Whoa! Fasting to Eating Machine!

[Lost_Tarantula]

Hey cool! Shadow has taken a liking to dead prey it seems. :?
Here is a pic of him/her. Never got around to taking a good one, so here it is. It was in high resolution, but I had to reduce it by a lot to allow it to upload. So if you download it you may be able to blow it up even further. The picture from top down does little justice to its oversized booty! It looks much bigger in real life. Guess its taller than it is wide.

Question: What should I do about water? I just damp the substrate (Spaghum peat moss (Scotts!)). Is this plus the moisture from cricket dinners enough? Do you think I should make a bottlecap water dish or something?

Here is Shadow with a quarter for size. If you can't see it very well, that's a cricket in his mouth.

 

[Lost_Tarantula]

Err....oops. I dunno why its so big. It's not that big in my Photoshop program. *shrug*

Guess you guys just have to suffer scrolling. ;P

 

[Theraphosa]

Hey Lost_Tarantula,
what spiderling do you have there? and how big is it?

 

[Lost_Tarantula]

Originally posted by Theraposa
Hey Lost_Tarantula,
what spiderling do you have there? and how big is it?

That's Shadow, my G. pulchra. Arrived Nov. 1 from K. Swift. It's...uh...quarter size.

Let me measure.......I'd say...1 1/8" or so. Maybe 1"

Well I just made him drop his dinner trying to measure him.

 

[Theraphosa]

how much did it cost and where did u bought it?

 

[Valael]

He said he bought it from K. Swift = Kelly Swift = http://www.swiftinverts.com

 

[Lost_Tarantula]

Originally posted by Valael
He said he bought it from K. Swift = Kelly Swift = http://www.swiftinverts.com

Heheh thanks Valael, but his question is valid, since he no longer has G. pulchra on his website. Must of cleaned him out.

Theraposa -

I bought it from Kelly Swift (click here) for 25 USD. Bought two of them, so thats 50 USD plus shipping equals 70 USD. Hope that helps.

 

[Theraphosa]

so it's ok to put your spiderling in a small cup like it showed on your picture? cuz I have a baby T. Blondi in a big cage already I also made a den for it so is that ok?

 

[Lost_Tarantula]

Now I'm the last person to be speaking from experience here, since this is my first sling, but from what I have read, yes, it is ok. I didn't want to put it into a large cage yet because at the time, I had no soil, and couldn't build up the floor level. The cage I had picked out would have surely killed it on a fall. I then decided to use one of those plasitc Whole Foods conainers, since it was small and much wider than it was tall. Perfect for a terrestrial tarantula. So, bottom line, I have heard that it is fine to keep them in a small cage when they are small slings. Mine isn't having any troubles whatsoever; hence the title: eating machine.

One caveat: With small containers make sure you don't smash your T with the lid when you close it (since those Whole Foods cups lids have a projection and seals form the inside rather than outside). I killed a cricket by accident this way (dang good thing it wasn't my T), and that's how I discovered that it doesn't mind dead prey.

Hope this helps you!

-LT

 

[Theraphosa]

thanks for info... yeah lucky it was the cricket not your T I can't think of a name for my spiderling do u know any names for a T. Blondi? how about piggy? cuz he/she eats like a pig..

 

[Lost_Tarantula]

Originally posted by Theraposa
thanks for info... yeah lucky it was the cricket not your T I can't think of a name for my spiderling do u know any names for a T. Blondi? how about piggy? cuz he/she eats like a pig..

Maybe you should wait until you find out what sex it is; it makes it a lot easier to name that way.


-LT

 

[jwb121377]

Theraposa I kept my T. blondi sling in a fairly large encloser, maybe 7"x7". T. blondi grow fast so I don't think you will have a problem.

 

[Code Monkey]

Originally posted by Theraposa
so it's ok to put your spiderling in a small cup like it showed on your picture?

It's fine. The rule of thumb for housing is that minimum dimensions for a cage should be about (1.75 - 2.25 X LS) x (1.5 X LS) where LS is the legspan of the T. For a circular cage, figure about 2 X LS in diameter. Experience has shown that for smaller slings these minimum cage dimensions are actually in excess of what you need to keep them unstressed. I routinely house slings up to 3/4" in sling vials, which are 1" in diameter. Upon exceeding 3/4", they get moved to deli containers that are 3.5" in diameter where I follow the rules more closely, keeping them there until they reach about 1.75". Then I move up to a KK mini (5.5" x 3") until they exceed 2.5". That then gets them moved up to a KK small (7.5" x 4.5") which I consider fine until they exceed 3.5" in LS.

cuz I have a baby T. Blondi in a big cage already I also made a den for it so is that ok?

That depends on how big that baby is, and how big that cage is. But, so long as the T is able to find food in a reasonable amount of time and doesn't appear stressed (Ts in too large of a cage without something they consider adequate shelter typically huddle in a corner with the legs pulled in - the T equivalent of the fetal position), you should be fine. As others pointed out, it's a fast growing species (several inches growth in just a year or so!) so it will quickly fill the tank regardless.

 

[Theraphosa]

thanks for the info guys..

 

[Nikos]

Water...

Here is what i did.
Took a film box (the plastic ones) and cut it near the bottom so it is around 2 milimeters hight.

By doing this you have a place where your sling has drinking water and also somwthing to maintain humidity in respectable levels.