Buying several slings of the same species. Necessary?

[zonbonzovi]

That I understand, but couldn't personally trust my own judgement on ventral sexing. I'm terrible at it would prefer to have a molt if I must sell. If someone were to sell something as sexed and not divulge that it was ventrally sexed, I'd be hot if they turned out to be wrong.

 

[catfishrod69]

when i purchase slings, i usually purchase 4 at a time, that way there is a very good chance i get atleast 1 female...unless they are cheap slings, then i buy more....

 

[Hornets inverts]

i honestly believe more males hatch from a sac than female, i normally raise many more males than females. As for males maturing younger, i have found females to be mature much earlier then whats commonly believed and they mature around the same time as the males. The reason i think more males are produced than females is due to the fact males wander, leaving them vunerable to a much greater rate of predation than females that spend most of their time in their burrow

 

[Formerphobe]

As others have said, buying multiples of the same species increases the chances that you will get a female and at least some will survive to adulthood.
I've purchased both multiples and singletons. To date, I've only lost one sling @ <1cm dls (A. burica). It's sac mates continue to survive and seem to be thriving.
I have bought multiples because it was a deal... I like deals. If a package deal brings the per unit price down significantly and spreads the shipping cost out more, then that is more financially feasible to me than ordering a couple of singles. It costs as much to ship one sling as it does to ship 30.

I ordered 5 B. emilia sac mates at a group rate almost a year ago. It's been a lot of fun watching them grow at different rates, display varying behaviors, etc.

Some of my single sling purchases turned out to be male. Am I disappointed that they won't be around as long? Yeah. Did I enjoy having them and watching them grow? Most definitely! Could any of them have died at any point since I acquired them? Certainly. I tried to buy good stock from reputable breeders/distributors and luck and good husbandry were on my side.

I have no interest in breeding, so # of males vs females really makes no difference to me.

 

[tfd6506]

Well, I thank you all for the responses. I'm new to the boards, and of my few posts thus far, none have had as much user participation as this one, so I assume I picked a somewhat relevant topic for once, haha! The information that you have all given is quite helpful and I'm glad that my question has been partially answered, as the consensus seems to be that people purchase multiples more for chance at getting a female rather than worries about premature death. It seems that there is a good mix of people that purchase multiples as well as people that purchase one of each species. As I'm just beginning to get deep into this hobby and have not raised a single specimen from spiderling to adult yet, I think I will stick with purchasing single specimens of each species for now. As my my knowledge and husbandry methods improve over time, then perhaps I may decide to purchase multiples for breeding purposes or simply for species that I felt were more enjoyable to raise than others. Thanks again for the responses, all were most helpful!

 

[pavel]

Personally I see nothing wrong with only getting one -- but then that's what I've done. If I was planning on going into breeding then getting multiples would be the obvious choice -- though I would prefer not to get all siblings as to try to mix up the genes at least a little bit. Also if there was a species that I was just bonkers for, and was one that I very rarely saw offered, then I would seriously think about getting more than one sling at that time.

 

[advan]

With some species, it's definitely possible to ventrally sex at a young size. Even if you're not 100% accurate, you can drastically change the odds.

Agreed 100%

 

[Introvertebrate]

i honestly believe more males hatch from a sac than female, i normally raise many more males than females............

To some extent reptile breeders can manipulate the male/female ratio by changing the temperature at which the eggs are incubated.

 

[jayefbe]

To some extent reptile breeders can manipulate the male/female ratio by changing the temperature at which the eggs are incubated.

That's only with a handful of species that have temperature dependent sex determination. Which tarantulas do not have.