Sling enclosure size, upkeep. Question heavy.

Hello my name is Ben. I have had two slings for roughly 2 months. A chilean rose and a chaco golden knee

I have had them in the same enclosures since receiving them both, two smallish mason jars. Somehow they both have molted within the same week. Well, the chaco was hidden for 30 days or so and emerged after molting. The rosehair molted in less than 7 hours, in the open. It was very surprising. Nonetheless, they both are roughly 1" in size now.

The chaco has not eaten since ive owned it, the rosehair once. I mention this to say that i havent had to clean/extract dead prey buried in substrate but 5-6 times total. The size of their enclosures vary only in their heights. The difference is about 1". There is equal depth of substrate in each, about 3-3.5". The jars both have a diameter of 3".

Since molting they both also can climb the glass walls, so the height of substrate surface to ceiling is now a concern; ive been told.

My questions are:
Is completely upheaving such a large environment (for a sling) too much stress, or unhealthy in anyway for a t?
How imperative is it to remove appropriately sized live prey items from the enclosure?
How long does a small cricket actually live inside an enclosure thats mildly humid and no food source- an estimate?
Is a feeding chamber-type scenario an option with feeding t's? As in a separate enclosure used purely to feed? Or would this be entirely too much stress/hassle.
Are there advantages health-wise to feed live vs dead?

The reason for my specific questions is that im considering switching enclosures to 4oz plastic cups to ease the search for prey (dead or alive) on the t's part and mine also.

Thank you in advance for any help provided, i know my questions are pretty detailed.

assidreemz said:

My questions are:
Is completely upheaving such a large environment (for a sling) too much stress, or unhealthy in anyway for a t?
How imperative is it to remove appropriately sized live prey items from the enclosure?
How long does a small cricket actually live inside an enclosure thats mildly humid and no food source- an estimate?
Is a feeding chamber-type scenario an option with feeding t's? As in a separate enclosure used purely to feed? Or would this be entirely too much stress/hassle.
Are there advantages health-wise to feed live vs dead?

The reason for my specific questions is that im considering switching enclosures to 4oz plastic cups to ease the search for prey (dead or alive) on the t's part and mine also.

Thank you in advance for any help provided, i know my questions are pretty detailed.

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1) both yes and no. some will say if you have a propper enclosure [vents etc] a larger enclosure can be ok if you put their food by their burrow each feeding
2) well while we do recommend feeding appropriate sized pray, some T's will take larger, and of course smaller pray. when suspecting a molt from my guys i feed a smaller pray item so they dont have issues but post molt, ill happily give larger meals to those i know that take them.
3) N/A i cant keep pinhead crix alive i use roaches which last a lifetime it seems]
4) big NO moving cages means stress. to all animals. including snakes where that rumor comes from.. feed in cage. close to their burrow or wherever if small enough [2x dsl is a must in T's personally i do 3x+ in most]
5) no different if you mean prekilled [heads crushed/cut] but if your feeding actual dead crickets found in the bottom of the tub its not exactly good and healthy for them but theyl eat it usually. i feed head crushed to 85% of my T's i only use live for my heavy webbers and aggressive feeders


also id say bump it to a 8oz imo if not a 16oz(tall) for the chaco if it digs alot [personal preference tho]

Feed pre-killed prey at this size. Many slings aren't great at making their own kills, yet will readily eat even larger pre-killed prey items. It also means you won't either lose a cricket in there that hides (they can live surprisingly long), you will ALWAYS know if the prey was eaten at a quick glance and removal is also simple if its not eaten. There is NO health disadvantage to feeding pre-killed prey.

VERY IMPORTANT !!!!!
Don't feed them prekilled crickets that say anything related to reptiles! Calcium is a no no for taratulas. Avoid gutloaded crickets and any other sort of supplimented food. Most of these products are designed for reptiles and can cause molt issues. Only accept "gut loaded" crickets if it's done using raw vegetables.

Note:
You can also feed slings legs of crickets that you pulled off of full grown ones

coppercab said:

VERY IMPORTANT !!!!!
Don't feed them prekilled crickets that say anything related to reptiles! Calcium is a no no for taratulas. Avoid gutloaded crickets and any other sort of supplimented food. Most of these products are designed for reptiles and can cause molt issues. Only accept "gut loaded" crickets if it's done using raw vegetables.

Note:
You can also feed slings legs of crickets that you pulled off of full grown ones

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Thanks for the tip about calcium! I recently bought Flukers cricket food, I'm pretty sure it's calcium supplemented. Now I know to feed them veg instead. Any recommendations about which veg would be best to feed? My only concern about leaving vegetables in a cricket cage is that they'll attract fruit flies.

I never tried pre-killed in the past because I thought the T's wouldn't eat dead prey. What's the size limit for feeding pre-killed, if any? I have a 2.5 in. B. baumgarteni. She hasn't eaten since I got her about 2 weeks ago.

Most fruits will cause too much moisture in a cticket enclosure, and combined with those dirty crickets they will mold VERY quickly. I feed my crickets a piece of dog food (cat or even fish food also work well).

My understanding is that calcium isn't actually the problem we used to believe it was.

thank you all for the speedy replies

i have since transferred both spiders into 4 oz clear plastic solo cups, and the maintenance is so much easier, also they seem to be eating more consistently/more often

I'm hoping they out grow their enclosures in the 6mo/yr to come so i can get them into more semi permanent and better quality dealeos

again thank you all for the help. this forum is the shiznit

coppercab said:

VERY IMPORTANT !!!!!
Don't feed them prekilled crickets that say anything related to reptiles! Calcium is a no no for tarantulas. Most of these products are designed for reptiles and can cause molt issues.

