Almost ready!

x101

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 12, 2002
Messages
27
WoooHooo! Alright guys and gals, this newbie has got most of his stuff together. Watering hole, cork bark, and a good fir bark for the substrate. My cage should be comming in the mail on Monday, and when I get that, I'll order my sling from Swift. It will be so great to get too see it grow up and mature. I don't know if Swift sexes his T's or if you can when they are slings, but I hope I get a good female, since they live longer than males. I hope to have this one for a long time.
Anything else you guys think I should need???? I need a bottle for some misting, though right now it's plenty humid. I'll take any suggestions :)

Brentt
 

Botar

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 27, 2002
Messages
1,441
Congrats on the pending little one. What are you getting? Did you read the previous thread on caging requirements for the little ones? If you're getting a sling, you could probably go ahead and order since it will be a while until it's ready for adult housing anyway. You'll need a suitable small enclosure that will aid in keeping humidity levels high. Immortal Sin has listed various types of enclosures she uses which are common household or dollar store items.

Botar
 

Paul Day

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 8, 2002
Messages
123
Hey man sounds great... but if these are slings you are ordering it may be a while until you can use that all unfortunatly... your spiderlings will either need to live in vials, or in deli containers as they gradually progress upward. It's like buying a 50 gallon for a goldfish, hehe :) You'll lose it. Of course you never mentioned how large the enclosure was... but I'm assuming you planned for it as if it was an adult, right? It's a good idea, but make sure you have some containers or jars ready with substrate when the spiderlings arive. Also, if the spiderlings are arboreal, think about investing in an inexpensive fake plant. You can clip the leaves off the plant and use them in the deli container for the spider to crawl on. They are reuseable, and will last a while. If you need some good deli containers, there are some that come in packages of 10 or 25 from Black Jungle Terrarium Supply which have worked for me well. They are made for fruit flies, but work for tarantulas quite well and have good ventilation (it's a mesh on top) which is easily restricted with tape if you live in a dry house. They are not expensive either, and are better then poking holes in your tupperware! :)

http://www.blackjungle.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=BJTS&Category_Code=F

Anywho, hope that helps, and I certainly hope you enjoy your slings.

Pauly
 

Code Monkey

Arachnoemperor
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 22, 2002
Messages
3,783
Originally posted by x101
I don't know if Swift sexes his T's or if you can when they are slings, but I hope I get a good female, since they live longer than males. I hope to have this one for a long time.
It is theoretically possible to sex slings around 1.5" by microscopic examination of the genital slit for presence of epiandrous fusilae (indicating a male). I had a big thread on this on the old YABB version of this forum.

However:

None of the reputable dealers do this for a number of reasons. Among them are that it's not as reliable on small slings as would be needed to sex them definitively enough to be making any guarantees. It's also too time consuming when you're caring for thousands of slings, shipping orders, and working a "real" job. Last is that if they knew (even with the uncertainty factor) the sex of smaller slings, they'd have to charge accordingly - the way it is now, you flip your coin and see what you get.

Swift deals almost entirely in slings too small to even be using that method anyway. The short of it is that it's impractical to sex Ts less than about 2.5" when it becomes much easier to determine conclusively.

Think of it like this:
You can buy four 1" B. smithi slings for $100 and almost certainly get at least one female out of the bunch, or you can buy one 4" B. smithi female for $100. If getting the known female is that important, you pay the $100 for one, if not, you pay $25 for one, buy up three other Ts, and enjoy them all. What you might want to consider is ordering more than one to increase your odds.
 

Paul Day

Arachnosquire
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Sep 8, 2002
Messages
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Hey Codemonkey:

I certainly like that idea! I never (stupidly) thought about it in that way. And I was just going to buy a sexed speciman... huh.

Thanks man,
Pauly
 

LaRiz

Arachnodemon
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Messages
672
My thoughts on housing spiderlings...

Ever think as to why we use "appropriately" sized vials for spiderlings as opposed to larger enclosures? We've all been taught to use vials and smaller enclosures for spiderlings, juveniles and sub-adults. Mostly because, if you put a spiderling in, say a ten gallon aquarium, where it may have several places to hide, then throw in some food, one cricket, the spiderling may never get a chance to eat that cricket, because the cricket has too many places to hide.
Also, vials are convenient, and save space. Space you might need for many more spiderlings for your collections :D And there are other reasons.
Now, by putting your spiderling in a vial (so it could find food items, be fed easily, etc.), you may be missing some interesting and notable behaviors.
Say you decide to set up your spiderling in a ten gal. semi-naturally decorated aquarium. You've checked everything. No escape, can't slip thru holes, etc. You let the little fella free (large cage=next best thing to the great outdoors). It finds a favorite spot, and either begins to burrow, builds a tube web, or finds a nice crack in some corkbark (you get the idea). Now, that's were it lives. You make sure that you don't throw in too many prey items (they might team up and coordinate a coup), and perhaps visually watch your spiderling eat. You'll see behaviors not normally seen by the people keeping them in vials. Of course there's downsides to keeping in this manner (maybe you won't see your s'ling as much as you'd like). Take the right precautions, it's should thrive and be well.
Hey, I keep my spiderlings in a vial, for my convenience. But if you think about how a ten gallon may look, and how it will look well lived-in when the spiderling gathers bits of the environment to camo up it's webbing. Or how the tube web of a choice arboreal is inter-twined amonst the corkbark, branches or whatever. Perhaps, a hobbyist who keeps a spiderling like this may teach us something.
Don't close your mind, because you read a book, or took someones sound advice. There is still some mysteries for us to find in this hobby. That's makes it great.
john
 

