First time rasing baby Tarantula, Need advice

[Jerm357]

As soon as the weather gets a little warmer around here (a few days) Im going to place an order with TarantulaCages.com for a 3/4" G. pulchra which comes with a free 1/4" B. smithi. This will be my first time rasing Tarantulas this small and Im a little nervous. I have not had a Tarantula for over 10 years, but Im not new to taking care of exotic animals. Right now I have two 5' Green Iguanas that I raised from 3" babies and a pond with 11 Japanese Koi from 12 to 27" long all raised from babies.

Im really wanting to get back into the Tarantula game so I have been reading as much info as I can find but I have a few questions.

How hard is it to actually raise spiders this small? I mean 1/4" is sooo tiny and 3/4" is not much bigger.

Are the breed of spiders I choose good to try to do this with?

I am planning on using 50/50 mix of sphagnum peat moss and vermiculite. Is this good for these types of Tarantulas?

Am I ordering from the right place?

Im going to need all the advice you can give me on how to do this. This is the info I plan to go by. http://www.tarantulas.com/spiderlings.html It sounds like some good info but if there are any tricks I should know please let me know.

 

[scar is my t]

keep them in the container they come in (well remake the cage (substrate))
when they molt move them to the apprpiate cage size
if you do that you should survive and it is a good freebe but its free so if it dies no worrys it was free i would be bummed but its better then spending $100 on it and it dies a week later

 

[c'est ma]

How very, very exciting!! I absolutely LOVE raising T's from slings...You are in for such a treat!

I have one 7-year-old female GBB that we raised from a very small sling, and 9 current slings, that I've had from 9 months, 6 months, & 4 months ago. All are doing well. (Before that we had store-bought sub-adult rosies which were all males and so did not last long after their ultimate molts...)

The information you've found is quite good, and there are plenty of other resources online, plus great info in the Tarantula Keeper's Guide, and maybe another book or two...so I'm not going to repeat all that advice, just encourage you to enjoy every minute and not worry about things.

Here is a pic of my B. smithi sling the day I got him/her, 9/17/08. BTW, that's a millimeter scale below:

Here s/he is on 11/01, when I was amazed to discover s/he'd lost a leg! Since I never handle these little guys, or do anything to interfere with them, I have to think it was just one of those proverbial "bad molt" incidents:

As is usually the case, the leg reappears with each successive molt. Here she is as of 3/8/09, just a few weeks ago:

S/he molted just a week after that shot, and seems to have taken a relatively huge leap in leg spread, though her/his vial is still perfectly roomy. S/he has molted 3 times since I've had her/him.

S/he is on coco fiber, which I find very convenient and all my T's seem to like...her hide is a quarter of a black film canister, and there is a piece of a dried magnolia leaf in there, on which she spends most of her time. S/he will sometimes run for her hide when I open the vial, but spends most of her time sitting on the leaf piece, most viewable. Quite unlike my B. albopilosum sling, which has dug an extensive burrow system in its vial and stays below the surface, or the Aphonopelma waconum sling which stayed buried for several weeks before re-emerging.

I like to feed the very smallest slings wingless Drosophila, which I have on hand because I also have a dart frog...I am also very lucky to have a fairly close pet store that always has 10-day crickets available. There are other ways to feed tiny slings, but these items work very well.

The only thing I might suggest would be to consider getting even more in your first shipment. This is because the slings themselves are usually pretty cheap, compared to the shipping costs, and it's really not much more difficult to keep half a dozen, say, than two. And also because it is so fascinating to observe how different they are. The first batch of five I received last June contained two more tropical NW spp--a Nhandu & a Lasiodora--that have grown like weeds (now in the 2.25-2.5" range), while the A. behlei from the same batch buried himself for more than 5 months (!) and is still only ~ .75" at the most.

I'm sure with your other animal experience you will have the sort of mind to pull off this project with no problems whatsoever. Can't wait to hear about your first impressions!

 

[Fyreflye]

Welcome, Jerm!

I too am about to order my first sling (my first T, actually), and am quite nervous about it! I've bottle-raised litters of newborn puppies and kittens, but have never cared for a baby as tiny as my sling will be!

My advice: do a LOT of reading. There is so much information to be learned on these forums, and other sites, if you just look. There's a search option on the toolbar to the top of the forum, and will find for you all threads that mention the topic that you choose (substrate, feeding, habitat, species specifics, etc).

I've been told to keep it simple. Keep the little ones protected, and try not to over-do it at first.

Looking forward to hearing stories and seeing pics soon!

