tarantula stunted growth

[dennis123]

does this happen to tarantulas? does underfed sling get stunted or will it just grow slower than others but eventually catch up in max adult sizes but just delayed getting there by a year or two bec it was underfed as a sling or juvy

 

[Mike41793]

What we consider underfed in the hobby is probably more realistic to what they experience in nature.

I could be wrong, but in my experience I'd say temperatures make a bigger difference in growth speed than food. Generally speaking: Once a sling decides it's full, it's full until it molts. You can't keep forcing food they won't take it. They definitely do not need the amount of food most of us give them to grow and molt. In most videos of them I've seen in the wild you don't see fat abdomens. Keeping your spiders at 80deg vs 70deg would make a bigger difference in growth rates than how much you're feeding.

For me personally up until the 1-2in mark I do tend to feed heavily. I want to get them out of the sling stage and get them to juvie size where they're less fragile and just easier to keep track of. After that I'm more likely to skip a feeding if they look like they don't need it. I still go through once a week just to add water anyways so it's not adding extra work for me.

If you want stuff to grow quicker, keep them warmer, just make sure they're still hydrated cuz water evaporates quicker in warmer temps. Including whatever is in their enclosure and in them.

 

[Moakmeister]

I used to hear that more food and higher temperatures would result in not only more frequent molting, but also a greater increase in size per molt. Nowadays I'm not sure if the latter is true or not. My intuition tells me that it makes sense for it to be true, and that underfeeding could mean a tarantula will end up smaller than normal. Tarantulas will keep molting throughout their lives, though, so it's hard to quantify, but other arthropods will stop molting when they reach adulthood. Flies, for example, are known to be small as adults if they didn't get proper nutrition as maggots. Scorpions will also stop molting when they reach adulthood - I bought a P. imperator from a pet store the other day. I chose the largest one, but they were all adults, and the smallest ones were like half the size of the one I bought! It was crazy to see that size difference.

So I suppose it happens with tarantulas as well, although like I said, they keep molting, so maybe their maximum size is just delayed rather than permanently reduced. But of course they're still aging at the same time, so maybe they'd get too old and die before reaching normal sizes anyway.

 

[viper69]

does this happen to tarantulas? does underfed sling get stunted or will it just grow slower than others but eventually catch up in max adult sizes but just delayed getting there by a year or two bec it was underfed as a sling or juvy

slower growth

I did a small “experiment” with a member. I fed crix only, he fed mealworms only. All from same sac. Mine grew much more slowly. This is not about underfed though.

There is a scientific paper that looked at how much food is required for growth with a certain species.

Temps affect metabolism more so obviously

 

[Charliefarlie101]

What we consider underfed in the hobby is probably more realistic to what they experience in nature.

I could be wrong, but in my experience I'd say temperatures make a bigger difference in growth speed than food. Generally speaking: Once a sling decides it's full, it's full until it molts. You can't keep forcing food they won't take it. They definitely do not need the amount of food most of us give them to grow and molt. In most videos of them I've seen in the wild you don't see fat abdomens. Keeping your spiders at 80deg vs 70deg would make a bigger difference in growth rates than how much you're feeding.

For me personally up until the 1-2in mark I do tend to feed heavily. I want to get them out of the sling stage and get them to juvie size where they're less fragile and just easier to keep track of. After that I'm more likely to skip a feeding if they look like they don't need it. I still go through once a week just to add water anyways so it's not adding extra work for me.

If you want stuff to grow quicker, keep them warmer, just make sure they're still hydrated cuz water evaporates quicker in warmer temps. Including whatever is in their enclosure and in them.