Paul Day

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 8, 2002
Messages
123
Hey LaRiz, what's up.

I certainly think what you have proposed here is interesting!! I am interested in trying this with an arboreal spider, as it seems like it couldn't hurt. As for terrestrials, I don't think I'd ever get to see them :). But certainly you'd get to see some interesting behavior... perhaps larger more intricate webs?

But of course, buy a couple of Avicularia or Pokie slings and put them all together in a 10 gallon, and that might get real interesting. Anyway, something new for a change from the drab vials and deli containers were used to.

I don't advocate this advice though, to anyone who doesn't have good tarantula experience first. I myself don't feel comfortable housing multiple tarantulas together, but it can be done, with certain species, and a good knowledge base to prevent canibalism.

Anyway, that's all I have to add. It's nice to get some new approches every now and then.

Pauly
 
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x101

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 12, 2002
Messages
27
Hmm, my encloser is not going to be to big, and I also plan on not having to many things that would provide a good place for the sling to hid. My substrate is a good one for keeping crickets from hiding, and it also is pretty good at holding a decent amount of moister.

Tell me more about this vial thing. Since this will be my first sling, I've never raised on in a vial. Give me some more detail.
 

LaRiz

Arachnodemon
Old Timer
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Aug 7, 2002
Messages
672
Paul,
Yup, I think the arboreals would might be a tad more fun for a project like this. I'm preferential when it comes to arboreals, especially the Poecilotheria.
Currently, I have a 3" Chilobrachys fimbriatus that's been kept in the same enclosure since it was a teeny tiny (little ones are like mites). They're prolific webbers to begin with, so it has a nice maze of webbing going. I'm certain there are trip snares in there 'cause as soon as a cricket touches the web...BAM! I should take some pics.
john
 

x101

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 12, 2002
Messages
27
If my enclosure were to have very little other than substrate and some cord bark, would it be safe to put the sling in the enclosure? My encloser should be 12" Long, 7.5" Wide, 8" High with plenty of venalation.
 

x101

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 12, 2002
Messages
27
One other thing. I will be feeding the sling pinhead crickets and mealworms? Where are the best places to purchase these?
 

Paul Day

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 8, 2002
Messages
123
The pinheads and mealworms can be purchased many different places online. I couldn't give you a place at the moment, but I suggest going on the some of the different dealer reviews places on this forum and looking at the different reptile food distributors rated.

As for ventilation, I tend to agree that vials can be tricky, but also you rarely will have to make a vial very moist to get it humid. It is just such a small space that a tiny spritz will normally do. Using a inert material such as vermiculite as substrate here is a plus against mold and other grossness.

As for trying the "higher-then-average-room" for the spiderling trick described earlier, if you feel confident, go for it. The dimensions don't sound too big to try this at all. But make sure you cover up the ventilation well, as humidity will escape easily and be harder to maintain for the spiderling. Also make sure that it can't escape through any cracks in the enclosure.

Good luck,
Pauly
 

x101

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 12, 2002
Messages
27
Ok, I looked around the web for pinheads, but I don't seem to be able to find anyplaces that sells less than a thousand at a time, and being a college student, I don't have room to maintain crickets. Does anyone know any good sites to find a much lower number of pinheads I can buy regularly?
 
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Paul Day

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 8, 2002
Messages
123
I am assuming you only have a few spiderlings to feed?
In that case, you don't need pinheads... you can just buy some big crickets and tear them into pieces for your spiderlings. Pinheads have limited usage unless your spider is 1/4 of an inch or smaller, plus as Codemonkey said earlier, they are a pain. Crickets don't take up a lot of space... you can keep 1000 in a rubbermade tub. And there are many places which sell 500... Grooms Cricket Farm comes to mind (just search for it on google... I don't remember the address). 500 pinheads or even 500 1/4 of an inch (which is probably what you need, but I do not know the size of the spiderlings you have purchased) can fit in a 4-5 gallon tub easily! :)

Anywho, try the tearing crickets trick, and you can store them and leftovers in the freezer and you can also break them up that way... make sure you don't leave the parts in there too long in the enclosure or they will go rotton.

Most pet stores sell small crickets. I don't know where your from, but where I come from you ask for big or little... and they usually come in dozens. Try looking around your area for other pet stores that may have "small" crickets.

Pauly
 
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