 

[SCORPIONNOOB]

I have had my new slings for about 2 weeks now. A B. Smithi that came 3/4 of an inch and a P. irminia that was 1 inch+ I have both of them set up in 3 inch tall baby jars half filled with peat moss. They eat like horses and I feed them every 3rd day a small cricket which they seam to hunt efficiently. Some slings are harder than others to raise, but its far from rocket science :} Good luck and cheers!

 

[Jerm357]

Thanks for all the replys. I just ordered my T's today and they should be here tuesday. I cant wait.

c'est ma, in the pic you posted it looks like your using paper towls as bedding, if so how long did you keep the B. smithi on it before changing it to coco fiber?

Mine said it was going to be shipped in a plastic container packed with a paper towel. Should I be keeping them like this for a little while or should I replace the paper towl with coco fiber soon? People say to keep them in the container they come in but, "packed with a paper towel" does not sound right to me. Yours look more like a bed then packed though. I guess I just need to wait and see what is being sent first before I try and figure every thing out right now.

 

[c'est ma]

Jeremy,

The first picture of my last post was taken right after the sling arrived, on the material it had been wrapped in. My vendor usually uses something like damp cheesecloth, but it does look more like paper towels in the pics.

Here's a pic of the other sling I got in the same shipment, sitting on the material he'd been wrapped in. (This is an Aphonopelma waconum. Delightful little guy, & very slow-growing. The B. smithi is probably twice as big as he is, now!):

These are the little condiment cups my slings come in. I suppose you could keep your T's in them for a while, but I wouldn't find it too convenient...not the clearest view into them, and a bit disruptive to open...(cup on far side contains a bunch of free baby crickets, compliments of the vendor ):

I do like to start my slings out on damp tissue, tho...makes it easier to observe them for a few days and get pics through the sides of their vials:

This pic taken through a 12X loupe:

But as soon as you add food, you start seeing mold...and it's not considered the "proper" way to keep them (translation: prepare to be flamed if you do). However, in "the old days," T books often advised keeping them on paper towels, etc. Nowadays it's mostly used for ICUs or other special conditions. The spiders prefer coco, peat, etc.--esp. the burrowers, of course! But they're going to be fine for a few days to a week or more on paper towels or tissue...after all, they were probably incubated on coffee filters not that long ago!

 

[Mushroom Spore]

and it's not considered the "proper" way to keep them (translation: prepare to be flamed if you do). However, in "the old days," T books often advised keeping them on paper towels, etc.

T books in "the old days" advised a LOT of practices that we now know to be harmful. For instance, telling people that you have to put cotton or sponges in water dishes or the spider will drown...which is not only not true, but they can't drink water that way and often dehydrate depending on species.

I'm not saying paper towels are necessarily bad, except perhaps in that they cannot let a tarantula burrow (which can cause stress if they want to but can't). Just that "in the old days it was fine" doesn't mean it's a good idea, and sometimes people arguing for the "proper" way are right.

 

[Bill S]

I'm not saying paper towels are necessarily bad, except perhaps in that they cannot let a tarantula burrow (which can cause stress if they want to but can't). Just that "in the old days it was fine" doesn't mean it's a good idea, and sometimes people arguing for the "proper" way are right.

I do not like to keep tarantulas on paper - soil or some other medium seems better for a number of reasons (better moisture retention, burrowing, etc.) But I've had good success with the very smallest slings - ones small enough to keep in vials - using kleenex. My technique is to have a piece of kleenex stuffed in the bottom of the vial to form a "tunnel" in maybe the bottom one inch of the vial. And another smaller piece near the lip of the vial. The one near the lip is the one I moisten every day, and the bottom one serves as a hiding place. The only drawback to using tissue is that it needs to be changed out periodically - and the more humid it is, the more frequent the changing. But I like the fact that it makes it very easy to keep track of the spider and know for sure whether it's eating, molting, etc.

My wife uses a variation of this technique for a lot of the small spiders she raises (jumping spiders, cave spiders, etc.), and she's had excellent results with it.

 

[Jerm357]

Can someone give me an idea on how long it would take a 1/4" B. smithi to reach an inch? I was going to feed them about 2 times a week. Does this sound good, should it be more or less? Each time I feed how many crickets should be feed at one meal? The crickets will be about 3/16" and I was planning to feed 1 at a time but after it eats 1 should I try a few more?

 

[Agent Jones]

Can someone give me an idea on how long it would take a 1/4" B. smithi to reach an inch? I was going to feed them about 2 times a week. Does this sound good, should it be more or less? Each time I feed how many crickets should be feed at one meal? The crickets will be about 3/16" and I was planning to feed 1 at a time but after it eats 1 should I try a few more?

This is an individual kind of thing. Observe your baby. If it grabs the cricket like it's starving to death, you could try offering another after you're sure the first one has been eaten. You could probably offer food a bit more often than 2xweek with a sling that small. But a lot of people here are of the mind that you should feed less often in order to extend the life of your T.

