What is your approach or method for growing out slings?

[Colorado Ts]

I see these posts a lot. Seldom does a week go by without someone asking how to setup an enclosure, what substrate to use, what size enclosure...what to feed, etc.

Those of you, who have a system for raising slings, what is your system? How do you do it?

I look forward reading to your approaches.

My Method: Terrestrial Slings

All my slings are kept in a cabinet with sliding glass front doors. The cabinet has been modified with the addition of a thermo regulator set at 79 degrees and a small ceramic space heater on the bottom shelf. A breeder was telling me the other day that he uses heat tape...not sure what is, but he was very supportive of it use. So I'll look into it and report my findings later. Slings are stored beginning on the top shelf, with over flow going to the second shelf as needed. No slings are ever kept on the bottom shelf, due to heat concerns. Once slings reach a size of 2” to 3” they are then moved to adult enclosures and setup in the spider room, where the temperature varies from 74 degrees to 78 degrees...usually.

All slings are fed twice a week. When moved into the spider room, they are then fed once a week, or once every other week.

All enclosures are labeled, for identification and tracking.

Sample label:

AphoSee#1
Aphonopelma seemanni, Brown Phase
17th November 2019 Adult 5” Female
Private Purchase, Ft Collins, $15.00

The label contains all information that I want to identify the spider, and stays with the spider until it dies or is re-homed to someone else. I also have a tracking document in Word, that has this same information, with the addition of moulting dates and a journal of observation for the species and observations for individual spiders using their ID. If anything happens to the spider then the label in the Word document is updated to indicate final disposition and a journal entry is made that contains all the details.


1/2” slings (Terrestrial)

I don't go smaller than 1/2” when bringing in slings. I'm not set up for it yet. So I'll start with the 1/2” size.

For these slings, I use AMAC boxes that measures ~1.25” X 1.25” X 2”. Small surface area and the sling is able to burrow. At about a centimeter below the lid, I drill evenly spaced holes on two opposite sides of the enclosure for cross ventilation. The substrate is coco fibre that is packed into the enclosure leaving about 3/4” to 1” from substrate to lid. I’ll put a starter burrow in two opposite corners, and lightly moisten the substrate.

The slings are transferred into the enclosure and offered a food item after 24 to 48 hours of acclimation. Small crickets or small roaches are offered as food. If the sling is refusing live food on multiple occasions, then they are fed a scavenger diet of cricket parts or roach parts.

3/4” to 1” slings (Terrestrial)

For slings of this size range, or smaller slings that have grown into this size range, I use AMAC boxes that measure 4” X 4” X 4” Primarily. I do also use a couple boxes that are 4” X 4” X 6” for some species. At about a centimeter below the lid, I drill evenly spaced ventilation holes on two opposite sides for cross ventilation. The substrate is again coco fibre that is packed into the enclosure. For most species I'll use moist substrate. (For Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens I'll use 3/4” dry substrate with a hide and added anchor point to encourage webbing.)

The substrate is sloped into one corner, and packed creating a contoured surface. I then pack a channel in the substrate and then press a cork bark over the channel. When completed, this will look like a tiny hill that has a small hole with a chunk of wood over the top. I then cut up moss into small chunks and scatter it around the sides and on top of the hill that forms the top of the enclosure. I leave the area in front of the hide as a depression with no moss. Since doing this, the sling almost always chooses to enter the hide and start burrowing. By setting up the hide and channel into a corner, the sling will have depth, and will always burrow into the corner, creating a nice little room with two windows and sometimes even a floor window for viewing.

I also include a water dish, that is probably a bottled water lid. This it put on top of the hide or high up on the sides to one side or the other. If put in the depression in front of the burrow entrance, the water is simply filled every day with...stuff. For some species it won't matter where you put the water dish it will be filled with stuff.

The slings are transferred into the enclosure and offered a food item after 24 to 48 hours of acclimation. I feed the slings roaches. I raise my own roaches, B lateralis & B. dubia.

The slings will remain in this enclosure until they reach 2” to 2.5”...or if I'm a bad person, 3”. Then they are transferred to adult accommodations.


I assemble my enclosures days before the slings arrive. Here is a stack of enclosures waiting to be labeled.

 

[viper69]

Feed them food, keep a water dish with them.

 

[The Grym Reaper]

Terrestrial slings


Under 1" - 4oz condiment cup set up like in the 1st image above. Moisten sub/moss with a pipette as needed.
Between 1" and 2" - 10oz (pictured) or 16oz set up like in the 2nd image above. Overflow water dish as needed.

