What to do?

[eROCK719]

My Arizona blond sling has been buried for a few weeks, no food taken and as far as I know, hasn't came up or out. Should I be concerned? I drop water in the corner of the enclosure 2 times a week still.

 

[birdonfire]

My 1 inch sling's been buried for 7 months. It's molted and I am ok with that.

 

[DomGom TheFather]

Wait it out.
Nothing to worry about.
It will surface eventually.

 

[eROCK719]

That's what I figured, I'm just new to the slings so I thought I would ask. Thank you

 

[cold blood]

One thing that will help slow growing slings grow faster is simply to downsize the enclosure and not give the sling the space to burrow away and disappear. A condiment cup is perfect....it gives just enough room to burrow, but not enough for them to disappear. The small cup instead is treated like a burrow, so your sling will be out most of the time and will eat much more consistently.

I did a year plus long experiment with hundreds of 2i slings. About 25% were housed in larger enclosures (group B)....which were just 16oz deli cups.....the rest were housed in identical 2oz condiment cups (group A). At the end of the experiment all the ones in condiment cups were starting to show adult colors and in need of being re housed...even the slower growers in that group were still big enough to re house and easily over an inch. All the slings in this group (A) ate every time food was offered (weekly) unless they were pre molt. All molted on a consistent basis.

Onto the ones in the deli cups.....all of them hid most of the time, some the entire time. None ate consistently, even though the same pre killed prey was left at the burrow mouths weekly, and when I finally dug them up, I was surprised to find that all still looked like indescriminent slings...many looked like they hadnt grown at all....but the biggest of this group, were still smaller than the largest of the other group.

Once group B was housed into condiment cups, all (no exceptions) instantly became great eaters and growth rates picked up right away.

How you house a [terrestrial] sling is directly related to how it eats and grows.

Just food for thought.

 

[Matt Man]

he/she has dug a nice burrow and seems to be doing awesome, and was also kind enough to give you a window to check on them. Just water and drop feeders in. One will crawl down and get eaten. Remove any dead ones from the surface

 

[eROCK719]

he/she has dug a nice burrow and seems to be doing awesome, and was also kind enough to give you a window to check on them. Just water and drop feeders in. One will crawl down and get eaten. Remove any dead ones from the surface

I'm feeding pre-killed meal worms right now, should I put a live one in there? The sling is about 1/2" if not a little bigger

 

[Craig73]

I took @cold blood advice earlier this year with two bicoloratum slings that burrowed and did not come out for months to eat. After I made the suggested changes I see them all the time and they eat consistently.

 

[DomGom TheFather]

I'm feeding pre-killed meal worms right now, should I put a live one in there? The sling is about 1/2" if not a little bigger

An intact mealworm will dissapear. If that is what you are feeding, crush the head or cut it before offering. Especially with a sling that hasn't been interested.

 

[l4nsky]

One thing that will help slow growing slings grow faster is simply to downsize the enclosure and not give the sling the space to burrow away and disappear. A condiment cup is perfect....it gives just enough room to burrow, but not enough for them to disappear. The small cup instead is treated like a burrow, so your sling will be out most of the time and will eat much more consistently.

I did a year plus long experiment with hundreds of 2i slings. About 25% were housed in larger enclosures (group B)....which were just 16oz deli cups.....the rest were housed in identical 2oz condiment cups (group A). At the end of the experiment all the ones in condiment cups were starting to show adult colors and in need of being re housed...even the slower growers in that group were still big enough to re house and easily over an inch. All the slings in this group (A) ate every time food was offered (weekly) unless they were pre molt. All molted on a consistent basis.

Onto the ones in the deli cups.....all of them hid most of the time, some the entire time. None ate consistently, even though the same pre killed prey was left at the burrow mouths weekly, and when I finally dug them up, I was surprised to find that all still looked like indescriminent slings...many looked like they hadnt grown at all....but the biggest of this group, were still smaller than the largest of the other group.

Once group B was housed into condiment cups, all (no exceptions) instantly became great eaters and growth rates picked up right away.

How you house a [terrestrial] sling is directly related to how it eats and grows.

Just food for thought.

Now that is VERY interesting. Did you detail the experiment in a thread somewhere? What species were used and what was the sample size?

 

[cold blood]

Now that is VERY interesting. Did you detail the experiment in a thread somewhere? What species were used and what was the sample size?

I have shared it several times over the years, but never a detailed thread....probably should have.

The sample size was large, it was the better part of my half of a G. pulchripes sac. Sprinkled in was another 50 or so various Brachypelma/Tiltocatyl and Ndandu. The number in the experiment was somewhere around 350 or so hundred slings.

 

[Jonathan6303]

Aphonopelma usually stay in premolt for a while

 

[The Grym Reaper]

My A. bicoloratum sling sealed itself away for over 6 months, only just opened its burrow back up yesterday so left a pre-killed roach nymph outside which it ate at some point, didn't moult in that time. Had it over two years and it's still not outgrown the condiment cup I housed it in when I first got it.