is often why some males mature at a very small size (genetics aside) - and with males the time between sling and MM is shortened - making the time you have to actually enjoy your T less too
As their "keepers" its our respondibility to make sure they are not overfed - :blink: seeing cricks or roaches dont magically just appear in their enclosures lol ...

As with all creatures and critters play it by ear (or abdomen) in this case some T's will stop feeding and some wont ... its up to us to find the happy medium.

Just my 2c worth