Feeding - For faster growing species, every 3 days until 1" and then every 5 days until 2". For slower growing species every 7 days until 1" and then every 10 days until 2".

For heavy webbers I just use less sub and add anchor points.

Once specimens reach 2" they go into juvenile enclosures (small KK or 4.5L hobby life tub).

Aviculariinae arboreal slings



32oz deli cup set up like in the image above.

Ventilation - Row of holes all around just above substrate level, the same about an inch from the top, a few holes at mid-height, and about half a dozen holes in the lid.

Moisten 1/4 - 1/3 of the sub by overflowing the water dish and repeating when it dries out.

Feeding - Every 3 days until 1" then every 5 days until 2".

Once specimens reach 2" they go into juvenile enclosures (usually 4L lock & lock plastic cookie jar)

Non-Avic arboreal slings



32oz deli cup set up like in the image above.

Ventilation - A row of holes all around just above substrate level, and about half a dozen holes in the lid.

Keep substrate slightly moist by overflowing the water dish as needed.

Feeding - Every 3 days until 1" then every 5 days until 2".

Once specimens reach 2" they go into juvenile enclosures (usually 3.7L hobby life tub).

 

[Vanisher]

I just keep them around 20-21 degrees celcius, moisting and feeding them as i see fit. I am pretty uncomplicated nowdays cos i dont have that many. They grow pretty slow but i dont care

 

[Colorado Ts]

This is the enclosure for my Grammostola pulchripes. In the upper right corner you can see the rump of a roache, somebody didn't eat dinner last night again...so hopefully it'll moult soon.

I use 4X4X4 AMAC containers for most of my slings. The substrate is pressed coco fibre. I like to slope the substrate so that there is a small hill, sloping into a corner of the enclosure. I then put a trench coming out of the corner, and place the hide over the trench to create a starter burrow. To further entice the sling to use the starter burrow, I chop up spaghnum moss and loosely place it on the sides and behind the hide, then I pack down the substrate infront of the burrow.

Spiders don't seems to like loose substrate, and they definitely don't care for loose moss, so as the sling sits on the packed substrate they usual find the starter burrow and get to work. When they dig their burrow, it goes right into the corner, and they create a burrow with windows. It’s nice to have windows, so that when they bury themselves, Grammostolas especially, I have the option of looking into their little home and seeing that all looks to be fine.

For this specific enclosure, I added a bit of sand, that shows up as white particles in front of the burrow entrance. I don't think the sling likes the sand, as it has buried most of it...or it could just be normal G. pulchripes behavior. At present,I have only one G. pulchripes...so I won't really have a feel for the species until I've raised like 5 or 6 of them. They’re on my to get list...

All my enclosures of this size have a water dish. Enclosures for slings 1/2” or smaller have moist or damp substrate.


Here’s my sling nicely tucked away near the entrance, waiting to be fed...again. Must have forgotten about dinner last night. Edit: With the roach in the upper image, this little sling might be getting close to moulting. It looks a bit glassy, though not overly dark. Wait and see...



This is the enclosure for my Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens.

For this species, I use dry substrate, and no moss as that tends to hold moisture. It’s been my experience that GBB slings don’t care much for moisture in the enclosure. I use a water dish, but I don’t overflow it, ever. There is much less substrate, as the GBB doesn’t seem to burrow much as a sling, they tend to focus their time between meals on webbing up the enclosure.

I include a piece of bark as a hide. In this case the bark is from a Blackwalnut tree. The slings will sometimes dig under the bark when building their “home”. But as previously stated, mostly they web up the enclosure.



I have noticed that it is not unusual for slings to become habituated to feeding times. Of my 5 slings, 4 of them come out when its feeding time. 3 of them will actually climb the sides of the enclosure and wait to be fed, while the last one sits in its webbing and waits for the prey item to appear.

Again, dinner time was last night, so wishful thinking on the part of the sling.

The water dish always seems to have little bits of substrate in it, each time I check the enclosure. I've noticed that as the slings have gotten larger, the water dishes seem to drain faster. So I'm lead to believe that they are using the dishes regularly.

 

[SonsofArachne]

Feed them food, keep a water dish with them.

^This^ other than keeping most (not all) on moister substrate, I really don't do anything different than with my sub-adult/adult T's.

 

[Colorado Ts]

Setting Up a Sling Cabinet

This is a growth cabinet that I use to raise my slings.



This is where I keep my slings. It’s a glass-fronted cabinet that I picked up very cheaply.

