Any advice for my sling?

[Emster]

Hi everyone, I have an Arizona Blonde sling who is over a year and a half old and only has a leg span of about 1cm. I know this is a very slow growing species who can tolerate long periods without food, but I have been concerned lately. Last year my sling completely stopped eating during the winter, molted in February or March, then continued eating and molted again last summer. This year it has been going much longer without food, it stopped eating in early November, which I didn't think much of at the time, but it's late May now and it still hasn't eaten or molted again. It's still pretty active and the abdomen is quite large. I've been making sure it has plenty of access to water and have been offering meal worm pieces every 2 weeks or so.
Is there anything I can do to encourage a molt? Or should I just keep waiting it out? I am considering moving it to a smaller enclosure, the one it's currently in is a bit large for this sling's size; I don't know if it will make a difference though. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Lentulus]

My Aphonopelma went over a year without food or water. The one in my avi. You could try some live pinhead crickets. See if that triggers a reaction. Otherwise, water n wait.

I use very small containers for slings that small. Like sauce containers from a salsa bar. Makes it super easy for them to find their food.

 

[Emster]

My Aphonopelma went over a year without food or water. The one in my avi. You could try some live pinhead crickets. See if that triggers a reaction. Otherwise, water n wait.

I use very small containers for slings that small. Like sauce containers from a salsa bar. Makes it super easy for them to find their food.

I don't have a lot of access to live food that small where I am, but I will definitely look around. I didn't even think about those little cups, that would be perfect! Thank you for the advice.

 

[Konstantin]

Hi
its not good idea to disturb it now.Ir may be close to moult. Leave it be.Do what you doing and once it moults and hardened givecit couple of meals and then rehouse in appropriate enclosure.
Regards Konstantin

 

[Jeef]

I've had varying degrees of success giving my slings cricket drumsticks. If you have a bigger one that will eat the rest of the cricket you can try that. If you don't have a bigger one, that is a valid excuse to get another one so you will have something to eat the rest of the crickets. Crickets will usually shed them if I grab them by a back leg with my tongs.

My A. chalcodes is currently on hunger strike. Now that I think about it, most of my Aphonopelmas have been on hunger strike. I don't get too worried about it. I keep offering food and they'll either eat it or not.