New group w problems

[Phobik1]

I just bought 3 G. Pulchripes slings locally. He had them listed as 1.25" but his price was 25 to 30% higher than any other reputable vendor. I figire it was due to size as everyone else i saw was listing them .5 to 1". Buying locally meant saving 50 bucks on shipping. After getting them home i see they are barely .75 so i text him and let him know. He is quite calm and polite and seems like a good dude. He makes it right hy offering me a freebie that i wanted. A 2 inch Nic Curly Hair. Cool. I go get that and he gives me a second sling he said was really small. Now the 2" looks like hes only 1.25 to 1.5.
Im a bit new at this so maybe its me.
Questions:
What do you fees slings this small?
Was i wrong w my size assumptions?
Im looking for my pics n posy them ASAP.

 

[octanejunkie]

Well, it depends on how Ts are measured... DLS is common but not "the standard"

Price is what the market will bear. You paid more but saved on shipping. So there's that.

 

[Phobik1]

Well, it depends on how Ts are measured... DLS is common but not "the standard"

Price is what the market will bear. You paid more but saved on shipping. So there's that.

Yes very True but these, i think, are much smaller than advertised. Maybe im wrong too. Look

 

[Phobik1]

And heres the 2in Nic

 

[octanejunkie]

Hard to accurately gauge from those pics, but if you had to guess, what size coin would the spiders fit on with it's all their legs stretched out?

The one on your hand looks to be about 1.5"-ish

 

[Phobik1]

Hard to accurately gauge from those pics, but if you had to guess, what size coin would the spiders fit on with it's all their legs stretched out?

The one on your hand looks to be about 1.5"-ish

The ones in the viles will fit on a dime.
The Nic Curly Hair is much bigger and would fit on a quarter w/ room.
I really need to know what to feed the lil ones.

 

[octanejunkie]

Slings that small can scavenge prekilled chunks of cricket, mealworm, roach, etc.
Optionally live pinhead crickets or roaches. I cripple the feeders and feed live to stimulate the hunting response.

Keep the slings in the vials, water with an eye dropper every other day or so. Feed every 3-4 days.

I have 2 threads on here with slings that size, an LP and a Nhandu chromatus. They are easy to keep.

 

[Phobik1]

Slings that small can scavenge prekilled chunks of cricket, mealworm, roach, etc.
Optionally live pinhead crickets or roaches. I cripple the feeders and feed live to stimulate the hunting response.

Keep the slings in the vials, water with an eye dropper every other day or so. Feed every 3-4 days.

I have 2 threads on here with slings that size, an LP and a Nhandu chromatus. They are easy to keep.

Great. Thank you. I've got small mealworms i can cut up. I have never found pinhead roaches in the petstores, any leads?

 

[Venomous Vixen]

This is my 1/4” C. Versicolor for comparison

 

[Konstantin]

Yes very True but these, i think, are much smaller than advertised. Maybe im wrong too. LookView attachment 46144View attachment 46145

Hi
With big relailers often the advetised size is the batch average estimated size. It is a bit unrealistic to expect someone to try and measure accurately hundreds(thousands) of slings.Sometimes you get smaller sometimes you get bigger.This is how it usually works. Important bit is that they are all in good health.
Don't feel cheated and enjoy your new additions
Regards Konstantin

 

[m0lsx]

I simply dehead mealworms for my slings. As whole ones are easier to spot & then remove with tweezers. Plus mealworms are cheap & come in quantities that I never use all of. I only have about 12 slings to feed, so it does not cost me anything extra to use a whole one.

A mealworm that is not deheaded will bury it's self. So always cut the head off.

I feed on day one, remove on day two. Feed again day three. So even if I occasionally miss a day, they get at least 3 feed days per week when fresh food is available.

With small slings I have never worked out how to know if they are eating or not. As they will eat so little. So by offering plenty of fresh food, I am simply doing the best that I can & this method means I check my slings most days. But unlike some here I only have a few slings.

Because I now also have some small Mantids, I also occasionally pop a couple of live flightless fruit flies in too & if my mealworms turn into beetles, I chop the head off them & offer them too. Live mealworm beetles have the potential to harm your slings & juvenile T's, so NEVER feed live beetles, not even to adult T's.

