Sling "over feeding" question

Niclou69

Arachnopeon
Joined
Feb 6, 2019
Messages
16
Hi! I'm very new to the hobby and I just got my first T (a C. Cyaneopubescens sling) a few weeks ago, so I hope my question isn't too stupid.

So pretty much, a few days ago I noticed my sling's abdomen had gotten very large, and it was shinier than it had been before. I figured that this was a sign of pre-moult, and got excited. I attempted to feed her a few days after that, just to be sure, and she ate without hesitation. So if she's not in pre-moult, is she just fat? I know that it's not possible to powerfeed tarantulas like it is with snakes, but I have seen people stop feeding an adult for a while when it gets fat.

So my question is should I maybe cut back on the food a bit, or is this completely normal? Not only is the abdomen large, but it's also kind of shiny as well, is this also normal for a spider that's just fat? If she is just fat, should I keep feeding her like normal, or would that be unhealthy? My sling is around 1/2 and I've been feeding her twice a week (the mealworms I feed her are a bit large, which is why I feed twice a week rather than every other day).
 

The Seraph

Arachnolord
Joined
Sep 14, 2018
Messages
601
Hi! I'm very new to the hobby and I just got my first T (a C. Cyaneopubescens sling) a few weeks ago, so I hope my question isn't too stupid.

So pretty much, a few days ago I noticed my sling's abdomen had gotten very large, and it was shinier than it had been before. I figured that this was a sign of pre-moult, and got excited. I attempted to feed her a few days after that, just to be sure, and she ate without hesitation. So if she's not in pre-moult, is she just fat? I know that it's not possible to powerfeed tarantulas like it is with snakes, but I have seen people stop feeding an adult for a while when it gets fat.

So my question is should I maybe cut back on the food a bit, or is this completely normal? Not only is the abdomen large, but it's also kind of shiny as well, is this also normal for a spider that's just fat? If she is just fat, should I keep feeding her like normal, or would that be unhealthy? My sling is around 1/2 and I've been feeding her twice a week (the mealworms I feed her are a bit large, which is why I feed twice a week rather than every other day).
I just stop feeding when the sling looks fat. Spiders can sometimes take food while in premolt. Also, could you post a picture of the enclosure? Finally, that is a very frequent schedule. I would just feed until it looks fat then stop.
 

Niclou69

Arachnopeon
Joined
Feb 6, 2019
Messages
16
I just stop feeding when the sling looks fat. Spiders can sometimes take food while in premolt. Also, could you post a picture of the enclosure? Finally, that is a very frequent schedule. I would just feed until it looks fat then stop.
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I don't really know what it has to do with my question, but if you want to critique my setup i'm down for that! It's got an opaque lid so I had to open it to get the pictures. Personally I don't think it's an ideal setup, I think it's a bit small. I have a few larger ones setup, but the holes I put into them are a bit big, so I'd rather have her in a small enclosure for a while than risk her escaping. I also really wish I could get a hide in there, but I could not for the life of me find something small enough, plus I read that C. Cyaneopubescens don't hide all that often, so i'm not super worried about it. The thing in the middle is a little piece of cork bark for her to web on.

I didn't know that spiders sometimes took food while in pre-moult! If she's in pre-moult should I keep feeding her until she refuses, or should I leave her be? And yeah, I know that a lot of people just stop feeding when the t looks fat, but I only saw people doing that with adults, so I wasn't entirely sure if it would be okay to do with a sling.

It's kinda hard to capture on camera, but you can see a little bit of the shine on her abdomen in the first picture. Also, I know it looks like she's missing a leg. She's not, it's just a lot smaller than all the others and you cant see it in the picture. She probably had a bad moult before I got her or something, and i'm just hoping that it'll be back to normal within a moult or two.
 

The Seraph

Arachnolord
Joined
Sep 14, 2018
Messages
601


I don't really know what it has to do with my question, but if you want to critique my setup i'm down for that! It's got an opaque lid so I had to open it to get the pictures. Personally I don't think it's an ideal setup, I think it's a bit small. I have a few larger ones setup, but the holes I put into them are a bit big, so I'd rather have her in a small enclosure for a while than risk her escaping. I also really wish I could get a hide in there, but I could not for the life of me find something small enough, plus I read that C. Cyaneopubescens don't hide all that often, so i'm not super worried about it. The thing in the middle is a little piece of cork bark for her to web on.

I didn't know that spiders sometimes took food while in pre-moult! If she's in pre-moult should I keep feeding her until she refuses, or should I leave her be? And yeah, I know that a lot of people just stop feeding when the t looks fat, but I only saw people doing that with adults, so I wasn't entirely sure if it would be okay to do with a sling.

It's kinda hard to capture on camera, but you can see a little bit of the shine on her abdomen in the first picture. Also, I know it looks like she's missing a leg. She's not, it's just a lot smaller than all the others and you cant see it in the picture. She probably had a bad moult before I got her or something, and i'm just hoping that it'll be back to normal within a moult or two.
For some reason I cannot see the images. I would just leave it be if it looks fat, it will most likely be fine.
 

The Seraph

Arachnolord
Joined
Sep 14, 2018
Messages
601
First off, that is rather small. If you can, try to rehome it as soon as you can. You really only have to worry about the ventilation if the holes are bigger than the cephalothorax (the part where the legs are connected to). Secondly, it looks like it could be at home in a Wal-Mart mobility scooter. It does not need more food. Hope this helps!
 