From Amazon, I ordered a temperature regulator, used in greenhouses to regulate heat pad temperatures; and I purchased a small ceramic space heater.

The thermometer on the thermo regulator is mounted on the middle shelf, and the regulator is set at 79 degrees. The internal temperature fluctuates between about 80.5 degrees at the upper end and will drop to 77.5 as a low.

The slings are raised in the cabinet until they hit 2.5” to 3”, where they are then transferred and rehoused into larger enclosures.

Tiny Sling Enclosures

I started by raising slings in a tall narrow AMAC box. My thought was that the enclosure was small enough that the sling would accept the enclosure as it’s burrow, and if the sling wanted to burrow further...it was deep enough to allow for this behavior. I raised two slings in this type of an enclosure, a 1/2” Lasiodora parahybana sling, and a small Grammostola pulchripes.



Both slings stayed in this sized enclosure, until they reached the 3/4” mark...at which point they were rehoused into 4X4X4 AMAC boxes.

My understanding of both species was heavily influenced by the enclosure chosen to raise the sling. Based on my experience with both species of slings in these enclosures, I was lead to believe that LPs & G.pulchripes are finicky slow growing spiders until they reach about 3/4”. After 3/4” they grow much faster....blah, blah, blah.

Then I had an exchange of ideas with Cold Blood. His position was to raise slings in 1oz, 2oz, or 3.25oz soufflé cups. Again, the sling will accept the small enclosure as it’s burrow, and if the sling feels the need to burrow further, it can...but not very far.

I ordered souffle' cups in those sizes and, as fate would have it, I received an order of slings that was grossly undersized...

So for the last few months, I raised another 1/2” Lasiodora parahybana sling and 4 Pterinopelma sazimai (1/4”) slings in 1 oz soufflé cups and 8 Dolichothele diamantinensis slings in 3.25oz soufflé cups. The difference was amazing. None of the slings were finicky eaters and slow growers, as compared to the slings that I raised in the tall narrow AMAC boxes. This is now my goto enclosure for slings that are under 3/4”, and it’s made an amazing difference in the rate of growth in the slings that I've put into these soufflé cups.

Getting AMAC Boxes Ready

I’ve got an order of slings coming in on Friday. So I’ve spent most of today putting together enclosures for those slings....and I’ve got a group of slings that have been in 1oz soufflé cups, and are now ready to be rehoused in larger accommodations. All the Tarantulas that I’m referring to in this post are terrestrial.



Once my slings reach 3/4”, I put them into 4X4X4 AMAC boxes. These containers are also known as OMNI display boxes. My order of AMAC boxes arrived today, so work has been on going all day. The slings coming in on Friday are all supposed to be 3/4” to 1” in size, but just incase I’m also getting a bunch of soufflé cups ready as well.

I use coco fibre as my primary substrate. I’ve considered mixing up a formula mix for substrate, but the thought of something going wrong and a contamination killing off my spiders...Yeah, no not for me.

When I’m assembling sling enclosures, I put about 150mls of substrate into the container and slope it into a back corner. Then I tamp a slot into the slope and put a piece of cork bark over the slot to form a starter burrow for the sling. (See above image) I always include a small bottle cap for water.

Most of my slings will accept this starter burrow, and dig right into the corner of the enclosure as they excavate. This allows me a window into their underground world, so that if/when the slings starts blocking off entrances...I can still see into the burrow and monitor things.



This setup was working 90% to 95% of the time, until I brought in my first group of Phormictopus...none of them did as I intended. The Phormictopus slings scoffed at my layout and completely did their own thing. Fortunately, my Phormictopus slings have shown no desire to close off their burrows. In fact, half of them don’t even have a burrow, they have open pit mines.



On all enclosures, I include a label that identifies the sling; species; date of purchase; origin and price. This lets me maintain and track all my slings and spiders that are in my possession.

It’s a simple design layout for a terrestrial sling enclosure, and I’ll use it until something better comes along.



Slings arriving on Friday, I’m so jacked.

 

[CJJon]

Wow, some people really want to complicate things. I feed when the T's need to be fed. Schedule? T's don't really have one. Pump T's get fed less often than less plump T's. Plump T near molt, no feeding. I can't see a way to work that into any set cadence.

Wondering what the OP is going to do when all those little T's grow and each requires a much larger enclosure!

 

[octanejunkie]

You make a science out of it, which is awesome. I take a slightly more casual approach with my slings and I have a few 1/8" and 1/4" slings in vials - easy peasy.
Love reading your posts and seeing your pics, it makes me feel better about my OCD lol

I feed 2i - 4i slings twice a week on average, and 5i upwards once a week. MMs eat once a month and MF eat every 2-3 weeks.

