How old could my B albopilosum be?

Kinnis

Arachnopeon
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Sep 20, 2016
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Hey guys, first post here. No answers over at Reddit so figured somebody here could answer.

I got a B albopilosum in August this year, she was around 4". Also can confirm she is female.
Last week she stopped eating and I didn't figure she was in premolt since her last molt at the time was in late June and didn't show any other signs that she could be. This weekend, though, she walled off her burrow and I soon found a second tarantula in there.

I was never given an age when I got her, but if she's molting once every almost 3 months now, and grew about half an inch between the molt, how old do you think she could be?
 

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Flexzone

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Unless you raised it from since it was inside the eggsack there's no way of knowing it's definite age as growth can be heavily influenced by a number of factors like temp, feeding schedule, sexe etc
 

EulersK

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What @Flexzone said.

But while you have that molt, let's get a definitive sex. How can you "confirm that it's female"? Did you already look for spermatheca?
 

Kinnis

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What @Flexzone said.

But while you have that molt, let's get a definitive sex. How can you "confirm that it's female"? Did you already look for spermatheca?
Yes, I have. This is from her June molt.
I didn't quite think about how much variables can affect their growth. I've definitely noticed growth rate changes due to feeding more or less often in a sling I keep now that I think of it.
 

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viper69

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Yes, I have. This is from her June molt.
I didn't quite think about how much variables can affect their growth. I've definitely noticed growth rate changes due to feeding more or less often in a sling I keep now that I think of it.
As well as temperature too. I wouldn't trust Reddit as your source of info. That's as reliable as looking at YouTube comments, and even FB comments at times too. This is your best source of info on the net for Ts.
 

Kinnis

Arachnopeon
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Sep 20, 2016
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Thanks for the help guys. If possible though, could anyone know the minimum and maximum possible age of her, such as her age if she was raised in the best conditions up to being in my care verses something much less growth-promoting?
Sorry if the question has an equally vague range of answers; just curious. This is only my second tarantula so I'm not completely familiar with their growth patterns yet.

I wouldn't trust Reddit as your source of info. That's as reliable as looking at YouTube comments, and even FB comments at times too. This is your best source of info on the net for Ts.
I'd agree as far as YT and FB go, but I've been a part of the r/tarantulas community for a while and would say I don't see any difference between the people of here and there other than this site having a much larger userbase. Both are full of knowledgeable people who care about the hobby; but that's for a different conversation for another thread.
 

Haksilence

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Dec 6, 2015
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Giving an age is a crap shoot at best. She could be a year old or 6 years old. There really is no way to tell. But don't worry since age as we describe it is largely irrelevant to cold blooded animals and especially invertebrates.
In this hobby, "age" is largely determined by size or molt cycles if you have that data.
I wouldn't stress about knowing the age, I have over a hundred specimens at this point and only know the definite age of maybe 15 of them because i either a) bred them or b) knew who bred them
 
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