# Good Way to Feed Fruit Flies to Slings!



## MES (Dec 9, 2018)

Hey everyone!
I've raised up one sling, and I am raising one right now, and I can tell you, it's a pain to feed them! I don't have access to any pinhead crickets, so I have to go for fruit flies. Today, while feeding my B. albopilosum "Nicaragua" sling, I came up with a way to feed it without wasting/spilling fruit flies everywhere:
1.) In your sling's cup, cut or drill a hole big enough for a drinking straw to fit into. (With the lid off of course, so as not to hurt your sling). Plug it up with paper towel (I used this), cotton, fabric, etc.
	

		
			
		

		
	



2.) Get a sandwich baggie, and cut a small hole in the corner, just big enough for your straw to fit through
	

		
			
		

		
	



3.) Tap down the fruit flies off the lid of the culture, take the lid off, and quickly put the baggie over it. You may have to hold the bag tight around the top so no flies escape. (Picture: You would have the lid off, just a demo)


4.) After you have the desired amount of flies in the bag, try to separate them into a corner of the bag to pinch them off from the opening of the culture. Tap down the extra fruit flies like in step 3, then take the baggie off, and put the culture lid back on. Zip up the bag. 
5.) Make sure you straw is in the very corner of the bag, with about 1/4 inch remaining in the bag
	

		
			
		

		
	



6.) Unplug the hole in your sling's cup, and insert the straw
7.) Try to guide/let the fruit flies fall into the straw. Flick the straw if they are stuck on the inside of it.
8.) When all the flies are in the cup, remove the straw and re-plug the hole

I hope this helps, and sorry for the bad pictures!

Reactions: Funny 2


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## Keke713 (Dec 9, 2018)

MES said:


> Hey everyone!
> I've raised up one sling, and I am raising one right now, and I can tell you, it's a pain to feed them! I don't have access to any pinhead crickets, so I have to go for fruit flies. Today, while feeding my B. albopilosum "Nicaragua" sling, I came up with a way to feed it without wasting/spilling fruit flies everywhere:
> 1.) In your sling's cup, cut or drill a hole big enough for a drinking straw to fit into. (With the lid off of course, so as not to hurt your sling). Plug it up with paper towel (I used this), cotton, fabric, etc.
> 
> ...


Wow that’s a lot of work lol! Why not just cut up mealworms???

Reactions: Agree 4 | Winner 1


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## MES (Dec 9, 2018)

Keke713 said:


> Wow that’s a lot of work lol! Why not just cut up mealworms???


I know, haha! Slings are difficult! I should try that, but right now he's so small (about 1/4 inch) I just thought of fruit flies to feed him. I'll give it a try next feeding, hopefully it will work, I hate fruit flies lol

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Teal (Dec 9, 2018)

Much easier is popping the culture in the fridge for a few minutes, or keeping the flies in by simply tapping the sides. But I rage quit fruit flies a long time ago. Dwarf white isopods are way easier! Or I cut up the tiny larvae of the tiny beetles in my dubia colony.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## antinous (Dec 9, 2018)

I've heard fruit flies are not as nutritious as other feeders and read on a FB group that someone noticed slower growth rates of their slings that fed on FF compared to other feeders. I always like the convenience of cut up mealworms, they eat their fill and become quite plump pretty quickly.

Reactions: Agree 2


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## The Grym Reaper (Dec 9, 2018)

I breed red runners and mealworms so I'm never short of appropriately sized feeders for slings. Never used fruit flies.


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## Theneil (Dec 9, 2018)

i have also heard that FFF are not great nutrition, but i have also heard that their nutritional value varies drastically depending on their diet   I believe @Gaherp  and @boina usually have something to say on the matter.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## MES (Dec 9, 2018)

Thank you guys for all the awesome information! Based on what you said, I'm going to try to switch my sling to mealworm pieces. Hopefully he will grow up better and faster! Thank you so much again!

Reactions: Like 2


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## boina (Dec 10, 2018)

Theneil said:


> i have also heard that FFF are not great nutrition, but i have also heard that their nutritional value varies drastically depending on their diet   I believe @Gaherp  and @boina usually have something to say on the matter.


Yes, fruit flies aren't the best feeders nutritionally. They'll work for a few instars but there is better stuff out there. They are also _too small_ for a B. albopilosum sling. Albopilosums aren't that tiny, and they are good hunters, too. 

(I just fed my own, really tiny Tapinauchenius slings roaches were bigger than the slings and all four had no problem taking them down. I just don't bother with micro-feeders anymore, I'm just not patient enough for that.)

