Power-feeding King Baboon!

[Stuzza]

I have a captive bred 1 year old (1.5" -1.75") King Baboon sling that moulted a month ago and is feeding well (2 small crickets every week), I assume it eats at night because in the morning, the crickets are almost always gone. I understand King Baboons (females) can take 10 years to mature and live 30 years in total. I was thinking of power-feeding it, I understand may not even work as they have slow metabolisms. So I was wondering if anyone could give my any advice on this subject or if anyone has done this before. Perhaps there is a way to speed up the growth without giving it as much food as other species. I would grateful for any help!

 

[Serious Sam]

You may want to wait till it gets to 2-3 inches then start giving it larger prey like small roaches.

 

[Moltar]

I think the best way to speed growth of a T is to keep it at relatively high (but still safe, obviously) temperatures and feed it smaller meals more frequently. Get that metabolism crankin'. The difference this makes in growth rate still won't be much when compared to the difference between a KB and say, an OBT though. C. crawshayi just grow super duper slow, no way around it.

 

[Stuzza]

How high should the temperature be? I have a heat mat on the side so it's 70 - 80 F. So how often should I give these small meals and how big should they be (also I have only given it crickets, should I give anything else?) ? Is there anything else I need to be aware of? Thanks for the help so far!

 

[codykrr]

id...say try andkeep the temps at a steady 78 degrees F. and i mean steady. aso feed it a small cricket ever other day..or once a day...but like stated before "a small meal" not some whopping cricket...get somepin heads and pick the biggest ones out and feed them...this should definatly help increase growth quite a bit. but again this species is just slow. and chances are once it gets plumped up it will just stop eating till its ready to molt...which could be a month or better before it acually does molt. so in theory it may sound likeit will work but it may not...it may just lead to a spider you have that hasnt eaten or molted in months....and if you think its slow now....wait till it hits 31/2 inches....then it might as well stop growing imo

 

[Moltar]

If you want your tarantula to grow fast what you should really do is get a tarantula that grows fast, lol. That KB will take forever to get big no matter what you do.

Pick yourself up another sling. OBT, any Avic, Psalmopoeus, Pamphobeteus, L parahybana, Ceratogyrus, GBB... any of those will exhibit a growth rate that will give you a bit of satisfaction from actually being able to see your pet grow. Then someday years down the line you will also have a big King Baboon.

 

[Mina]

You can try to power feed a king baboon. The problem I see with it is even if you raise the heat, king baboon slings just aren't big eaters. I have 3 and they are close to the size of yours. They are kept at about 75 degrees and they usually only eat every other time I feed them, they just don't seem interested.

 

[Pacmaster]

I feed mine almost every 3 days, a 2nd or 3rd instar(small/mediumish) roach is what it gets and devours.
My herp room is kept right around 85.
I even see mine wandering its cage, looking for food?

They grow slow, I agree with the "get a faster growing T" statement above, and also "one day youll have a big KB".

Even at this feeding schedule, mine hasnt noticably grown since the last molt . . .

Patience is key!

 

[Stuzza]

I have a heat mat on one side of his cage (a cricket keeper). Do you think I should connect it to a thermostat? But what temperature would I have to put on the thermostsat to have 78 F inside the cage? And I put a smaller cricket (1 - 1.5 cm) in his cage tonight. I'll tell you if it's still there in the morning. So is small crickets the best diet while it's small? Or should I give it something else as well? Thanks for the help so far guys!