 

[Phobik1]

Hi
With big relailers often the advetised size is the batch average estimated size. It is a bit unrealistic to expect someone to try and measure accurately hundreds(thousands) of slings.Sometimes you get smaller sometimes you get bigger.This is how it usually works. Important bit is that they are all in good health.
Don't feel cheated and enjoy your new additions
Regards Konstantin

Theye are certainly in good health. You do make complete sense. Thanx.

 

[Phobik1]

I simply dehead mealworms for my slings. As whole ones are easier to spot & then remove with tweezers. Plus mealworms are cheap & come in quantities that I never use all of. I only have about 12 slings to feed, so it does not cost me anything extra to use a whole one.

A mealworm that is not deheaded will bury it's self. So always cut the head off.

I feed on day one, remove on day two. Feed again day three. So even if I occasionally miss a day, they get at least 3 feed days per week when fresh food is available.

With small slings I have never worked out how to know if they are eating or not. As they will eat so little. So by offering plenty of fresh food, I am simply doing the best that I can & this method means I check my slings most days. But unlike some here I only have a few slings.

Because I now also have some small Mantids, I also occasionally pop a couple of live flightless fruit flies in too & if my mealworms turn into beetles, I chop the head off them & offer them too. Live mealworm beetles have the potential to harm your slings & juvenile T's, so NEVER feed live beetles, not even to adult T's.

Hey thats great info. Im only keeping mealworms cuz they are cheap n last for at least a month to 6 wks in the mini fridge.

 

[m0lsx]

Hey thats great info. Im only keeping mealworms cuz they are cheap n last for at least a month to 6 wks in the mini fridge.

Personally I don't keep my meal worms in the fridge, I keep them out & just look after them. I never use all of them, so I see no point in slowing them down, by storing them in the fridge. I remove as many of the dead worms as I can when using them. I feed my mealworms, using cheap supermarket porridge & some cheap flaked fish food. I also sieve the dust remnant of the old food out every few weeks & blow into the sieve to remove the old shed skins.

 

[Phobik1]

Personally I don't keep my meal worms in the fridge, I keep them out & just look after them. I never use all of them, so I see no point in slowing them down, by storing them in the fridge. I remove as many of the dead worms as I can when using them. I feed my mealworms, using cheap supermarket porridge & some cheap flaked fish food. I also sieve the dust remnant of the old food out every few weeks & blow into the sieve to remove the old shed skins.

I fed them all cut up mealworms Sunday night and caught them all eating over the next 24hrs. One of them ate a piece that was as big as he was. All of it! Crazy. I swear he looks 50% bigger!

So what porridge do you feed your mealworms w the fishfood?

 

[m0lsx]

So what porridge do you feed your mealworms w the fishfood?

Just cheap porridge, the current bag is from Asda & just their cheapest smart price. I love listening to the mealworms after topping up with fresh porridge. My daughter says it's better than listening to a seashell.

 

[testdasi]

Im a bit new at this so maybe its me.
Questions:
What do you fees slings this small?
Was i wrong w my size assumptions?
Im looking for my pics n posy them ASAP.

It's not you, it's the system. haha.
Basically sellers tend to use diagonal leg span (DLS) cuz it's very generous with size, while actually being verifiable / provable so it's not misrepresentation.
You can "lose" about 1/3 the DLS size if measured from the side in normal stand (the power of geometry!). Knowing that, your case is about right (e.g. 1.5" -> 0.75"+, 2" -> 1.25"+). That's a very nice seller by the way for doing what he did.

Very small slings will be totally happy to scavenge so headless mealworm / roach nymph are good. Some say large cricket leg would also work but I had little experience with it.

 

[SpiderMike]

Also times have changed. When I bought T's back in the 2003-2007 period, just about every one arrived comfortably fulfilling the stated size so you looked forward to a new purchase. Had a hiatus for about 10 years but since getting back in I find over-estimates are the rule rather than the exception now (and don't even get me started on price), which is disappointing and you wind up opening a package with trepidation and a degree of "oh boy what'll I be getting this time?"

Not going to point fingers but I'll go the other way working from a more positive angle and say that a couple of T's I got from Todd Gearheart met their stated sizes very well so he's an exception (not intending it as a plug per se).