Reactions: Agree 1


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## SonsofArachne (Dec 10, 2018)

The only thing I use fruit flies for are really small true spider slings, other than that they are pretty much worthless.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Gaherp (Dec 10, 2018)

Media available today is way better then any quick homemade recipes for the larvae. Also remember to add a pinch of two of yeast on top of the media for the adult flies. We can go back and forth & over and over until we are blue in the face. Folks are going to have an opinion on this subject be it good or bad. I will just leave it at the results. I produce tons of slings monthly with a good portion being dwarfs. They grow fast and healthy on a fruit fly diet. I have never witnessed these negative effects other folks are having and definitely no slow growth.

The larger slings move up to hydei and once they are too large for them it is roaches. Good idea with the fly catcher up top. We use toothpick containers since there is a a lot more flies we go through each feeding. Another container you may want to try is the one that Petsmart sells fruit flies in. It is a plastic vial with a lid once you remove the sponge and clean it out you end up with a perfect feeding vial with on hole in the top.


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## dangerforceidle (Dec 10, 2018)

Gaherp said:


> We can go back and forth & over and over until we are blue in the face.


Blue, you say?  Blue is very valuable in this hobby.

Reactions: Funny 3


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## cold blood (Dec 10, 2018)

nom nom (Nhandu chromatus)



__ cold blood
__ Jun 8, 2018
__ 1
__
brazilian red and white tarantula
chromatus
feeding
nhandu
nhandu chromatus
sling







Easier AND more nutritious....size of the sling is irrelevant, just dice smaller pieces...this sling is a mere 1/3".

Fruit flies are nutritionally deficient, and should only be used to supplement feeding, not as a primary food source.


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## Gaherp (Dec 10, 2018)

Like I said everyone has an opinion on flies. LOL


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## Anoplogaster (Dec 10, 2018)

Nutritionally poor or not, flies are a pain to deal with. Every sling I’ve ever raised will happily consume cricket legs.

Reactions: Like 1


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## cold blood (Dec 10, 2018)

Gaherp said:


> Like I said everyone has an opinion on flies. LOL


My "opinion" comes from an actual arachnologist and what his studies proved...@boina has also posted links to studies showing this with true spiders as well.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Minty (Dec 10, 2018)

I tried to use fruit flies when I got my first sling. This was before I read about them being poor nutrition, but the tarantula showed no interest in eating them, but it was fine with small crickets and cut up worms.


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## SonsofArachne (Dec 11, 2018)

I've not had much luck getting small trues (especially heteropoda) to eat pre-killed. I found a way around the poor nutrition thing, I just give them more flies, 10 or more at time, till they're large enough to eat pinhead roaches. This worked with my A. hentzi that refused to eat pre-killed too.


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## boina (Dec 11, 2018)

Gaherp said:


> Also remember to add a pinch of two of yeast on top of the media for the adult flies.


Not good enough. What you really need is a source of protein, like dog food. That's what scientists do that use Drosophila sp. in the lab as feeders. Drosophila are a poor source of essential amino acids. Slings will grow fine for a few instars but then growth will stagnate and finally they will die. None of the true spiders tested reached adulthood on a fruit fly only diet.

But yes, it will work for a few instars and I don't know if commercial medium has been supplemented with amino acids by now since it has been known for a while that Drosophila are deficient in those.


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## viper69 (Dec 15, 2018)

I often find I can substitute meat for fruit flies, because I get all the essential amino acids needed!


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## MES (Dec 24, 2018)

Update!
Based on all your suggestions, I ended up trying to feed a piece of mealworm, and it worked great!
My sling finished his entire (huge) meal, so I will definitely be feeding mealworm pieces in the future! 
Thanks again for all your feedback!

Reactions: Like 3


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## MikeofBorg (Dec 25, 2018)

Get a Dubia colony going.  I always have various sized roaches from adult to 1st instar to feed my Ts.  Just keep them fed, watered and mold free and they will constantly keep breeding.  I started my colony with 3 adult males and 5 adult female Dubia roaches along with 30 nymphs of various sizes tossed in.  Now I have at least 300+ living comfortably in a tote with a hollow log and some branches.  I tried egg crates, but they get too moist too quickly, and Dubias need humidity to breed and molt properly.  Also if you do start a Dubia colony avoid proteins, they are frugivores and too much protein causes them to get gout.  Gout can wipe a Dubia colony out very quickly.


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