First time buying slings!

[cold blood]

My only problem with breeding is I wouldn't know what to do with all the slings, even if I did split 50/50 I would still feel like I had to many haha

Huh? You sell them.

 

[antinous]

Huh? You sell them.

Or just have whoever you split the slings with send them to me instead...

 

[Adan]

Here's my take on "power feeding slings, but first I will start with what I consider to be the definition of power feeding....power feeding is the inference that food is always available, 24/7, unlimited...even you guys feeding daily don't meet that criteria, it is, IMO, just a heavier feeding schedule. True power feeding is what we see and complain about in pet stores, with crickets constantly roaming the cages, no one "in the know" does this....I hate the term within this hobby, there's really no correlation with the reptile hobby, its a term that only serves to confuse (like "birdeater").

Ok.......so, back when I was starting to raise slings and up until I had more than just a bunch to dote on, I fed like a lot of you guys are talking about, kept my slings warm and I got great growth rates...and I thought there was a direct correlation with the feeding schedule. Now that I have hundreds of slings, I feed once a week, I like to feed diced mealworms (and even a 1/3 of a mealworm is a pretty big sling meal), but small roaches and crickets are also used as well. Well here was the biggest surprise for me....my growth rates are essentially the same with my slower feeding schedule.

How could this be you say??? Well its simple, from molt 1 to molt 2, the t basically will require x amount of meals before it goes pre molt....and its new exo will also take x amount of days (which varies with temps) before the new exo is fully formed and the t is actually ready to molt. So lets say for the sake of easy numbers that a sling requires 10 meals to trigger pre-molt. I could feed those 10 meals over the course of 2 weeks or even a week...the t will be ready after those 10 meals, but the time required to grow a new exo is still basically the same, and is IME, dictated more by temps unless food is deprived. And if this amount of time is (just a number) 60 days, the heavy feeding schedule will simply result in a longer pre-molt fasting period as the t awaits the new growth to be completed....sometimes with slings waiting a month or more, fasting.

Conversely, I could take the same t, feed it once every 5-7 days and have a t, that while fattening a little slower, will still be able to be ready to molt in the same exact time period.

The only difference a more moderately paced feeding schedule makes is that it almost eliminates (or drastically reduces) pre-molt fasting as the t fattens at a more equal time in relation to its ability (for its body) to become physically ready to molt.

Moral of the story, feed your t and keep them warm for fastest growth, but how fast you dump food into them won't have the dramatic effect many people hope for and expect.....a dramatically reduced feeding schedule is more effective in slowing growth than the opposite is at speeding it.

Awesome that was a good read!

 

[Adan]

Huh? You sell them.

Well Yeah but is the market for GBB good, I just wouldnt want to get stuck with a lot of slings. Wife would have my head lol[/QUOTE]

 

[antinous]

Well Yeah but is the market for GBB good, I just wouldnt want to get stuck with a lot of slings. Wife would have my head lol

[/QUOTE]

It's good as long as you don't sell them for too high of a price. Everybody wants some of the blue and orange spiders (or ILLINI spiders, huh? @cold blood ) haha

 

[cold blood]

Well Yeah but is the market for GBB good, I just wouldnt want to get stuck with a lot of slings. Wife would have my head lol

[/QUOTE]
1. yes, there is always people wanting GBBs...like, always.

2. GBBs are notoriously difficult to breed and definitely not one to start with....just ask @EulersK

 

[Adan]

hmmm, would anyone want to take the female on a reverse loan then.........

 

[EulersK]

1. yes, there is always people wanting GBBs...like, always.

2. GBBs are notoriously difficult to breed and definitely not one to start with....just ask @EulersK

Yeah, just ask EulersK.

 

[Napier19]

Shoot yea there's a market for GBBs!! Id trade you another beardie for a couple!!! LPS never has GBB (well any T for that matter). When I ordered my first slings online I avoided the GBB trying to keep cost low due to the intimidation of keeping .5in slings for the first time.

 

[Adan]

Shoot yea there's a market for GBBs!! Id trade you another beardie for a couple!!! LPS never has GBB (well any T for that matter). When I ordered my first slings online I avoided the GBB trying to keep cost low due to the intimidation of keeping .5in slings for the first time.

understandable on the intimidation I have a 1/8 sling that I am absolutely terrified about losing... just sooo small haha

 

[Napier19]

understandable on the intimidation I have a 1/8 sling that I am absolutely terrified about losing... just sooo small haha

That's my feelings as well. It's convenient though because they are SUPER cheap at that size. I'm like an overbearing mother. It's constantly going in and asking hey baby you ok still alive are you hungry hahaha

 

[Napier19]

Correction. They are USUALLY really cheapER at That size compared to a 2.5in couterpart. So are still expensive even at that size. Lol

 

[Adan]

Well I do have a buddy near by that breeds Ts and he is willing to mate his male to my female so I might be bring you guys some slings in the future if and thats a big IF everything goes well!