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Not true. That's a myth that gets perpetuated without any evidence to support it. Most tarantulas eat a fair amount of small vertebrates in the wild.

---------- Post added 10-20-2014 at 08:05 PM ----------

Spinster said:

Any recommendations about which veg would be best to feed? My only concern about leaving vegetables in a cricket cage is that they'll attract fruit flies.

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Use kinds that won't rot into a gooey mess, that's what draws flies. That's rules out many vegetables and almost all fruit. I use romaine, carrots, and potatoes. With those, you don't need to give them any water.

coppercab said:

VERY IMPORTANT !!!!!
Don't feed them prekilled crickets that say anything related to reptiles! Calcium is a no no for taratulas. Avoid gutloaded crickets and any other sort of supplimented food. Most of these products are designed for reptiles and can cause molt issues. Only accept "gut loaded" crickets if it's done using raw vegetables.

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To quote Dwight K. Schrute, "False."

Lol @ the calcium myth that just refuses to die, someone stab it through the heart already.

jigalojey said:

the calcium myth that just refuses to die

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That, along with Avics needing daily misting, and tarantulas like to be handled and bond with their owners.

Poec54 said:

That, along with Avics needing daily misting, and tarantulas like to be handled and bond with their owners.

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Yeah but the calcium myth is much worse than the "tarantula bonding" stuff, at least the calcium myth would be somewhat believable to a beginner haha.

jigalojey said:

Yeah but the calcium myth is much worse than the "tarantula bonding" stuff, at least the calcium myth would be somewhat believable to a beginner haha.

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haha well isnt that what happened to the babirusa? too much calcium? lmao JOKE.. i used to tell ppl who wanted a micropig and feed it cat food that it needed proper food, and ofcourse vet and dental care.. if they said no id bust out a pic of the good ol babirusa and say "this is what happens when you dont take care of it.. this is animal abuse, and if not taken care of further then its tuck curv into its skull after a while and can kill it" tho not true but kept ppl from having a pet pig eating catfood and table scraps.. it started a rumor. but at least it made people want to actually take care of the animal

pyro fiend said:

haha well isnt that what happened to the babirusa? too much calcium? lmao JOKE.. i used to tell ppl who wanted a micropig and feed it cat food that it needed proper food, and ofcourse vet and dental care.. if they said no id bust out a pic of the good ol babirusa and say "this is what happens when you dont take care of it.. this is animal abuse, and if not taken care of further then its tuck curv into its skull after a while and can kill it" tho not true but kept ppl from having a pet pig eating catfood and table scraps.. it started a rumor. but at least it made people want to actually take care of the animal

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Hahahahahahaha, someone like you caused this calcium myth and thought it would be funny, now look where we are

jigalojey said:

Hahahahahahaha, someone like you caused this calcium myth and thought it would be funny, now look where we are

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haha well maybe they was generally concerned? not sure how excess calcium is bad? i mean our bodys can only obsorb like 600mg of calcium at once. so if i took 3 its not going to make my bones thicker.. just going to waist is all.. id imagine almost all animals are that way, that or thats where we geat the horned baboons! >:O you pump them with milk?!?! lololol

Spinster said:

Thanks for the tip about calcium! I recently bought Flukers cricket food, I'm pretty sure it's calcium supplemented. Now I know to feed them veg instead. Any recommendations about which veg would be best to feed? My only concern about leaving vegetables in a cricket cage is that they'll attract fruit flies.

I never tried pre-killed in the past because I thought the T's wouldn't eat dead prey. What's the size limit for feeding pre-killed, if any? I have a 2.5 in. B. baumgarteni. She hasn't eaten since I got her about 2 weeks ago.

Click to expand...

I've had some of my 2.5 inch juvies eat prekilled stuff. I have an O.sp Blue who is very shy and sometimes I don't wake up in the middle of the night to check on it. When I'm not sure if it's in pre-molt I leave a pre-killed cricket by its burrow to see if it's hungry. At this size most will prefer live prey but if the spider is hungry it will take what it can get. Plus you can get away with feeding slightly larger meals if you don't have little prey items on hand, saves me a lot of hassle from dealing with stuff like pinheads nad fruit flies.

pyro fiend said:

haha well isnt that what happened to the babirusa? too much calcium? lmao JOKE.. i used to tell ppl who wanted a micropig and feed it cat food that it needed proper food, and ofcourse vet and dental care.. if they said no id bust out a pic of the good ol babirusa and say "this is what happens when you dont take care of it.. this is animal abuse, and if not taken care of further then its tuck curv into its skull after a while and can kill it" tho not true but kept ppl from having a pet pig eating catfood and table scraps.. it started a rumor. but at least it made people want to actually take care of the animal

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Why make stuff up when you can just be honest about proper care?

freedumbdclxvi said:

Why make stuff up when you can just be honest about proper care?

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Well this was yrs ago and i tried telling them but "its my pet i can take care of it however i **** want to" so put lil fear in few ppl.. meh i was young dumb n stupid xp

Back with another question to clarify.
I rarely, if ever interact with my specimens first of all,
And the small amount I do is during feeding obv which I do about once a week.
My spiders like to hide prey carcasses so I've started to only clean them out once a month.
My question is if this schedule is too frequent?
When I clean I sanitize the hide and enclosure and swap in new sub.
Below is a picture for reference

Those are wood chips for substrate?? or coco husks?