 

[Colorado Ts]

Wondering what the OP is going to do when all those little T's grow and each requires a much larger enclosure!

Oh that's easy...pick out the adult females I want to keep for myself. Sell the remaining females to breeders looking for females. Either sell the males to breeders, or work out breeding loans. I'll need males for my females, so I'll be making contacts and establishing mutual relationships.

Then expand my collection of species by Acquiring new species in groups and raise them up, and the process continues.

What you call “complication“ is actually better described as “organization.”



My apologies, I just realized that I had not fully answered your question/statement. The above image is of some of the larger enclosures that I keep on hand.



For my Phormictopus and my other larger species they will be going into one of the containers pictured above. This container is awesome, and will work wonderfully for my larger terrestrials that reach adult sizes.

 

[octanejunkie]

Oh that's easy...pick out the adult females I want to keep for myself. Sell the remaining females to breeders looking for females. Either sell the males to breeders, or work out breeding loans. I'll need males for my females, so I'll be making contacts and establishing mutual relationships.

Acquire new species in groups and raise them up.

What you call complication is actually organization.

Exactly my approach considering my female to male ratio is 1 out of 4 slings have turned out to be female.

I can sell off juvenile males or gift them to breeding projects in exchange for slings. It's a no brainer, really.

 

[Vanisher]

I keep them in small delicups and upsize as they moult and grows. Since i seldom keep slingcontainers on each other, i usally just have topventilation exept when i kept Avicularias. Then i use crossventilatin. When i had hundreds of sling i used sideventilation cos then i put them.on each other. I keep the holes rather small so that moisture stays in fir longer.
I keep them at around 20-26 degrees. Never bother with external heating. The substrate i use is often pure peatmoss. For terrestrial slings maybe an inch and for fossorial slings maybe 2 inches. For terrestrials i rarely use hides, somtimes i put in a small leaf and for arboreals i include a thin piece of bark

I feed them 2 times a week until they are juveniles. When juveniles i feed more seldom. Once every weeks or 2 weeks.

I never bother to use waterdishes for slings and small juveniles. I mist 2 times a week, wich i find much more easy both for the sling and for me. I remoist the sub by just pouring in little water. Just eyeballing it.

I dont know what more i could say? I like to keep it rather simple

 

[Colorado Ts]

Rehousing Pterinopelma sazimai

These little guys came in a couple months ago. I bought them as 3/4” slings, and now they ARE 3/4” slings...ready to go into the 4X4X4 AMAC boxes that I prepared for them months ago.



Here is a top view of my standard terrestrial sling enclosure. The coco fibre substrate is mounded into the corner and the cork bark hide is placed with a starter burrow underneath it.



These slings were so tiny, I grew them out in 1oz soufflé cups. I dropped the soufflé cup into the enclosure allowing the sling to venture into its new home on its own. No need to coax the sling or dig the sling out...once the transfer is made I simply remove the old enclosure, wash it out and store it for later use.

This little dude must have moulted last night, as there was no exuviae in this enclosure when I last checked them to see that all was well.



Here is one of the slings a week ago. Solid 3/4”, maybe even a tad over. Compared to the image below, notice how much the soufflé cup fills with substrate once the sling starts to burrow and move things around. Fill the soufflé cup with only about 1/3 the volume with the substrate of your choice, any more than that and you will find very little room the next time you open the enclosure.



Here is the largest of the slings on the day they all arrived. That is a dime, someone needs to learn how to use a tape measure. Fortunately everything worked out, I had the appropriate containers on hand and I was able to correctly house the slings. I also have a colony of B.lateralis, so I had a food source that would allow me to feed the slings and raise them. I must say though, I wasn't planning on raising anything as small as a 1/4” sling for quite awhile, but I adapted and luckily it all worked out.

 

[octanejunkie]

A dime is a good measure for 1/2" size class
A nickel is good for 3/4"
A quarter is good for 1"

 

[Colorado Ts]

A dime is a good measure for 1/2" size class
A nickel is good for 3/4"
A quarter is good for 1"

You are so Fricken awesome

 

[Colorado Ts]

OMG!!! Again?...

So my sling shipment arrived today. Very very excited to receive this shipment. My vender talked to me last night and gave me a heads up that...“the slings would be a bit smaller than expected.“ OMG!!!AGAIN?....I guess that's just the way of it.

