Anyone got experience with dwarf species slings?

[Gizalba]

Hi,

I have recently got a Cyriocosmus elgeans (trinidad love-heart butt dwarf) - I have called her Mika. She is sooo cute, but with her being even smaller than a normal sling (she is about 0.5cm) tending to her is a bit of a challenge especially when I don't know where she is, so I don't want to go poking around in case I squish her. I had seen her out and about the other day, although she hides now when I take the lid off - so I put a micro cricket in for her. With my other Ts I take the cricket out if they don't eat it, but with Mika - the cricket, being even smaller than she is, disappeared into the substrate quickly, so now I have no way of telling whether she ate it or not :/ It has been a few days now and I have not seen her since either. I really hope she ate it then is just recovering from her meal/tunnelling or something, but I worry what if she went into molt and the cricket attacked her.

This is a pic of her in her enclosure when I first got her. I have been using a pipette to put water droplets on the moss daily so she has something to drink.

 

[ilovebrachys]

Cyriocosmus do tend to burrow and hide at times so that probably what it is and I know they take some spotting at times... We've got quite a few dwarf species and they are the hardest to keep an eye on for that reason
We feed either a cricket 'drumstick' from a larger cricket, bean weevils, woodlice(damage them first) or a piece of mealworm to our tiniest of slings therfore eliminating the worry of the sling being harmed as none of the above will attack the sling and can easily be removed if it does not eat we never use micro crickets at all - I hope that helps

 

[Gizalba]

Cyriocosmus do tend to burrow and hide at times so that probably what it is and I know they take some spotting at times... We've got quite a few dwarf species and they are the hardest to keep an eye on for that reason
We feed either a cricket 'drumstick' from a larger cricket, bean weevils, woodlice(damage them first) or a piece of mealworm to our tiniest of slings therfore eliminating the worry of the sling being harmed as none of the above will attack the sling and can easily be removed if it does not eat we never use micro crickets at all - I hope that helps

Thanks very much! Regarding the cricket drumstick - I wondered what happens to the cricket who you took the leg off? Does it bleed to death/suffer a lot? For example, is it kinder to just kill it then take the leg off, or just take the leg off? Lol. I know 'pain' in such small insects is debated, and I know the tarantula may well make it suffer, but I do hate the idea of not being as humane as possible when I am killing things myself.

 

[Gizalba]

Thanks very much! Regarding the cricket drumstick - I wondered what happens to the cricket who you took the leg off? Does it bleed to death/suffer a lot? For example, is it kinder to just kill it then take the leg off, or just take the leg off? Lol. I know 'pain' in such small insects is debated, and I know the tarantula may well make it suffer, but I do hate the idea of not being as humane as possible when I am killing things myself.

P.s. Sorry for all the info, but I did at first put a cricket leg in for her off a cricket that had already died naturally - she didn't eat it so after a few days I took it out before it decayed. I am wondering whether the likely reason she didn't eat it is because it should have been freshly killed?

 

[ilovebrachys]

P.s. Sorry for all the info, but I did at first put a cricket leg in for her off a cricket that had already died naturally - she didn't eat it so after a few days I took it out before it decayed. I am wondering whether the likely reason she didn't eat it is because it should have been freshly killed?

It may have eaten some of the cricket leg the sling is so small it won't eat all of it... Also squash the drumstick a bit so the soft part is exposed for the sling to eat
We just pull the leg off a cricket and toss it in with a bigger T to eat it.. Sometimes if you put one back in with the others after removing a leg the others will attack it and kill it.. I really don't like crickets so we try not to use them where possible

 

[Enn49]

I feed mine on small crickets, next size up to micro and if necessary I prekill them by squishing the head. If you prefer to use the drumstick just feed the rest of the cricket to a bigger T

 

[Gizalba]

Thanks! Yup tossing the rest of it in with a bigger T is a good idea!

 

[Arachnoclown]

I freeze my feeders for small slings. You can then drop them in whole or chop them up.

 

[Casey K.]

I freeze my feeders for small slings. You can then drop them in whole or chop them up.

That's a good idea!!! Didn't think of that! Thanks for that info!