Some interesting facts about spiderlings

[Tom Forman]

I came across this while reading a Tarantula book. I had read the book before (tarantulas and other arachnids) but I must have overlooked this valuable piece of information:


"...Hatchling Tarantulas can starve to death in weeks, even though
adults can live years with no food. I have noticed that spiderlings
that are not fed soon after they disperse from the mother's web
have a much higher mortality rate than spiderlings fed well
immediately".

"... it is impossible to feed a Tarantula spiderling too much".

"...if you restrict their food when young, they will also not grow as large when they mature".


Now I'm just not sure if I should increase my slings/juveniles diet to bulk them up or keep their abdomens faily slim like I have been doing (in the aim of keeping them healthy). Hmmm.

What do you think?

[patsyking]

I can't get my tiny B.smithi to eat at all at the moment. Its only 1cm if that and has'nt eaten since the 2nd April yet does not show signs of coming up to a moult. Do slings of this size usually go off their food for such a long time? I put a micro cricket in yesteday and again this morning its running around uneaten so have had to take it out.My daughters one ate up until two days before a moult so can't understand why mine isn't eating. I'm a bit worried about it. I've even tried it with dead food but it just carted it off and dumped in away from its hide.

[Tom Forman]

Hi patsy,

I have had slings refuse crickets but never a fruitfly...

If you are worried then the best thing to do would get a small starter culture of the smaller fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster).

They are a bit of a pain in the *** to maintain even though they are constantly beeing advertised as the easiest insect to keep. They are not but you only want a few to get your sling eating...

You can keep them alive by feeding soggy breadcrumbs quite easily.

It might not be worth it, up to you. Like I said if you are worried, then 3 pounds is not the end of the world for trying something that could help.

Oh yeah and a big ps cause I know some1 else is going to say BUT... fruitflies are nutritionally deficient and should not be fed exclusively!

[Kate Arbon]

My smithi slings were eating so well when I first got them. Then they all molted and have now gone on mass hunger strike for the last 3 or 4 weeks. Kids

[Colin D Wilson]

Like I said if you are worried, then 3 pounds is not the end of the world for trying something that could help.

Very very true Tom,
I think all possibilities should be explored as the spiderlings would have a plentiful (wide) scope of food items in the wild.

Oh yeah and a big ps cause I know some1 else is going to say BUT... fruitflies are nutritionally deficient and should not be fed exclusively!

I can just hear the massive sigh when everyone reads this part. Nice little epilogue, and again....very true.

[Nicola Dolby]

Hi folks,
on the subject I wonder if you can help me out. I got 3 Avic slings in Feb. One died, I presume a spid version of cot death as there was no other reason. Of the other two one is 2cm, eating well and ok. The other is 1cm and hardly eats, though has a reasonably sized abdomen at the mo. Oh and the smaller one hasn't moulted since the beginning of March. The all have temp around 28, humidity 75-80% and a freshly killed nutritious maggot every other day. Can someone please explain why they are so different?

[Louise~Nichols]

Nicola...which Avics have you got? Are they Versicolor?

As for mystery deaths...pffft...don't we all get that at some point, and what a rotten feeling it is too, just having to accept that the spiderling obviously *wasn't meant to be*. Sympathies on the lost one anyways.

The others...well, your smaller one may be thinking about moulting, and is taking an age to do it...I've had both Versi and Peru Purple slings with that issue before. I kept my temps around 80f, humidity at 75-80% and made sure it ventilated very well to avoid fungus etc.
I found that some were troublesome little devils who couldn't wait to dessicate the minute the heat was turned up, or the skins stuck and caused minute tears in the abdomen during moult, but the now adult survivors were always hardy and not prone to any of these issues as slings. *sighs* Guess that's spider keeping for ya!! lol

[Nicola Dolby]

Hi Louise,
The Avics concerned are fasciculatas. Funny thing is A. purpurea are supposed to be really hard to raise and mine was easy, same with A. versicolor and A. metallica. Guess I've just got some awkward so-and-sos.

[Louise~Nichols]

LOL...yes it sounds like you have some proper little wotsits!! They probably heard a whisper that you raised that Purpurea so well, and now they want to test you out!! hehehe
Good luck with them Nicola...I hope the little one gets on with its moult in the very near future and starts to munch again.

[Peter Roach]

a freshly killed nutritious maggot every other day. Can someone please explain why they are so different?

Have you tried a fresh live maggot ?
My versi's were given live maggots from day one (maggots were bigger than the slings ) I usually put in 3-4 maggots in once a week, the slings usually managed to get at least one maggot sometimes two. The other(s) burrowed into the substrate and emerged as flies a few weeks later. Feeding this this way meant that there was almost daily fresh livefood available. Now I just throw in 1 or 2 lobster roach on a weekly basis, sometimes they eat them and sometimes they dont but I still put the roaches in so there is usually livefood available 24/7.
I got them at last years Kempton Park show and most of them are now around the 3in size (a few smaller and a few larger) and ready for a shed very soon.

[James Box]

I came across this while reading a Tarantula book. I had read the book before (tarantulas and other arachnids) but I must have overlooked this valuable piece of information:


"...Hatchling Tarantulas can starve to death in weeks, even though
adults can live years with no food. I have noticed that spiderlings
that are not fed soon after they disperse from the mother's web
have a much higher mortality rate than spiderlings fed well
immediately".

"... it is impossible to feed a Tarantula spiderling too much".

"...if you restrict their food when young, they will also not grow as large when they mature".


Now I'm just not sure if I should increase my slings/juveniles diet to bulk them up or keep their abdomens faily slim like I have been doing (in the aim of keeping them healthy). Hmmm.

What do you think?

i have the book from where those quotes come, as well. it's my favourite T book, though i'm sure there are items that are out of date in it by now.
i am not sure about being unable to feed "too much", as "powerfeeding" has also been said to be unhealthy.
i personally like my slings to be a little bit fat, because they lose water so quickly. i feed and water every few days (watering often because they dry quickly at my house), and try to get them to take a couple small crickets a time.
so i try to strike a balance hopefully between powerfeeding and cautious feeding.
no idea of the factuality of the statement that they don't grow as big if not fed as much.
but of course, Sam Marshall's observations should at least be considered, unless something has come to invalidate them, particularly about being fed before or after dispersing possibly relating to mortality...
and he may be right about the adult size/spiderling feeding frequency relationship, so far as i know, as well.