# Growth of large tarantulas.



## drcarta (Jun 24, 2013)

Hi guys, I have a lot of spiderlings and I wanted to try growing a few of them up to be monster size.

What are the best ways other than feeding to speed up growth?

I was also told that the more oxygen they have the bigger they can grow? Sounds stupid but if I put real plants in can that make any effect? 

Any tips on how to grow my Blondi and King Baboon huge will be greatly appreciated.


----------



## ebmoclab (Nov 21, 2009)

You can't really manipulate the size they will grow to but you can manipulate the rate at which they get there................

Feed more often and keep them at a warmer temp and it will speed up their metabolism and growth rate. Do the opposite and it will slow them down.

I've used that method to slow males down when I need them for breeding. Males generally grow faster than females and mature sooner so I've kept them cooler and fed less often to slow them down and give smaller females a chance to catch up.

Both the Goliath Bird eater and the King baboon are grow to impressive size. The Goliath is fast growing and will reach adulthood from a sling in about 18 months to 2 years depending on the sex whereas the King baboon is a slow growing species and will take up to 6 years to mature from sling.


----------



## EddieWood (Jun 20, 2013)

Quickest way to get "monster size" t's = Buy an AF Lasiodora Parahybana 

Slings take a long time to grow, get yourself a big t so you dont get as impatient with slings growing, thats what I did


----------



## selina20 (May 28, 2008)

Overfeeding will do nothing other than shorten the Ts life.


----------



## corpselight (Jan 10, 2008)

There's no reason to feed fast and furiously. As Selina says, that may shorten the spider's life.

it might be impossible to influence a spider's adult size. i varied my parahybana's diet slightly by feeding roaches, crickets, mealworms and VERY occasionally a pinky mouse. She appears to have stopped growing at 7". 
i saw a bigger one that had had beef heart, but as they don't get that in the wild i'd be very cautious about that. even mice are actually bad for spiders if offered too often, from what i've been told.

the best way as said above is to buy an already large adult female, and hope.

from what i've heard, blondi's usually don't hit that record size...some even said 9" to me as a norm...though that is pretty massive.


----------



## Adam B Jones (Jan 17, 2011)

I got a Salmon pink spiderling about 8 years ago, and it is now about 8-9 inches, and there was a noticeable size difference on the last moult.

I had read that the more you feed and the warmer you keep the spider, it will reach a larger adult size at a faster rate, so for the same reasons that you are talking about I kept it at a warm temperature from the beginning and have always fed it very generously, without allowing it to become obese, particularly as it got bigger.

So it's taken 8 years to reach the size it is now, with a warm temp and essentially power feeding (albeit a bit more so when younger), and it is by no means record size, so that kind of says it all really...

It may have taken longer to reach this size if it was kept cooler and fed less, but I'm not sure as it's the only one I've ever had, so have nothing to compare it with.

I'd say buy a medium/large sized Theraphosa or LP if you don't want to wait so long, rather than a full adult, as there is no way of knowing how long adults have left to live.


----------



## buggs (Dec 28, 2010)

Monsters are usually genetics at play,Please don't overfeed your spiders.
I had a few very very large P.cancerides but I have to say that the guys above are correct if you want a beast of a spider nothing beats a Salmon Pink Girl:devil::devil:


----------



## ebmoclab (Nov 21, 2009)

selina20 said:


> Overfeeding will do nothing other than shorten the Ts life.


Who said anything about overfeeding??


----------



## aide BURR (Jul 1, 2010)

*over feeding*

just to point out I have a 9" lp she is 4 years old,she was the pick out of 10.i power fed them all. as slings take they will take food daily,until ready to moult,and I have fed my girl like this until her last moult 3months ago,as she is total adult now so I have to curb the eating a bit don't want her to big that she cant move. similar to t.blondi I have a few t.stirmi and they can eat ,think about it in the wild jungle when small all it thinks is ive got to get bigger so it eats everything it can catch so I would say power feed until s/a or adult for lp and until s/a for goliath hope this helps


----------



## Adam B Jones (Jan 17, 2011)

aide BURR said:


> just to point out I have a 9" lp she is 4 years old,she was the pick out of 10.i power fed them all. as slings take they will take food daily,until ready to moult,and I have fed my girl like this until her last moult 3months ago,as she is total adult now so I have to curb the eating a bit don't want her to big that she cant move. similar to t.blondi I have a few t.stirmi and they can eat ,think about it in the wild jungle when small all it thinks is ive got to get bigger so it eats everything it can catch so I would say power feed until s/a or adult for lp and until s/a for goliath hope this helps


That's very interesting that your LP grew much bigger and quicker than mine - I thought I was powerfeeding mine when it was younger! Just goes to show... I'm not sure how much longer mine will live, but as mentioned, there was a noticeable size difference on last moult, so time will tell....


----------

