New slings.

[tskeeperph]

I recently got new t's but they're 1.5 cm sling. This is my first time keeping slings. Any tips on how to take good care of them until they reach adult phase? I got. L. parahybana and B. albiceps slings

 

[Hoxter]

Offer prekilled prey, don't give them too big enclosures. Im not that familiar with these two species so about other stuff others can give you much more detailed answers.

 

[asunshinefix]

I personally don't feed prekilled prey - I just feed crickets that are about the size of the spider's body (abdomen and cephalothorax) or a little smaller, not including legs. Prekilled is fine though if small prey isn't accessible to you. I also like to give my little ones tiny water dishes - someone on here, can't remember who, mentioned using monopoly houses as water dishes until the slings are big enough for a bottle cap.

Slings need higher humidity than bigger spiders but otherwise the care is about the same. Eventually the B. albiceps will need a much less humid environment than the LP, but all slings pretty much have the same care requirements.

 

[Barry67]

I have been thinking about how i introduce water to my very small slings had not considered monopoly pieces, i have resulted in using tin foil and making as small as a bowl as i can manage with my big clumsy fingers it works, but i suspect the odd house would be better..

 

[Enrgy]

Keep the lp on moist sub

Wet one part of the sub for the brachypelma and u can give it a water dish if the enclosure allows it.

albiceps is one of the slowest growers out there so be prepared for food refusal and inactivity.

But luckily for u, u have an lp. One of the fastest growers out there, so that balances things out I hope lol.

Slings need higher humidity than bigger spiders but otherwise the care is about the same. Eventually the B. albiceps will need a much less humid environment than the LP, but all slings pretty much have the same care requirements.

Humidity is irrelevant for tarantulas

 

[Hoxter]

Prekilled is fine though if small prey isn't accessible to you.

I wouldn't necessarily agree with that, might be true for most but not all tarantulas.
For example my G. rosea only takes prekilled mealworms. In contact with super small alive prey all it does is either running away or just giving a threat posture.
I must say it's super amusing to see less than 2cm big tarantula tapping on the ground.

 

[Taranchura]

I feed my prey baby/freshly hatched crickets and they take them down just fine. Keep them a bit more moist. Of course, every sling/tarantula is different. My GBB for example won't take any other prey than medium sized Crickets (She will bite other prey but then as soon as she realized its not a medium sized cricket back off immediatly). As for the dishes, slings are fine without one. You can spray a bit of water on the walls of the enclosure once a week and if it wants to drink it will do so.

 

[Vanisher]

I recently got new t's but they're 1.5 cm sling. This is my first time keeping slings. Any tips on how to take good care of them until they reach adult phase? I got. L. parahybana and B. albiceps slings

You dont have to offer prekilled pray! Why??? Preferable give them.live pray! It is only when suspected to moult it is smart to give prekilled! Give them live pray, but small live pray. Half the size of the sling is good, but slings can overpower larger pray than that. Only when tarantula sling is in premoult or moulting prey can be dangrous to the sling! In 19 years of taeantula keeping i have never had a cricket or roach hurt a sling, and i sometimes gives pray as large as the sling! Tarantulas has evolved their hunting and killing skills during millions of years, so that a normal food item coukd hurt a healthy tarantula sling, i dont buy! Give it small crickets, small roachers and small worms!

 

[Barry67]

I recently got new t's but they're 1.5 cm sling. This is my first time keeping slings. Any tips on how to take good care of them until they reach adult phase? I got. L. parahybana and B. albiceps slings

I am also a recent sling owner most of my questions were answered by this video
Part 1

Part 2

I understand this youtuber to be a good source of info but obviously my knowledge is not good enough to say he is a good source or even if the videos are still accurate

 

[tskeeperph]

Thank you very much for the tips. I just felt lost when i got these slings. I've been keeping juvies and adult tarantula since

My LP is this big as of the moment and he's been hiding under the substrate

 

[Hoxter]

@Vanisher I simply meant some slings might feel indimidated by live pray, just like my G. rosea is. It won't touch anything that actually moves no matter how small it is, however it grabs really fast mealworms cut in half.
I agree they usually slings won't have problems with it, however it's just better to take this option in mind.

 

[Enrgy]

I am also a recent sling owner most of my questions were answered by this video
Part 1

Part 2

I understand this youtuber to be a good source of info but obviously my knowledge is not good enough to say he is a good source or even if the videos are still accurate

Yea his videos are accurate. He’s quite reputable

 

[The Grym Reaper]

You dont have to offer prekilled pray! Why???

Because not every sling is a haemolymph-crazed Nhandu/Acanthoscurria/Phormic that will happily tackle live prey bigger than itself, some slings will cack themselves and run away from even small prey items whereas the vast majority of slings will happily scavenge feed.

