New to T's

[Unsub]

My ganddaughter has always been fascintated with spiders so I was forced to take an interest and am happy I did. For her 9th birthday I bought her a Euthlus sp. yellow 1/4", Brachypelma Albopilosum 3/4 ", and a few Brachypelma Vagans. We care for them together. We have watched educated ourselves as best we could but decided we still had a some specific questions. My main concern is around feeding. I want to feed them enough but not too much. The Vagans are about 1/2 inch and I end up feeding them an ant or fruitfly everyday. Since I can't always see them eat I worry that the fruit fly escaped or died and is now debri. When they are happily burrowed I am worried that they might not see the food so wonder about stirring them. As long as I put food in that is smaller than them will they just kill the prey and save it ? Or will the ant bite them? I will browse the forums for answers. Thank you very much

 

[WolfSpider]

Congratulations Unsub! I hope you and your granddaughter have a long relationship with Ts and I hope it strengthens your tight bond together.
Slings burrow, cause that is how they survive in the wild. In addition, they molt frequently, so they are quite vulnerable much of the time. Thus, they run for cover frequently. I recommend feeding them 2 fruit flies per week until they can take down bigger prey. Your Albopilosum will be able to tolerate small crickets soon.
I don't think feeding them ants is a good idea. A well motivated ant can kill a sling--especially near pre-molt or molt. For my slings, I drop a flightless fruit fly in or a pin-head cricket and I walk away. Mine don't usually feed with a big ugly baboon around. Anyway, I'll check on them the next day. If there is a bolus, I'll remove it. I moisten their substrate every 3rd day. They can dessicate easily as slings.
I hope this answered some concerns. Welcome to TF and a wonderful hobby.
You'll probably hear from @Enn49 -- she is the bomb, and can give you much better, more accurate, information than I.

 

[Enn49]

Congratulations Unsub! I hope you and your granddaughter have a long relationship with Ts and I hope it strengthens your tight bond together.
Slings burrow, cause that is how they survive in the wild. In addition, they molt frequently, so they are quite vulnerable much of the time. Thus, they run for cover frequently. I recommend feeding them 2 fruit flies per week until they can take down bigger prey. Your Albopilosum will be able to tolerate small crickets soon.
I don't think feeding them ants is a good idea. A well motivated ant can kill a sling--especially near pre-molt or molt. For my slings, I drop a flightless fruit fly in or a pin-head cricket and I walk away. Mine don't usually feed with a big ugly baboon around. Anyway, I'll check on them the next day. If there is a bolus, I'll remove it. I moisten their substrate every 3rd day. They can dessicate easily as slings.
I hope this answered some concerns. Welcome to TF and a wonderful hobby.
You'll probably hear from @Enn49 -- she is the bomb, and can give you much better, more accurate, information than I.

I don't think I can add anything to this except that at 3/4" the B. albo should happily take a small cricket now.

 

[Unsub]

Thank you so much! I feel much better now