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Niclou69

Arachnopeon
Joined
Feb 6, 2019
Messages
16
First off, that is rather small. If you can, try to rehome it as soon as you can. You really only have to worry about the ventilation if the holes are bigger than the cephalothorax (the part where the keys are connected to). Secondly, it looks like it could be at home in a Wal-Mart mobility scooter. It does not need more food. Hope this helps!
Awesome, thanks so much! I do have other more appropriately sized containers lying around, so I guess I'll just solder some holes into one and make sure they're smaller than the last one I did.
 

mack1855

Arachnoangel
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
Sep 5, 2016
Messages
820
YA...that little one can go for a while.Living off the fat of the land.And its got a lot of
land!!!Aint starving,thats for sure.Pull back on the feedings,just do water however you
are doing that,and wait.
 

Tenebrarius

Arachnoangel
Joined
Sep 8, 2018
Messages
912
dont worry your question wasn't too stupid ;). power feeding is a myth. you will want to avoid an obese T as it can sustain abdomen dragging.

it could probably molt one more time, I actually wouldn't bother it if it's in premolt, if it wasn't so close to molting I would go ahead.
 

The Grym Reaper

Arachnoreaper
Joined
Jul 19, 2016
Messages
4,835
So if she's not in pre-moult, is she just fat?
Yes.

In regards to the rest of your post, you cannot technically overfeed a sling, they have short moult cycles, light bodies and put everything into growth, I feed slings under 1" every 3 days until they refuse food. Just remember that as a tarantula gets larger it will need to be fed less often (e.g. slings every 3-5 days, juvies every 7-10 days, adults once or twice a month).

I have seen people stop feeding an adult for a while when it gets fat.
The reason you see people putting larger tarantulas on diets is that an excessively large abdomen puts the tarantula at a higher risk of sustaining injuries or even dying from falls, it also increases the risk of the tarantula sustaining drag injuries because they eventually get so fat that they can't raise their abdomens when they walk, this can damage the book lungs or even cause the abdomen to rupture. Once my tarantulas pass the juvie stage I try not to let the abdomen exceed 1.5x carapace size, if it gets over 2x carapace size then I feed smaller meals and increase the amount of time between feedings.
 
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Niclou69

Arachnopeon
Joined
Feb 6, 2019
Messages
16
dont worry your question wasn't too stupid ;). power feeding is a myth. you will want to avoid an obese T as it can sustain abdomen dragging.

it could probably molt one more time, I actually wouldn't bother it if it's in premolt, if it wasn't so close to molting I would go ahead.
I actually just rehoused her a few hours ago, so I hope I didn't stress her out too much:eek:

I'm actually not sure wether she's in pre-moult or not, since I'm really new and I haven't really gotten much experience with what a pre-moult and non pre-mount tarantula looks like yet. I'm kind of hoping that she's not, since like I said, I literally just rehoused her a few hours ago. Everything went smoothly though, and it's not like I can time travel back to a few hours ago and not rehouse her, so I guess all I can do is leave her alone and hope I didn't stress her out too much.
 

Tenebrarius

Arachnoangel
Joined
Sep 8, 2018
Messages
912
I actually just rehoused her a few hours ago, so I hope I didn't stress her out too much:eek:

I'm actually not sure wether she's in pre-moult or not, since I'm really new and I haven't really gotten much experience with what a pre-moult and non pre-mount tarantula looks like yet. I'm kind of hoping that she's not, since like I said, I literally just rehoused her a few hours ago. Everything went smoothly though, and it's not like I can time travel back to a few hours ago and not rehouse her, so I guess all I can do is leave her alone and hope I didn't stress her out too much.
it was probably just fat. dont stress out, it is not big deal, I have heard of Ts molting during transport so rehouse is no biggie.
 

Tenebrarius

Arachnoangel
Joined
Sep 8, 2018
Messages
912
Oh, okay, good! I was a little nervous there for a sec!
just leave your fuzzy pal be for a bit. the reason people have so many Ts is because they are fairly low energy, low patience animals as long as you know what your doing.
 

Vanisher

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 2, 2004
Messages
2,533
I have another view on it! Feed until the sling doesnt eat any more despite it is fat or not. Feed 2 times a week. When the sling stops eating, you can wait 3 more days and try again. If sling doesnt eat this time eigher you know it is in premoult and you stop feeding. Fat can means diffrent for diffrent people. You cannot overfeed a sling, It is when the spider reach large juvenile stage you should slow down feeding to maybe one a week depending on speicies, atleast i do! overfeeding adult is a bad idea! But my thought is that feed slings as much as it wanna eat despite it is fat or not fat! This is my routine with slings
 

viper69

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 8, 2006
Messages
17,851
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I don't really know what it has to do with my question, but if you want to critique my setup i'm down for that! It's got an opaque lid so I had to open it to get the pictures. Personally I don't think it's an ideal setup, I think it's a bit small. I have a few larger ones setup, but the holes I put into them are a bit big, so I'd rather have her in a small enclosure for a while than risk her escaping. I also really wish I could get a hide in there, but I could not for the life of me find something small enough, plus I read that C. Cyaneopubescens don't hide all that often, so i'm not super worried about it. The thing in the middle is a little piece of cork bark for her to web on.

I didn't know that spiders sometimes took food while in pre-moult! If she's in pre-moult should I keep feeding her until she refuses, or should I leave her be? And yeah, I know that a lot of people just stop feeding when the t looks fat, but I only saw people doing that with adults, so I wasn't entirely sure if it would be okay to do with a sling.

It's kinda hard to capture on camera, but you can see a little bit of the shine on her abdomen in the first picture. Also, I know it looks like she's missing a leg. She's not, it's just a lot smaller than all the others and you cant see it in the picture. She probably had a bad moult before I got her or something, and i'm just hoping that it'll be back to normal within a moult or two.
Dude, your GBB is fatter than a hippo. No wonder it isn't eating. Don't rehouse it until after it molts, hardens up, and eats 1 meal.

no need to feed that one.
 
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