I just got a 1/4 inch pink zebra beauty sling he is one of my first 2 tarantulas. Along with a metallic pink toe. I put them both in thier enclosures and the pink toe is doing fine. He ate a cricket and is exploring his enclosure all happy go lucky. The PZB however is just hiding in a stressed position I gave him 2 fruit flies which I'm not sure if he ate or not I don't see them but I didn't see him eat them either. It has cover and eco earth in a small dressing cup. I'm worried that it may die what do I do?
E campastratus help!!!
- Thread starter cjp518
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skippydude
Arachnobaron
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It is probably fine. If you put prey in and it is gone, then it is eating. You better get used to not seeing this Tarantula much, they love to dig and stay under ground, at least till they are much bigger. My female is 3" now, raised from 1/4" sling and I've never seen her out of the burrow.
awiec
Arachnoprince
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One word: BREATHE. Most of the time I do not even try to feed my Ts until after a week I get them, they are exploring and trying to create a home, throwing food at them will freak them out. Some adjust fast, some take longer. I suggest leaving the sling alone for a week and then try to feed it again. If you can remove the fruit flies without disturbing the T then go head, if not they will die and you can remove the uneaten bodies next week. One thing that kills slings more than anything is fussing over them, just leave it alone for a bit and it should be okay. Just make sure it has a little bit of water in the form of a drop or two of water on the sub, I use a syringe to do this safely. Also get more familiar with the scientific names, some of the common Ts we can recognize via trade names but virtually all avics are called matallic pink toes.
NewAgePrimal
Arachnosquire
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Leave it alone for now. This is a hardy species. Feed it some fruit flies once a week, lightly mist one small spot on the side of its cup when you do. These grow fairly slow and aren't very active. Great spider though. I have four.
Mine's just a wee bit bigger, about 1/3". Got it about a month ago and mine behaved the same at first. It took almost 3 weeks to settle in. The first week it was in various places in the stressed position. The second week it used the small tunnel I made for it with tweezers a bit but also began excavating "test" tunnels, not very deep. By mid third week there is a very good sized tunnel along with a hide hole in the tunnel and it never comes out except for some magical hour when I'm not there to scavenge for food. Thankfully this tunnel runs along the side of the enclosure so I can peek in and see him in there anytime.
I'm feeding pinhead B. Lat roaches (which have now outgrown the spider meaning I'll need to pick up different feeders or wait for these to reproduce). Anyhow, mine will simply not eat a living prey item. I have to pre-kill it and leave it out. Then, during that magical scavenging hour the body gets dragged back into the tunnel system and eaten. I keep reading slings eat once or twice a week but mine is only eating every 8 to 10 days. I know the PZB is a slow grower so I'm not terribly worried. Though I must look into the tunnel 20 - 30 times a day easily to spy. I just can't help myself.
I'm feeding pinhead B. Lat roaches (which have now outgrown the spider meaning I'll need to pick up different feeders or wait for these to reproduce). Anyhow, mine will simply not eat a living prey item. I have to pre-kill it and leave it out. Then, during that magical scavenging hour the body gets dragged back into the tunnel system and eaten. I keep reading slings eat once or twice a week but mine is only eating every 8 to 10 days. I know the PZB is a slow grower so I'm not terribly worried. Though I must look into the tunnel 20 - 30 times a day easily to spy. I just can't help myself.
skippydude
Arachnobaron
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Or you can cut the roaches that you have into smaller pieces
awiec
Arachnoprince
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Prekilled crickets are your friend, you can give some of your smaller slings just a leg or just give them the whole small cricket, they will decide how much they can eat.
Make sure to write it down, avics can be a total pain to figure out species as they do look a lot alike