Feedin question

[ducaknik]

Hi,i read somewhere that you can feed a sling below 2" about three days a week so it grows a bit faster,so my question is if this is true?will powerfeeding a sling until 2" harm it in anyway?

 

[Jesusplants]

Generally no, they if they'll eat that much it should be fine. If they don't eat the prey item you should remove it though.

 

[Ghost]

No power feeding your slings won't harm them in my experience,I feed all my slings as much and as often as they will eat I also keep their temps higher than I do the rest of my T's and have never had any problems with them,now I have heard other people say that power feeding can result in bad molts but I personally have never experienced this with any of my slings.....

 

[spidey noob]

i only feed my slings once a week !!! (with no problems at all)
u can feed sling as mutch as they will take, but u will shorten there life span.

 

[Ghost]

i only feed my slings once a week !!! (with no problems at all)
u can feed sling as mutch as they will take, but u will shorten there life span.

I knew someone was going to bring up that power feeding shortens their lifespan,and I wasn't sure whether to respond or not as I don't want to hijack the OPs thread.
However it could be a good idea to hear different opinions on this subject considering that there is no real evidence to conclusively prove that power feeding slings significantly shortens their lifespan.
So with that said here's my opinion on the subject after keeping tarantulas for many years I see no harm in power feeding slings for a short period of time in order to put a bit of size on them,after all in the wild slings will eat as much as they have access to so they can grow a bit quicker so their not at as much risk from predators this is quite natural,you also have to take into account that different species have very different growth rates and I don't think you could actually get some of the slower growing species to out grow their natural growth rate enough for it to have a significant effect on their overall lifespan,lets take P.murinus as an example for slow growth rate it can take about 6 years from sling to mature adult therefore to have any significant affect on its lifespan you would have to get it to mature in about half that time and I don't think even with power feeding you would manage that,therefore that's why I don't see any harm in power feeding slings for a short period of time in order for them to get past the delicate stage especially with some of the smaller species of tarantula,anyway that's my option and I don't want to rant on forever so I will leave it at that for now.....

 

[Chubbs]

I powerfeed all my slings until they hit about 2 inches.