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Can I over feed a G. Pulchra sling?

Will-batayte

Member
Messages
17
Location
CT
So as you guys may know from my other post I have a G. Pulchra sling. According to the source it's a year or more old. It was polite enough to climb onto the plastic of the enclosure and spread out so I could hold up a ruler. From its front right leg to the opposite back left leg it measures 1-1/4 inch. The source stated they were currently eating pinhead roaches. These roaches are about 4mm long. Small enough that it's hard to even see the roach after my sling has it. So I started out offering it a roach every other day. Which it imediately pounced and devoured. So I tried doing 1 a day. Same strong feeding response. Then the other day when I was feeding it two roaches fell in. The little fella chowed down on both back to back. So I tried giving two each day. Which I've done for the last 3 days. The sling doesn't hesitate for a moment to take the prey. So I started to wonder if the roaches were too small for this guy. I asked the source and they said they were feeding once a week. How can once a week have been enough if it's willing to literally eat 14x that amount? Then I also looked up growth rates since I knew this to be a slow grower and people's pulchras molt history differed greatly. From some of them molting once a month like clockwork and others literally molting once a year. Which seemed to depend on feeding. I don't want to do anything that will effect the spider in a negative way but it seems like giving him one pinhead a week is like giving him the bare minimum.
 

Tortoise Tom

Well-Known Member
1,000+ Post Club
Messages
1,034
Location
Southern CA
Opinions wil vary on this greatly. There isn't really a right or wrong way to do it. Many ways will work and keep the spider alive and healthy.

To answer your question, no, you can't over feed one. If it isn't hungry it won't eat.

Pinheads are fine for tiny babies but a 1.5" pulchra can take near adult male crickets or lateralis roaches. I generally feed them roaches that are about the size of their abdomen once every 4-5 days.

I keep mine in my 80 degree reptile room and they molt right around once a month with my feeding and heating routine.

Time to move up to larger prey for your baby.
 

RonC

Well-Known Member
3 Year Member
Messages
250
Location
Dallas Texas
Look at how plump the abdomen is. Both my slings ate a couple of meals in a week and burrowed about 3-4 weeks ago. I wouldn't over do it if you want to see it any time soon.
 

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