It also saves a lot of time when checking who's eating or not when you're raising a bunch of slings, if I leave a pre-killed item somewhere in the enclosure then I can generally tell if the sling has eaten by whether or not it's in the exact same place I left it (same place = refusal/moved = partially eaten/gone = fully eaten). Then there's the fact that I don't have to muck about trying to fish a live feeder out of a burrow because the sling wasn't interested.

 

[Mydknight]

I have been thinking about how i introduce water to my very small slings had not considered monopoly pieces.

Go with the hotel. They're worth it.

 

[The Grym Reaper]

I have been thinking about how i introduce water to my very small slings had not considered monopoly pieces

Go with the hotel. They're worth it.

They're what I use in my larger deli cup enclosures, just trim the excess bit of roof so you can pull them out without ripping up the sub if needed.

View media item 56979View media item 49384

 

[Vanisher]

Because not every sling is a haemolymph-crazed Nhandu/Acanthoscurria/Phormic that will happily tackle live prey bigger than itself, some slings will cack themselves and run away from even small prey items whereas the vast majority of slings will happily scavenge feed.

It also saves a lot of time when checking who's eating or not when you're raising a bunch of slings, if I leave a pre-killed item somewhere in the enclosure then I can generally tell if the sling has eaten by whether or not it's in the exact same place I left it (same place = refusal/moved = partially eaten/gone = fully eaten). Then there's the fact that I don't have to muck about trying to fish a live feeder out of a burrow because the sling wasn't interested.

I have bred G rosea and even if the slings are picky, they have no problem taking down live prey! Those speicies should preferable be offered smaller prey than say a Nhandu. One have to regulate preysize to the type of tarantula speicies, giving a Nhandu or genic larger preys than say a G rosea, but i still think its preferable to go with live food rather than dead! But i often gives them dead food. When i dont know if a sling is about to moult or not! Then i dont want a cochroach running around or a worm to dig down i give them prekillled prey.

@Vanisher I simply meant some slings might feel indimidated by live pray, just like my G. rosea is. It won't touch anything that actually moves no matter how small it is, however it grabs really fast mealworms cut in half.
I agree they usually slings won't have problems with it, however it's just better to take this option in mind.

This may be the case! Sometimes certain slings are nervous around prey and seems to be afraid of them! In this case prey is to large! Then feed them smaller prey! If they are still afraid of the small prey give them even smaller prey! , If they are still afraid of those very small prey, i'd say something is wrong with the tarantula! In that case sure offer dead prey, but i have never experienced this scenario!
Some speicies read Phormictopus, Acanthoscurria and Lasiodora are much more bold and fearless to large prey than other speicies. Thats just how things are! Simple solution is to downsize prey alot! Simple as that! Or give dead prey if you doesnt have very small preyitems!

 

[The Grym Reaper]

I have bred G rosea and even if the slings are picky, they have no problem taking down live prey! Those speicies should preferable be offered smaller prey than say a Nhandu. One have to regulate preysize to the type of tarantula speicies, giving a Nhandu or genic larger preys than say a G rosea

My N. chromatus and A. musculosa females that I've had since they were 1cm wouldn't even take pinhead crickets that were smaller than their abdomens until they'd more than doubled in size (they'd literally attack anything that moved after that) yet, on the other hand, I've had dinky little Brachys and Grammos that would happily take down prey almost as big as themselves right off the bat so the issue isn't prey size or even really species (out of my C. leetzi slings, the one that is still alive was terrified of pinhead lats until recently, the one that died was an absolute savage). If the individual is timid, they're timid, even the most timid sling will take pre-killed until they're confident enough to subdue live prey.

but i still think its preferable to go with live food rather than dead

I've never seen a healthy sling not take pre-killed if it was hungry. It's not even as if you're feeding them rotten food as it's removed well before it either starts to dessicate or mould. All you're doing is removing the need for the spider to expend energy/resources to subdue it itself.

 

[Vanisher]

Yes i agree with that, just think its good to simulate hunting!? But probably it diesnt matter? Main thing is that they get their food! The thing i argued about is that some prople think that prey can hurt sling, witch i dont think! Unless the orey is much larger than the tarantula

 

[weibkreux]

Most slings are scavengers, they will eat prey alive or not. Its mostly case to case basis, not all slings are ready to jump on live prey unless they get bigger themselves.

 

[Vanisher]

Yes i know! But i have had instances when prekilled prey have not worked Some slings are more inactive than others and sometimes they have not found the prekilled food item snd the fooditem have begun to mold! I then put in some lively pinhead crickets and the sling emideatly took them down! So even if slings gladly eats prekilled prey, this aspect is umportant to!