# How long does it take for sling's to grow.



## mythicdawn07

i'v never actually read how long it take's for a sling to mature (I know the speed is different depending on species) But what is the estimate ammount of time for these species.

Avic Versicolor

Nhandu chromatus

G pulchra

usually on care sheet's and thing's it just says fast or slow grower's.


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## garlicpickle

versicolor a couple of years or so
pulchra probably about 7 or 8 - maybe more!

I'm not sure about nhandu - somewhere in the middle!


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## Mutley.100

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Male Avic's took 1 yr to mature . I got a P.cambridgei to MM in a year and Avic's are supposed to be the fastest growers .


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## vawn

my smithi sling went from the size of my little fingernail to nearly the size of the inside of the palm of my hand in a bit under a year


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## garlicpickle

it's going to depend on several factors of course. 

If you keep your avic slings warm and feed them lots, they'll grow quicker and might mature in a year. But if a species is comparatively short-lived anyway like avics or cambridgei, I'd prefer to hold them back slightly and get longer out of them.


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## Poxicator

The amount you feed them and the heat will have an influence. When people have subadult males and females they may warm the female up and feed more but do the opposite to the male to ensure they are mature at the same time.
The lifespan of a genus will obviously have an influence, those that live for 25+ years eg. Grammostola will be slow growers whilst those living half that timescale eg. Pokies will be fast growers. The males will grow faster than the females and reach maturity earlier, this helps to spred the genes as its unlikely in that scenario that the male will mate with his siblings.
Avicularia are fairly fast, living 10-12 years and reach adult within 2-3 years.
Poecilotheria are also fast and males can reach maturity with 14-18 months after which they're likely to survive less than 1 year whereas the females can live for 12 years and reach sizes of 10"+.
Grammostola, Brachypelma and Aphonopelma are very slow growers and will take more than 5 years to reach maturity.
Some of the giants eg. Citharischius, Lasiodora, Acanthoscuria, Theraphosa can be quick to reach maturity but slow growers afterwards whereas others eg. King Baboon are just very slow and very long lived.
Probably the fastest to maturity from a little sling in March 2008 was my Psalmopeous cambridgei which is now a fully matured and hopefully gravid female, mated in April 2009! However P. irminia does not grow at the same speed as P. cambridgei.
I'm not entirely sure about Nhandu life expectancy but from a large sling my male has matured within 1 & 1/2 years.


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## Poxicator

You should be aware that providing too much food and therefore speeding up the process of maturity will have an effect on the lifespan and reproduction of the tarantula. Power feeding is NOT recommended.


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## mythicdawn07

ah cool thank's for replies. anywhere sell miracle grow for Ts? :lol2:


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