small sling feed woes

[Paladin]

alright, im having a hard time feeding these small things. i tried cricket legs, chopped crickets, and chopped meal worms and nothing seems to work. i try to make the peieces small enough but they still seem to big no matterwhat i do. i guess i can give em more time to figure it out but i could use some tips...

 

[Mendi]

I raised a bunch of tiny little ones over the winter that were barely 1/8" in size on much the same diet. Now most of them are getting close to 1/2" in LS. I did make sure that the food items were opened up for them, so the diced items were easy, but I had to use tweezers to pinch and rupture the hindlegs when I fed them this. I also feed them tiny pieces of beefheart, or a bit of hamburger when their was none of the other meat. I rarely saw them eating and the food was often larger than the little T, but they had to have been eating what small amounts their little belly could hold. I did make sure I left the food in with them for 24 hours so they would have a better chance of finding it.

If you want to try them with some live food, try some pinhead crickets or go out in the woods somewhere that doesn't get treated with insecticides and dig around for termites. My little ones really loved the termites until the weather got too cold for me to find them here. They are quite easy to find in rotting wood and in the ground in forests. I believe I've read where in any acre of land there is around 8 colonies of termites, so there in your yard close to your house too living off of grass mostly. But, they are more easily found in a wooded area and it saves you having to fix areas in your yard where you've dug looking for them. If you do find them and want to feed them, just collect the ones with the smaller head, the large headed ones are soldiers and might hurt the little sling in defense. The regular workers though are very safe and full of good nutrients. Unlike their cousin the ant, they are plant eaters and won't kill the slings. Just be sure the area you've collected from hasn't had any chemical treatments and you should be fine. Thing will also be fine if you keep feeding them as you have been also. I know the worries of never seeing the little micro-Ts feed, but they are feeding some. And they don't mind that their food isn't moving and dead, I think they know it's safer for them this way.

 

[chuck]

my chaco sling is a picky eater as well
if i opened a fuzzie, will so go for it?

 

[Frostbyte]

sounds like a pain .. but fruit flies. I breed them for dart frogs and feed them to my baby scorps and slings. Easy to get started and cheap. They reproduce like mad in any empty ( clean ) bottle. Heres an example .. http://www.daves-darts.com/food.htm or you can try various other methods to get them started ! Good Luck !

 

[MrT]

I,ve been buying 2 or 3 week old crickets and freezing them.
Then their easy to handle, and the 60 or so 1/2" slings I feed, eat them right up..

Ern

BTW, I only leave them in the freezer for about a day before I feed them all out..

 

[jwb121377]

Hey Ernie do you thaw them before feeding them off?

 

[TheWidowsPeak]

all of my small slings will eat small crickets that I pull the heads away from the body and leave a little trail of guts after they find it they usualy munch it untill there all swollen up.

 

[MrT]

Originally posted by jwb121377
Hey Ernie do you thaw them before feeding them off? [/QUOTE

Yes, but it only take a few mins.

 

[MrT]

Originally posted by johnnyjohnjon
all of my small slings will eat small crickets that I pull the heads away from the body and leave a little trail of guts after they find it they usualy munch it untill there all swollen up.

The thing I like about frezzing them is, they can't run away.
Just pour em out in a deli cup and feed em. No more loose crickets running all over the desk..:}