Fortunately I tend to buy items in bulk, and I've already raised a group of teeny tiny P.sazimai, and D.diamantinensis slings.

This order of slings were imported out of Europe, and consisted of 10 Grammostola pulchras, 8 Phormictopus cautus and 5 Pterinopelma sazimais.



Everything was perfectly packaged, weather conditions were ideal at both ends...so no hot packs or cool packs needed. The above image is of all the slings, separated into their 3 different species groups. Everything was labeled...very nicely done. Each sling arrived packaged into an ampule, if you've ever had a micro-biology class or a genetics class in college...you’re familiar with ampules.



The slings were all packaged into individual ampules, above is one of the Pterinopelma sazimai slings. It just must be the way of it with P.sazimai slings...so far every order of 3/4” slings that I have placed, has been these tiny little 1/4” guys...crazy.



Above is one of the Phormictopus slings. Looking at this sling is when I realized that my 4x4x4 AMAC enclosures would not work just yet. I really needed to scramble and change my plans midstream, and put these slings into various sized soufflé cups. So...



...I put the teeny tiny Pterinopelma sazimai slings into 1oz soufflé cups. These were the same soufflé cups that I had just used for my previous set of teeny tiny P.sazimai slings. Everything had been washed and stored, I just needed to add substrate...and slings...



...the G.pulchras and the P.cautus slings were placed into 3.25 oz soufflé cups. To remove all the slings from the shipping ampules, I used a toothpick to guide the slings out of their ampules and into the soufflé cups.



I have to say that I have wanted Grammostola pulchra for so very long. You have no idea how great it feels to finally have a small group of them. They came out of the ampules in a very dainty fashion, that is, when they finally decided to come out. Almost everyone of them had to be seriously coaxed out of each ampule...they did not want to leave the shipping ampule. I would get them just about out, and then they'd just slip back in...crazy. Very stubborn little dudes.



The Phormictopus cautus slings could not wait to get out of their shipping ampules. While I was popping the lid on each ampule, the little Phormictopus sling was giving it's all on the inside, trying to hurry up the process. And once freed, the last thing that sling wanted was to go into a soufflé cup. So they were a bit of a rodeo as they walked and strutted all around every where. They weren't bolty bolty at all...they just weren't ready to go into another enclosure. It took the longest to unpack the Phormictopus, as each one just wanted to take off and explore...



Once everything was unpacked and placed into enclosures, the various slings were then stored in my grow-out cabinet. In the above image, each ice cream tub contains a different sling species. So for all my tiny slings raised in soufflé cups, I keep all the species separated.



Sadly, my AMAC enclosures, that I worked so hard to get ready for this shipment, will have to be stored...until these slings have moulted a couple times and put on some size.

So...OMG!!! Here we go again...with another group of tiny slings.

 

[octanejunkie]

Congrats! Great post.

I got my first batch of slings in ampules yesterday, 1/8" Nicaraguan T. albopilosus. The vendor I worked with put paper towel sleeves in the ampules, it was easy to pull the slings out safety in the paper towel inserts.

I housed my teeny tinys in tiny dram vials with some substrate, moss and a starter burrow. Will feed them tomorrow.

What do you feed your tiny little guys?

 

[Colorado Ts]

Congrats! Great post.

I got my first batch of slings in ampules yesterday, 1/8" Nicaraguan T. albopilosus. The vendor I worked with put paper towel sleeves in the ampules, it was easy to pull the slings out safety in the paper towel inserts.

I housed my teeny tinys in tiny dram vials with some substrate, moss and a starter burrow. Will feed them tomorrow.

What do you feed your tiny little guys?

I simply could not imagine trying to raise 1/8” slings....

I have a colony of B.lateralis roaches. For the teeny tiny P.sazimai slings, I let them scavenge prekilled tiny roaches. B.lateralis are my favorite feeders.

 

[octanejunkie]

I simply could not imagine trying to raise 1/8” slings....

I have a colony of B.lateralis roaches. For the teeny tiny P.sazimai slings, I let them scavenge prekilled tiny roaches. B.lateralis are my favorite feeders.

Most of my small guys are large enough for hatchling or week old B lat nymphs; I have a colony too.

I think I'm gonna have to have the hatchlings for my Little Nics. I'll let you know tomorrow.

 

[Colorado Ts]

So I was checking my Aphonopelma hentzi females last night.



This looks like an egg sac.



She is very deep in her burrow. If it is an egg sac...then I have about a month to decide if I’m going to incubate the sac or let her hatch out the slings.

So yeah...that will keep me busy.