Brachyopelma sabulosum slings rehouse successful and sad news

[Whitelightning777]

It was finally time to rehouse my 4 B sabulosum slings into the Jamie's sling enclosures out of the deli cups. The Jamie's enclosures have better circulation, better substrate which is deeper and room for a starter burrow, some decor, a bit of moss & a waterdish.

Of the 4, three of them are in perfect condition.

Sling #3 was basically the runt of the litter. Despite having pre-killed feeders around, it continued to fall behind and I finally found it passed away, only less then half the size of the others.

No pics taken.

Here is sling #1. This little one tried running up the wall, agreed to walk into the top of the Jamie's cage and was rehoused when I put the lid on the cage.

Sling #2 did it a little differently, walking into the lid off of the Jamie's enclosure on its own and then dropping down to the ground.

Of course, sling #4 has to be melodramatic. This determined odd ball is the biggest one and tried to burrow under each tiny piece of vermaculite.

Eventually it just gave up and calmly walked into the new cage. That's why I only have just a few pics, to busy with the paintbrush!!

Hopefully, everyone enjoys these pics. This whole thing was a bit too much to do and video it at the same time.

 

[Enn49]

They're looking good. Sorry to hear that you lost one though.

 

[Whitelightning777]

It's totally mysterious. The other 3 looked good, fat and happy. I think it's like one of them was just a runt, like what can happen with a litter of pigs.

As soon as I saw the uneaten pre-killed feeders, I knew the worst. All the others are big enough for mealworms.

Sling #1 really likes the view!! The others are hiding by the moss and the water dish.

They seem to all have slightly different tendencies, but overall they have an excellent stable temperament.

In the deli cups, #1 was almost always in the moss and not in the substrate. These guys aren't really big enough to be hurt in falls.

The thing is just how small they were when I got them!! They are NOW the size my C versicolor was when I brought him home. My H pulchripes doing was also the same size when I unboxed him.

These guys were delivered in drinking straws from arachnoclown. (Who has an excellent YouTube channel & knows a lot)

These are by far the smallest slowest growing slings I've ever had. In a way, I'm relieved that it wasn't worse. The weird part is that they have molted several times but don't seem to get much size at all.

 

[Whitelightning777]

Update, they have all settled into place and are looking good. I'll wait a week before feeding. The moss did dip into one of the bottle caps and wicked away all the water.

Other than that, all seems well.

Still, it's mystifying and frustrating that only 3 out of 4 did well. I guess that's why people get multiple slings!!

 

[Enn49]

Update, they have all settled into place and are looking good. I'll wait a week before feeding. The moss did dip into one of the bottle caps and wicked away all the water.

Other than that, all seems well.

Still, it's mystifying and frustrating that only 3 out of 4 did well. I guess that's why people get multiple slings!!

You'd probably find that in the wild you'd be lucky to get 1 out of 4 surviving, that's the cruel side of nature.

 

[Whitelightning777]

Usually in the wild, most are killed off by predators, which shouldn't be a factor in captivity!!

That sling was falling behind as time went on. I at first assumed that it might be a female & therefore was growing slowly.

I figured that a slightly larger enclosure with deeper substrate might reduce stress on all of them, especially the one falling behind. I was to late, but suspect there was nothing that could be done.

It was still eating pre-killed when the others have started on small meal worms.

Still, the others have been growing more then I thought now that I have a better look at them. They are basically around 1" DLS. Hopefully the growth rate will accelerate with time.

They were under .25" DLS when I received them & at first it was hard to find them in the deliciou deli cups.

 

[Arachnoclown]

Sorry about the loss. It happens time to time for no particular reason. That's why I sent extras to make sure you got some adults.

 

[Whitelightning777]

Cool!!

Now that they are 1", the odds should tilt in their favor. The 3 that did well look absolutely great. They are taking mealworms, small ones as well as very small red runners when I order them from Jamie's.

They still burrow 99% of the time but that should gradually change.

They are pretty calm considering the small size & didn't really cause to many problems.