one starts, Another stops

[kelly murray]

Well the G aureostriata is eating but my P seemani has stopped. she is probably due to molt as she is slightly discoloured but its really frustrating. Had a couple of days with all eating like troopers. (if she decides to go on a fast like the G i'm not going to be impressed). Oh well got some new babies with more to come so that should take my mind from it. aaarhhgh

[Jennifer Todd]

I have a G rosea who is not eating, but I'm hoping she will moult soon as she has not moulted in the 18 months I have had her. I know Rosie will just do her own thing in her own time. Some of my B smithi slings moulted recently and they happily munch their bean weevils, so I'm enjoying watching them.

What babies are you getting?

[kelly murray]

well you mention smithi's got one of those with a B boehmei and a G aureostriata all sling and arrived yesterday expecting some more later this week. My adult G auroestriata went 6 months without touching anything:s

[Christian Elowsky]

And in that 6 months did it shrink at all? Overfeeding is too common in our hobby, so I suggest relaxing with those terrestrial species just a bit.

[Colin D Wilson]

Have to agree with Christian on this, far too often spiders are fed untill they refuse food and then panic by the owner sets in...in their natural habitat spiders are opportunistic feeders, they process the meal and extract every usable nutrient from it...this is because they don't know when their next meal is coming.
In captivity they are fed on a regular basis though they will still instinctivly work on this opportunistic factor and try and get enough food to survive a period where no food is available.
If you notice in any of the images of spiders in natural habitat, their abdomen is rarely the size of a similar species in captivity.

[kelly murray]

They only get 4-5 brown cricks a week and the girls are farely large as adults.The H lividum eats the same amount but in morio's but otherwise was drinking fine didn't drop in size much when she fasted

[ty sinclair]

hi jennifer todd

i have a g.rosea i boughtit over a year ago and it only just moulted 2 months ago. they do take a very long time to grow. it didnt feed for 6 months. i seen it 1 night making a web bed for itself i woke up in the morning and it was on its back. when i bought her, she was bout 2 and a half inches, she never moulted just grew and grew. a couple of months before she moulted he was drinking loads of water and her abdomen was massive. great wee T

[Colin D Wilson]

They only get 4-5 brown cricks a week and the girls are farely large as adults.The H lividum eats the same amount but in morio's but otherwise was drinking fine didn't drop in size much when she fasted

Just as a comparison Kelly, and of course everyone keeps their spider differently and to their own individual feeding regimen, mine only get that amount per month if you level it over the period of a year

[Elaine Ross]

They only get 4-5 brown cricks a week and the girls are farely large as adults.The H lividum eats the same amount but in morio's but otherwise was drinking fine didn't drop in size much when she fasted

Thats an awful lot of food per week Kelly, along the lines of power feeding. Mine only get 1 or 2 crickets every week or two (sometimes less)and all are healthy and looking great. Slings obviously get feed a bit more often but usually only 1 cricket once or twice a week depending on how busy I am.

I suggest cutting back on the amount you are feeding them

BTW G. aureostriata has now had a name change to G. pulchripes.

[Nicola Dolby]

Talking of spiders taking things slowly, I got two Aphonopelma slings and a Grammostola sling at the BTS show, all tiny and none of them have moulted yet!! also the Aphonopelmas are very off food. Normally I wouldn't be concerned given what's already been said here, but they are really, very tiny. Is such slow growth rates normal? Could you possibly give me a few tips on abberans keeping in general, as I know little about them? many thanks. Two to three crickets a week is enough in general Kelly, 1-2 if theyre Brachys, they have a really slow growth rate.

[Elaine Ross]

I wouldnt worry too much Nicola, the G. vachoni slings I got havent moulted yet either neither have any of the A. abberans that are here. It looks like they are going along the lines of typical slow growers.

I'm just keeping the abberan's sub slightly damp and feeding twice a week, all seem to be doing ok so far.

[James Box]

i find that A aberrans is a bit like Euathlas (ALOT like Euathlas, in fact, do a search for them on here, you'll see what i mean, a post by thespidershop lol)...as a slow growing species, it won't eat a huge amount...they are really quite hardy...i "neglect" mine pretty shamelessly, and they do alright...in fact i just checked and one moulted in bone dry conditions...guess i'll be feeding it soon!
i think i'd water a corner and let them have the choice of dry conditions, just to be safe...i lost a couple Euathlas truculentis slings by overwatering, now i keep them nearly bone dry and they thrive, go figure!

i agree with Colin and Christian about feeding...
the nuisance is of course if you don't have lots of spiders, a whole tub of crickets may be far too much to use before they die...the solution is to buy a few more spiders
i am a terrible influence i know
of course, i'm a bit of a hypocrite, i do have times when it's hard to resist giving one or two extra crickets

[Jennifer Todd]

E truculentus slings

James that is useful to know about your E truculentus slings as I have one myself. I had mould appear in my sling pots becuase I think I was over watering, I only started keeping slings this year. I have cut down on watering all my slings now and I use a pipette to water a small patch instead of misting the whole pot. My little E truculentus used to always climb but now the substrate is drier it spends more time on the ground.

[James Box]

yeah, i found them incredibly hardy with very dry, cool conditions...eating and moulting (albeit slowly). however, warm wet conditions finished them off rather quickly...
this does seem to be the norm for Chilean species in general from what i've heard and experienced...for example i have a pair of G rosea slings that are doing fine with very little water and cool temps as well.

[Nicola Dolby]

As per usual the day after I post on here one of my Aphonopelmas moults! Doesn't look any bigger though, still smaller than a 5p coin. Thanks for the advice, I've kept E. vulpinus before so I know what you mean. As for keeping more, I think its a case of finding room at the mo! Thanks again.