Arty
Syn976

Arty

So we got Arty 48 hours ago from Petco. She, I am assuming, was the size of a Nanobot when we got her. She was tiny and all black. Anyway, 48 hours and 16 crickets later, she is now full and the size of my husbands hand. Is this normal?
Wow, sixteen crickets is probably a record for me. I have never heard of that before. She looks pretty normal to me - size wise. Her abdomen looks plump and her colour looks correct.
She must have been starving. Just make sure she has fresh water all the time too. She will get hydrated from the food, to a certain extent, but she was probably dehydrated too.
Are you sure she didn't hide some of those crickets? I would check around because they could cause mould and mite problems if they are dead and hidden somewhere.
 
We got her from Petco and we were told she was a spiderling. It made sense, she was all black, small, the size of one of those Nanobugs. We have watched the "spider channel", basically her, almost the entire 48 hours and she surely ate them all. It was cool to watch but also horrifying as she must have been starved. She has more than quadrupled her size and color. She is the size of an adult male hand. Her body meausures in at 3" in body and about 6" with the legs.
 
I doubt the spider gained that much size. It was likely curled up in a stress curl, and now that it's eaten and actually stretched out, it seems much larger.
 
Avicularia avicularia spiderlings are not black overall - they're mostly beige and look nothing like they do as adults. You misjudged her size probably because she was bunched up in a stress position and her abdomen could have been shrunken.
She was not a spiderling two days ago.
 
According to Petco, they are all spiderlings. I have read about their new tarantula sales and there is debate if they come from a vendor or are wild caught. If this guy came from a vendor then she must have been lost in transit for a while or I dont know. I do know that as an attorney, pretty capable of judging size and doing my research, this spider drastically grew. I think maybe she was so shrunken she was on the verge of death?
 
@Syn976 they grow by molting, shedding their exoskeleton, that is the only way they increase size. you'd be surprised at how much larger spiders look when stretched out.
eh, petco, not surprised they cant tell a spiderling from adult.
 
I thought I was buying a small juvie Avic. avic from petpartners, but when I got him(?) home and into his new enclosure, he stretched out and proved me very wrong. So they're apparently pretty good at this trick.
 
I wouldnt doubt they are after seeing Arty change into a giant hahaha, she is bigger than our Rosehair, Ms. Curuthers, already!
 
@Venom1080 yeah when I rescued my pink toe from her death bed they kept telling me "she's just a spiderling do you know how to nurse it back to health?" But she already had a legspand of 3 inches... not a spiderling at all. She did have a spiderling sized molt in her container though. It's sad to think they keep them in the little petco containers until they are bought or pass away :( only reason why I bought from petco was because she was in the death curl and I knew with a little love she'd make it.
 

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