Slings

NikiP

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 16, 2006
Messages
539
Congrats! I know this feels good after the mishap with the other :)
 

2oCHEVYo0

Arachnosquire
Joined
Aug 29, 2010
Messages
67
Need pics to confirm it or you are just a big liar ;P lol, jk but seriously... PICS ARE NEEDED!
 

Sodaboy1978

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 25, 2010
Messages
8





Android Phone pics. Saving up for a nice cannon or Sony camera but for the moment this is going to have to do.
Oh and this one is Seezilla's, the other one hasn't molted yet but looks like it is very close to getting there.
 
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2oCHEVYo0

Arachnosquire
Joined
Aug 29, 2010
Messages
67
:( dang... I hear ya though. I'm saving up for a Nikon D90, and later down the road a nice Macro lense to go with it. Unless my uncle can hook me up better that is :D Gotta love having a photographer in the family!!!
 

seezilla

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 23, 2010
Messages
4
More Pix





S/he is HUGE compared to Hubby's Sky. I think Sky is in pre-molt. They haven't eaten for a couple of days and I saw Sky jerking a bit instead of moving normally, so I'm sure we'll have another molt to show off soon. :D

(sorry for the poor quality, I just wanted to show how much bigger my Skweezme had gotten and this was the best I could do without disturbing her too much)
 

LirvA

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
117
I don't want to hijack but I was just wondering about something.

If you buy a sling and do everything you can to take care of it, what are the chances it will make it to adulthood? Like if you buy 10 slings can you expect 8 to die and just a couple make it?

I'm trying to figure out what I want to get as my first T and slings are a lot cheaper than adults but I want something that's actually going to live.
 

micheldied

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 25, 2009
Messages
1,327
I don't want to hijack but I was just wondering about something.

If you buy a sling and do everything you can to take care of it, what are the chances it will make it to adulthood? Like if you buy 10 slings can you expect 8 to die and just a couple make it?

I'm trying to figure out what I want to get as my first T and slings are a lot cheaper than adults but I want something that's actually going to live.
Really depends on how YOU take care of them.
If you've done the research, you should be fine.
Ts can be pretty resilient.
So far, I've never had any Ts die on me, and most I've raised from slings.
The only exceptions were the 3 B. smithi I killed by improper shipping.:wall:
 

LirvA

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
117
That's pretty good to hear actually. I had assumed that if you were to buy a sling then there would be a very good chance it would die before adulthood regardless of how well you took care of it.

I think that assumption might stem from: I knew a guy who was in the pet trade, had a pet shop and did know a decent bit about Ts though not an expert or specialized in Ts, anyway he was talking to me about slings and if a lot got lose in a car, I asked what one should do in that situation and he said just smash them (I know not to do that!) Because they all would probably die anyway. He said that in nature, whenever an animal has many offspring, most of them die and only a low percentage of them live to adulthood.

I think he was right on that, it only makes sense, but maybe in captivity you can make a much higher percentage make it to adulthood by eliminating threats to them and nurturing them?
 

jeryst

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 10, 2010
Messages
32
He said that in nature, whenever an animal has many offspring, most of them die and only a low percentage of them live to adulthood.
Most of them die in nature because of predators, accidents, adverse conditions, etc. Take baby sea turtles for example. Hundreds hatch, but by the time they make the short dash from the nest to the ocean, more than half get picked off by birds, rats, etc. Once they are in the ocean, they then have to contend with fish, eels, etc. Only a couple actually make it to maturity. But if you caught those same turtles as soon as they emerged, and raised them in a safe environment, almost all of them would survive.
 

LirvA

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
117
Yeah that does make sense. It's pretty awesome, makes me less weary of getting a sling.

But surely they're still harder to care for right?
 

Sodaboy1978

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 25, 2010
Messages
8
Yeah that does make sense. It's pretty awesome, makes me less weary of getting a sling.

But surely they're still harder to care for right?
Eh I guess you have to way it out. Bigger price tag for a bigger one or by a few slings at a time.
 

seezilla

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 23, 2010
Messages
4
Yeah that does make sense. It's pretty awesome, makes me less weary of getting a sling.

But surely they're still harder to care for right?
I wouldn't say that per se. They can be, I suppose, if you haven't done your research. Although I guess sometimes slings die for no apparent reason. We've been caring for two versi slings that have done fairly well (as you can tell from the horribly blurry pics we both posted LOL). Mine just molted, hubby's looks like it will molt at any time and the other two Ts we have seem to be thriving.

The best advice I can give is to do your research, ask questions, use the search function. There is so much information readily available on this site and many like it to keep people from making the mistakes that can kill slings. Yes, I agree it probably happens for whatever reason just like with any other type of animal, the young and the oldest will die for whatever reason. But if you know what you're doing I think you can maximize any slings chance of survival in your care.

HTH! :D
 

micheldied

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 25, 2009
Messages
1,327
Most of them die in nature because of predators, accidents, adverse conditions, etc. Take baby sea turtles for example. Hundreds hatch, but by the time they make the short dash from the nest to the ocean, more than half get picked off by birds, rats, etc. Once they are in the ocean, they then have to contend with fish, eels, etc. Only a couple actually make it to maturity. But if you caught those same turtles as soon as they emerged, and raised them in a safe environment, almost all of them would survive.
Exactly.
In captivity, most of these threats are eliminated.
The only real threat is the keeper and his/her care for the tarantula.

Yeah that does make sense. It's pretty awesome, makes me less weary of getting a sling.

But surely they're still harder to care for right?
Yes, they are definitely harder to care for than an adult.
They feed more often, require new enclosures once they get too big, etc.
But none of these are really difficult problems to handle... Compare keeping a sling to say, a betta (fighting fish), a sling requires maybe 10% of the care.
 
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