Best sling feeders..

[AngelDeVille]

I breed mealworms and red runners so I use the appropriate size of either.

I’m just a few days back in the game, and I’m already weighing the cost vs. PITA factor.

So far I’m thinking maybe $50 a year in feeding cost at most so I have a way to go.

 

[cold blood]

As long as you don't collect from a farm that sprays insecticide, you are fine

Well in your state of Florida, they actually fly planes over the entire state to spray for mosquitos on a regular basis, especially since the discovery of the zika virus.

https://www.cdc.gov/zika/vector/aerial-spraying.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-zika-insecticide-idUSKCN10E06Q

Farms have nothing to do with it...especially in Florida. Heck, golf courses use more stuff than farms do...and they are everywhere...lol.

@MattjediEdmonds @cold blood

is there a good thread or other source about the Flightless Fruit Flies. i have seen many times that they shouldn't be used exclusively and i am curious about the details. Personally i think they suck to work with and would rather use hatchling crickets, but i am still curious about what happens and why.

This is a quote from arachnologist Sam Marshall...

"Unfortunately, fruit flies are deficient in amino acids so they are not suitable to feed as more than half the diet of a growing tarantula. ...the usefulness of fruit flies is unfortunately limited. Spiders fed too long on fruit flies can develop molting problems and curly legs."

Someone mentioned a scientific paper a little while ago where they raised true spiders on fruit flies and more traditional feeders. The ones raised on fruit flies all died, and the ones raised on the traditional feeders made it to maturity for the most part. I dont know if anyone has the paper handy though.

@boina has posted this...apparently almost all spiderlings suffered from malnutrition.

So far I’m thinking maybe $50 a year in feeding cost at most so I have a way to go.

Ha, for a handful of slings the cost would be a 50 count of mealworms twice a year...or about 5-6 bucks. They keep about that long in the fridge.

 

[boina]

@cold blood I can't find the dang paper again - for some reason I didn't bookmark it, but half an hour of skimming various articles on spiders and nutrition (there's actually A LOT of those) produced the following results:

Drosophilas are not the best feeders. The work well initially but symptoms of malnutrition appear on average after about 3 months in the spiders. @MattjediEdmonds is actually half right - you can feed Drosophila in a way to produce higher quality feeders but it wouldn't be by feeding them banana but some high protein food, like high qualitiy doog food. Drosophila fed with dog food were nutritionally complete. Unfortunately dog food in not a preferred source of food for the flies, so especially the wild ones are not nutritionally complete, because they take what they can get and they thrive on all kinds of nutritionally lacking foods.

Spider nutrition is actually really important. After what I read this morning I think I can make a case that feeding mealworms from the fridge may not be the absolutely best choice either, although the spiders obviously survive. Mealworms should be pre-fed with highly nutritional food. I don't have time right now but I may write something up later including all the sources I can find.

 

[cold blood]

After what I read this morning I think I can make a case that feeding mealworms from the fridge may not be the absolutely best choice either, although the spiders obviously survive. Mealworms should be pre-fed with highly nutritional food.

Well yeah, you warm and feed them prior to feeding them out....at least I do...usually carrot.

 

[AngelDeVille]

.

Ha, for a handful of slings the cost would be a 50 count of mealworms twice a year...or about 5-6 bucks. They keep about that long in the fridge.

Yeah I think walmart mealworms will be the main source.

I was figuring if I stopped weekly at the pet shop, that’s what I could spend if I ate a few crickets myself... ya know sprinkled on salads...

 

[The Grym Reaper]

I’m just a few days back in the game, and I’m already weighing the cost vs. PITA factor.

So far I’m thinking maybe $50 a year in feeding cost at most so I have a way to go.

My starter colony of roaches was £10 just over a year ago and I got my initial batch of mealworms in 2016 for about £2. I doubt I spend much more than that maintaining the colonies.

 

[Mithricat]

I use small dubias for slings and lateralis on occasion. I grow my own so I know what they're consuming and I'm able to keep their diet varied and balanced. I'm not a fan of crickets and going to the store to pick up a few every time is too much of a bother for me.

 

[WoofSpider]

Well yeah, you warm and feed them prior to feeding them out....at least I do...usually carrot.

Wow. I can't believe I never thought of that. I usually just pull them from the fridge and warm them up in my hand to get them moving before feeding. I should definitely let the meal worms feed on some veg before feeding them to my slings. Good tip.

 

[Malo]

I'm not a fan of crickets and going to the store to pick up a few every time is too much of a bother for me.

My LPS has a "cricket club" to promote anyone coming in to buy just 5 or so. Basically a spreadsheet and you give them your name, then every X crickets you get free ones.

 

[Mithricat]

My LPS has a "cricket club" to promote anyone coming in to buy just 5 or so. Basically a spreadsheet and you give them your name, then every X crickets you get free ones.

I'm lucky in that respect, my LPS carries mostly lateralis and dubia roaches while none of the big chain stores do. Prices are a bit steep but with a thriving colony I no longer have to buy feeders.

 

[Malo]

I'm lucky in that respect, my LPS carries mostly lateralis and dubia roaches while none of the big chain stores do. Prices are a bit steep but with a thriving colony I no longer have to buy feeders.

Yeah they carry Dubias and meal worms as well in different sizes, but they had a blank look when I asked about lateralis.

 

[Wolfspidurguy]

Hey guys (and gals), I have a couple of new slings, I'm new to the hobby, and was curious what the general consensus was regarding the best feeders. I have been buying banded crickets from Josh's Frogs, but I hear that Blatta Lateralis roaches are better for slings. I haven't tried this yet. I also hear some people use "pin head" crickets.