Personally, I'd rather grow them quickly to a size where I don't have to drive 30 minutes to the closest pet store that carries pinheads.

Just offer crickets and if they don't take them, remove them. Slings molt more frequently than larger individuals, so don't ever leave crix in with them. They might also fast for a period before a molt and that's normal, so don't fret.

 

[Jerm357]

Wheres a good place to keep the pill bottles they will be in? (they will be in a clear 2" x 3" pill bottle with air holes half filled with coco fiber) Should it be in complete darkness (like a closet) or should they be somewhere where they would get a day and night cycle? (like a shelf in the room)

 

[c'est ma]

IME they are not bothered by ordinary levels of room lighting. Keep them away from bright windows, of course...But otherwise, I'd keep them where you can observe them the most! That way it's most fun for you.

 

[Sr. Chencho]

Hola Jerm!

Who wants to bet that Jerm357 will have 10-15 new slings in his collection in the next six months?

Welcome Jerm. I keep my collection in the guest room where they get the normal cycle of daylight and darkness. Tarantulas are especially active and do their hunting at night. Keeping slings in the closet is punishment, unless you have other pets that might disturb their vials by tipping them over. Plus, you wouldn't be able to see them.
When returning from work, which is usually during the early morning hours, I love to creep up on my Ts and watch them out and about within their enclosures.
You need to start thinking about getting yourself a rack, forget the shelf.
You'll need it sooner than later. It happened to us. We started with a rosie.
Fredster and Sil
Encinal, Texas

 

[Bill S]

Wheres a good place to keep the pill bottles they will be in?

My wife's collection of spiders-in-vials (close to 50 of them) occupies a section of the kitchen counter. Not my idea of the ideal situation, but it certainly works. (And draws interesting comments from visitors.)

 

[Arachno Veteran]

Fruit fly cultures

Hi,

I'm new here, not sure if anyone's mentioned this to you already (but I didn't see it in the posts) - You might want to try feeding the really small T's (flightless) Fruit Flies (Drosophila Melenagaster). Need to keep the culture tubes in the fridge...good luck. That's what I used to use when raising baby Jumping spiders.

-Al

 

[Bill S]

I'm new here, not sure if anyone's mentioned this to you already (but I didn't see it in the posts) - You might want to try feeding the really small T's (flightless) Fruit Flies (Drosophila Melenagaster). Need to keep the culture tubes in the fridge...good luck. That's what I used to use when raising baby Jumping spiders.

Better than keeping them in the refrigerator is to set them up in a culture and raise them. There are various home recipes on the web for fruit fly media, as well as commercial media available. Fruit flies are easy to raise. We keep culturesof both Drosophila melanogaster and D hydei for feeding small spiders. It's been a long time since I've had to buy fruit flies.

 

[c'est ma]

My wife's collection of spiders-in-vials (close to 50 of them) occupies a section of the kitchen counter. Not my idea of the ideal situation, but it certainly works. (And draws interesting comments from visitors.)

LOL. Sounds so familiar! But my drainboard is full of fish tanks...

I keep most of my slings on the table right next to "my spot" on the living room couch! Tho the reading lamp looks bright in the pic, it really isn't, and it doesn't seem to bother the spiders. (It's hard to see, but I have pieces of black construction paper over the KKs on the top. It also helps, I suppose, the my vial lids are black.)

This way I get to see so much more behavior than I otherwise would. And if I stay up late reading, they just come out and do their things...don't seem to notice the extra light at all.

 

[Bill S]

I keep most of my slings on the table right next to "my spot" on the living room couch!

Yup, there seem to be familiar patterns here. On the table next to our living room couch we've got a couple large terrariums set up that will hopefully be communal displays some day. (One for H. incei, the other for emperor scorpions.)

Diane - any chance you'll be at the American Tarantula Conference this summer? My wife will be one of the speakers. You two could sit down and compare ways to inundate a house with spiders.

 

[Jerm357]

Got my T's today and they made the trip just fine. The B. smithi seems very active. As soon as I put him in his vial he checked it out and found his burrow pretty quick jumped right in and hung out most of the day in it. At about 8 pm he came back out and has been just hanging out on the surface getting used to his new home.

The G. pulchra on the other hand has not moved at all since I put him in his vial. He moved around alot while trying to tranport him to his new home from the damp paper towel to the vial (He just did not want to go in). He was on the towel and I put the towel in the vial and was gently nudging him on to the substrate but he just wanted to climb back up the paper towel. Finaly he walked onto the substrate but has not moved since.

Now I know this is the first day after his long trip but should I be concerned?
I know he's alive and unharmed, but he is just not as active as the B. smithi.
Im probably worrying over nothing right?