Slings

aquaArachnid

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 12, 2008
Messages
280
Is it normal to not feel confident in taking care of a sling properly to ensure it's health and proper attention? I've thought about it numerous times but I just feel there would be alot of neglect and I wouldn't want to be the main cause of death.
 

KoriTamashii

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 21, 2009
Messages
419
Is it normal to not feel confident in taking care of a sling properly to ensure it's health and proper attention? I've thought about it numerous times but I just feel there would be alot of neglect and I wouldn't want to be the main cause of death.
Explain. How would you 'neglect' it?

Slings don't require all that much more care than adults - just depends on the side of the sling.

Anything under 2" or so will need misting every couple of days, whereas you can provide a tiny dish (usually made of a pop bottle lid) to a sling over 2".

Other than that, it's really simple.
 

Bill S

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 2, 2006
Messages
1,418
I prefer to raise all my tarantulas from slings - it's really cool and rewarding to see a little tiny spider grow into a big animal. But... Each time I raise babies I fuss and fret over them to the point that my wife kids me about it. My confidence level increases as the babies grow.

My recipe for raising slings is a little different than KoriTamashii's, and other people may have still different techinques. It's worth noting that the climate zone you live in and the conditions of your own home may influence what you need to do to raise slings successfully.

I start really tiny slings in vials. I press a little tissue paper into the bottom of the vial so that it's hollow and provides a hiding place for the slings, but one that I can see into. I put a thumbnail sized piece of tissue at the lip of the vial, and keep this piece damp. In my climate (Sonoran Desert) I have to moisten this piece every day. I do not mist the container. This gives a dry/wet gradient so the sling can choose its own best situation. I should note here that the tissue has to be periodically replaced. The thumbnail is likely to get moldy if not changed fairly often, and the bottom tissue gets webbed and full of food and molt remains.

When they outgrow the vial they go into deli cups. These cups have coco fiber substrate, a bottle cap for water, a hide or shelter of some sort, and they may get misted when needed.

By the time they reach 2" they go into Kritter Keepers.
 

LirvA

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
117
When a T lays a good eggsac are the slings usually 50/50 male female? Kind of a newbish question :eek:
 

Arachnos482

Arachnosquire
Joined
Aug 12, 2010
Messages
50
To be honest, I prefer to get my t's as juvie's, slings as such stress me out, but it must be a wondrous feeling to see a tee from it's sling stage all the way to it's adult state.
 

curiousme

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 11, 2008
Messages
1,661
I guess it is normal to feel a bit apprehensive about caring for one so small, and we felt a little of that. However, we did a ton of research before purchasing our first slings and that made the feeling pretty much go away. We have had 19 slings and lost 2. The 2 that were lost were lost in bad molts, that we wouldn't have been able to do anything differently to save them. Their conditions were optimal for them, but for some reason they didn't make it; just natural selection at work.:( One was a teeny tiny B. vagans and the other was a slightly bigger L. violaceopes.(this one was the biggest bummer)

We have only ever kept one sling in a vial, but it was smaller than teeny tiny, it was a microscopic N. chromatus and we felt more comfortable with it in the vial, than in the 3X3X3" cubes that we made for our other slings.

You wet part of the substrate once a week to up the humidity and provide a drink(until about 2" when they can have a bottle cap water dish)

feed them as often as you deem necessary(some like to powerfeed, but we were never very good at it)

rehouse them when they have outgrown their present enclosure(beware the speed of slings)

take care to never make the ventilation holes bigger than their head, or leave the enclosure open

These are just a few tips, but really, I prefer to get Ts as slings. I enjoy watching the color changes, temperament changes and growth. They aren't really harder to take care of, but they are infinitely more rewarding because you get to watch them grow and change. :)
 

LV-426

Arachnobaron
Joined
Sep 26, 2010
Messages
497
Is it normal to not feel confident in taking care of a sling properly to ensure it's health and proper attention? I've thought about it numerous times but I just feel there would be alot of neglect and I wouldn't want to be the main cause of death.
i feel you, im new to Ts myself. I just got a 1 inch Psalmopoeus cambridgei sling on sunday. My concern is it in a new enviroment, how long should i wait till i feed it? Should I wait till tomorrow to throw in some crickets?:wall:
 

Broderick

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 17, 2010
Messages
1
The only real difference ive found in caring for my 1 and only sling is the amount of worry it causes in the keeper lol
 

Midknight xrs

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
May 25, 2010
Messages
132
I've had only slings since i started in this hobby in May. i suffered only one lose, and i'm still not completely sure it is dead. it got out because i removed the handle from my kritter keeper. i have 7 slings, all ranging, when first received from second instar to juvies. i did not become nervous about the slings until after i read the stories on here, but i did my research and as i've gone along, all have molted at least three times in my care and without issue. My only problem now is those Aphonopelma species are going to take forever to grow up lol. if you're nervous about high humidity species, i would start raising isopods now, those are a great help but outside of that, just know that a sling can breathe through pin holes in plastic. Just search for the species on here, decide how you want it set up and run with it. if something goes wrong, learn from it and keep going, if everything goes right, keep going and get some more T's.
 
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