If anyone has an opinion, one way or the other, I would appreciate the input.

Regards,

Tony

i find crushing a crickets head and putting it in works amazingly. i dont wait for the cricket to die because the movement catches the Ts attention

 

[MattjediEdmonds]

Someone mentioned a scientific paper a little while ago where they raised true spiders on fruit flies and more traditional feeders. The ones raised on fruit flies all died, and the ones raised on the traditional feeders made it to maturity for the most part. I dont know if anyone has the paper handy though.

The flightless fruit flies are raised on that blue "medium" designed to give them calories long enough to breed. Wild fruit flies eat any number of things which is why they are healthier to feed. BTW: I don't keep rotten fruit in my kitchen. FF are attracted to all fruit.

I use dubia nymphs. Crush the heads, throw them in, repeat in a few days.

Actually, insects can travel great distances. Just because you don't live by a farm doesn't mean the insect in question is pesticide free. Besides, even if you don't live by a farm and the insect hasn't been near a farm, that doesn't mean it's "pesticide free." How do you know your neighbors aren't using pesticides? Your neighborhood? Your city? Small time gardeners use pesticides like no tomorrow. I'm not sure about the orange groves in Florida, but I don't imagine they're pesticide free either. Not even to mention the potential parasites that could be passed to your animals. Feeding wild caught is not a safe practice imo.

How do you reconcile your post with the thousands of spiders within 100 feet of your house? Why aren't they all dead?

 

[spookyvibes]

How do you reconcile your post with the thousands of spiders within 100 feet of your house? Why aren't they all dead?

Let me explain it this way. You have 100,000 locusts. They're destroying your garden, so you spray them with pesticides. Most of them die, but as it turns out, a few of them are actually immune to the chemicals. They breed and start passing on that gene that makes them immune. You keep spraying the same pesticide, but soon enough, you're back at 100,000 locusts and they're all immune to the pesticide you're using.

When exposed to something like pesticides, bugs will become immune. That's why people have to keep coming up with new pesticides, the old ones eventually stop being effective.

Using your logic, why isn't 90% of the bug population dead from pesticide use? Why do I get thousands of bugs on my lawn even though I'm surrounded by cornfields and they spray pesticides each and every year?

 

[MattjediEdmonds]

Let me explain it this way. You have 100,000 locusts.

Locust pesticides don't kill arachnids. Ask all the spiders in your yard. I'm not against you giving your spiders captive raised insects. It's a poor diet, but feed away! If you ate tomatoes, chicken, and bread (3 things) your entire life, you'd do well for a while... then get sick and die... like most peoples T's do. Eating a varied diet of nutritious, wild prey is what makes T's live a LONG time and stay healthy. If you take a chemistry class, you'll know why the world isn't dangerous to your spiders.

 

[spookyvibes]

Cite your sources, I'll be glad to cite mine

 

[cold blood]

There is absolutely positively no evidence to support your theory of captive feeders being a poor diet or not providing proper nutrition.

In fact, when you raise feeders, you can control the quality of food they get, so they really get premium feed...without any risk of pesticides.

Also your theory of pesticides for certain insects only effecting those insects is also severely flawed and just not factual. Some (many) insecticides even effect larger vertebrates and can even cause cancer and other ailments in humans, not to mention countless other varied inverts.

Pesticides do not discriminate as to what they kill. Heck, fertilizers can and will negatively effect your spiders, as well as other inverts. I have lost thousands of dollars in stock when a neighbor sprayed fertilizer while I had windows open. All kinds of things can negatively effect inverts.

Your theory of spiders living outside the house and being just fine is another flawed argument...lifespans of wild inverts as well as survival rates are significantly less than that of captive ones....this can even be said for larger vertebrates. A opossum may live 2-5 years in the wild...but if I take a small one into my home, protect it and feed it well, it could live to 20 or close...a wild sea lion lives 5-10 in the wild...but 30-35 in captivity...these are not isolated, this is pretty much across the board for most animals, inverts included.....A wild sac of spiders may have 1-3% survival rates, in captivity they may have a 97% survival rate....same for spawning fish..there's a reason for this.

 

[boina]

Wild prey is often actually less nutritious - they survive on anything they can get and malnourishment is common in wild animals. In captivity I can control what I give my feeders. Feeding my feeders well will give me highly nutritious feeders without involving guesswork about nature. @MattjediEdmonds you have a seriously naive and skewed view of how nature works.

Oh, and btw. there are studies upon studies about the negative effect of insecticides on spider populations. And it very much depends on the insecticide used, anyway - various of them are advertized to kill mites, meaning they will definitely kill spiders, too, and most are broad band - they will kill any arthropod in sight.

 

[Pseudo]

Not for long....they are nutritionally deficient. Not good feeders at all.

I have to second this. When I tried fruit flies, I could dump over 10 of those things in there, and the slings would never be full.

As for the OP, do you already breed any feeders? If you do, those would probably work for you. I breed dubia cockroaches. I take the babies, squish their heads to prevent them from harming my slings, and feed them to my slings.

 

[Laviathan]

I use bean weevils, and they work great. I have slings of 7mm dls happily eating them. The advantage for me is that you can culture them without much effort. All you need to do is add some individuals and some beans from an existing colony to a vented pot with dried black eyed beans, and a few weeks later the pot will be buzzing with them.
Some people find that the beam weevils' exoskeletons are too tough for their slings to successfully kill them, but I've never observed that problem. Slightly bigger slings (1.5 cm and above) just get more than one weevil at a time.