My Sling?

[TheDuchess]

I just got my first tarantula sling, grammostola pulchripes, and well... it's tiny!

It's actually my first tarantula period, and I'm prepared to care for it but I'm SO paranoid about it! I want it to live!

Where do I put its enclosure? The little container is so small, I don't know where to put it without risk of being knocked off!

 

[KezyGLA]

Put it somewhere it cant be knocked off

 

[Draketeeth]

I've got a dedicated shelf on my tall book shelf where I put my tarantulas. Works pretty good, though family members will sometimes try and apprehend "free space" on the shelf. I'll be in trouble though once they all grow up, they're mostly slings at the moment.

 

[BoyFromLA]

I highly recommend this enclosure for your sling, but any small size deli cup will do just fine.

http://arachnoboards.com/threads/hobby-lobby-sling-enclosures.301977/

I do have a seperate desk to put my tarantulas, but with just one sling, you can set any space just as little as a corner of your desk for it.

Hope you will fall in love with your first tarantula sling!

 

[PanzoN88]

Definitely designate shelf space for tarantulas as stated above.

 

[Theneil]

When I got my first tarantula I made the mistake of getting a very large ebclosure (an uprite glass terrarium) and when I almost imediately realized it was wrong I rehoused into something smaller which I placed inside the big one which is harder for all the cats and kids to knock over. now all of my small to medium tarantula enclosures are in sitting in terrariums or aquaruims for knock down prevention.

 

[TheDuchess]

@Theneil that is a good idea! I was already thinking of putting it somewhere like in a small basket or my unused acrylic makeup stand. I might be able to put it's container in one of those dumb kritter keepers(finally useful for something! ha).

I'm happy the little thing survived the night! It stopped pacing around the sides of it's enclosure and now is just kinda hanging out wherever. I was worried about it yesterday but it was probably just stress from the expo I bought it at.

 

[Theneil]

You're welcome. And as an additional precation I suggest getting many many more little slings so that they have less room to shift or fall within the large container.

 

[TheDuchess]

As much as I would love having dozens of slings, those babies will eventually turn into full-grown tarantulas! I know that will take several years but I don't currently have the space to care for more than one or two adults.

 

[TheDuchess]

@BoyFromLA
Just saw this! I will definitely consider the hobby lobby things once the sling is bigger.

I've been looking at g. pulchripes slings online and mine is very young and small.

 

[FrDoc]

I want it to live![/QUOTE]

They do pretty well with this on their own. You merely need to provide them with essentials, and that's pretty easy. A satisfactorily sized (in this case small enclosure, I.e. deli cup), a couple inches of substrate, a little piece of wood leaned up against the side where it can hide, and lightly mist a limited portion of the enclosure every three or four days, finally drop in a portion of a meal worm, or back end of a cricket that is about the size of your sling. It will eat what it wants, and you'll be surprised at how much that is occasionally. Remove any "leftovers" after a day with a pair of tongs (which you should have). Then sit back and enjoy. Plus, keep your eye on this site and many of your questions will be, or probably already have been answered by these good folks.

This is a shot of my B. Hamorii slings set up, with the little thing in the upper right.

 

[cold blood]

I've raised about 100 little pulchripes to juvenile stages....IMO the best enclosure is a small one...IMO smaller than shown so far. Just keep part of the substrate damp...when it dries out, add a little water...super easy.

IMG_0472

• cold blood
• Feb 7, 2017

Keep your small terrestrial slings like this.

Resized952017022795182420

• cold blood
• Feb 28, 2017
• 7

another tripeppii molt...starting to get the blonds.

Don't worry about killing it, they're really hardy, I have never lost one as a sling and that was out of half a sac. Great eaters, even when very small...they climb right onto pre-killed food...if they refuse food, they're almost certainly pre-molt and you can just stop feeding and wait for a molt.

G. pulchripes #3

• cold blood
• Nov 11, 2017
• 1

Fantastic species, it will become a favorite I would bet.

 

[TheDuchess]

@cold blood I'm glad to hear they'll accept pre-killed food! I've heard some people talk about their tarantulas only eating if their food moves.

I'm feeling more confident about it living now, so thanks for that. It's the smallest animal I've ever had, so I worry for it a little. Your g. pulchripes are beautiful btw!

 

[cold blood]

@cold blood I'm glad to hear they'll accept pre-killed food! I've heard some people talk about their tarantulas only eating if their food moves.

I'm feeling more confident about it living now, so thanks for that. It's the smallest animal I've ever had, so I worry for it a little. Your g. pulchripes are beautiful btw!

Slings do readily take pre-kill....its nice because you can offer larger food, so you don't have to feed often at all and still maintain good growth rates.

nom nom (Nhandu chromatus)

• cold blood
• Aug 17, 2017
• 7
• brazilian red and white tarantula chromatus feeding nhandu nhandu chromatus sling white striped birdeater

chromatus 2i

 

[Crone Returns]

@cold blood I'm glad to hear they'll accept pre-killed food! I've heard some people talk about their tarantulas only eating if their food moves.

I'm feeling more confident about it living now, so thanks for that. It's the smallest animal I've ever had, so I worry for it a little. Your g. pulchripes are beautiful btw!

I got one of @cold blood's kids. She eats like a porker. At first I prekilled mine, she wanted to hunt it down lol! Yours is tiny, but don't worry, she'll grow fast.
They're great spids!

 

[Leila]

As much as I would love having dozens of slings, those babies will eventually turn into full-grown tarantulas! I know that will take several years but I don't currently have the space to care for more than one or two adults.

Good thinking. Some people fail to take into consideration how much more space most adult Ts will occupy as opposed to when the spiders are itty bitty slings.

 

[TheDuchess]

I've heard that tarantulas are more sensitive to heat than cold, but the crickets are so cold they won't move and I can see my breath in the living room, so I bought a heat light marketed for arachnids and insects. I also bought a kritter keeper for its cup to sit in.

I'm going to test it on the crickets before putting it anywhere near the sling.

 

[AntlerAlchemist]

I think a lot of other keepers will tell you to get a space hear for the room. Or if that isn't an option to use a heating pad, but not directly on the spiders enclosure. Hopefully someone else with experience will chime in. I am afraid the light may cook your spider, and most do not like to have a strong light source on them.

 

[kasstro]

Place mat on one of the sides of the critter keeper, not on the bottom, not on the top. Put cup inside of keeper, on the side opposite of the heater (as in, as far as the cup can possibly go from the heater) leave the lid off of the keeper so as to not hold in too much heat.

But a temporary set up until you get a space heater, not a guarantee either as I'm just throwing out a guess.

When you get a space heater, buy a scorpion and use the heat mat for it instead. Or return the mat to the store and say it wasn't working and you were able to find another one. Whatever floats your boat.

 

[TheDuchess]

Unfortunately a space heater isn't an option, as much as I would love one.

My housemate has been winning the argument about how warm the house should be. I have an electric blanket on constantly because of how cold he keeps it.

I will try the mat thing! My snake has a heat mat so I can play around with that. Thank you.