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How often should I be feeding my t. apophysis sling. Don't want to overfeed but the little guy will pounce on anything that touches the substrate.

I can't speak for that species directly, but for slings in general, I like to feed 2-3 times per week. Yours will grow fast a therefore probably does want to eat all the time. But, I'd still say no more than 1 feeding in two days.
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KJ Vezino
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We feed our slings daily unless they refuse to eat, which means that they will molt soon. We then wait until they molt.

Is there a reason not to feed them daily when they are growing so fast?

To be honest, we feed our adults any time they are hungry and of course, a refusal mean imminent molt. Should we not be doing this?? They sure do well with this feeding schedule.

BTW, we feed primarily lobster roaches with the size based on the size of spider being fed.

Nina

As always, what works for you, works... so why change it. But in my opinion, that is feeding too much. Yes, tarantula will eat every day or every other day, but they don't need to.

Tarantulas evolved in a feast or famine habitat, especially the desert dwellers. It is common for a wild A. chalcodes to eat once or twice a year, if the area is experiencing a drought. The next year a monsoon hits and prey items are plentiful. The spider will eat everything in sight so it can prepare for next years drought. I don't believe they get a sense of "full" because as they eat more their abdomen expands. They store up a lot of fat when food it plentiful, so they can deal with times when it is not plentiful.

In captivity, food is always plentiful, but they don't realize that. So they eat and eat and eat. It is our job, to regulate the amount of food they eat to maintain healthy proportions. As soon as the abdomen looks out of proportion, (either in size or it becomes oblong) then it is eating too much. For the longest time I fed everything 2-3 times per week. I've been reading a lot of boards and most people fall into the average of feeding once per week. That's with feeding crickets; roaches can be a different story. They are much more nutritious than crickets can last longer in their system. Plus, many folks feed adult roaches to their adult spiders, an adult roach is larger than an "appropriately sized meal", so it will definitely last longer. A good size is no longer than the width of the carapace. So you give an adult spider a 2" roach, and that is twice the size of a normal meal. That will last it easily 2-4 weeks.

This is just a diet to maintain, you can always feed more, but any more is really unnecessary. Young spiderlings are growing so logically you say feed all the time, which they will. But tarantula longevity is based on growth rates and number of molts. So if you feed all the time they will molt often and grow fast. But if you feed conservatively, they will molt less often, but grow just as much per molt, so you are prolonging their life by giving them a maintenance diet, rather than a power fed diet.

Tarantulas, even spiderlings, can easily go 2-4 weeks in between feeding and be perfectly healthy, I would not feed that sparingly, but I know some who do. You will not starve your Ts. It is also a time and cost savings to even cut back by 50%, obviously.

This is my opinion, I'm not saying you're doing anything wrong or suggesting that you change what you're doing. I merely offer my suggestion as something to consider.
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KJ Vezino
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Your reply is exactly the information I was looking for. Very open to all opinions and what you said made sense.

I really had no idea how long they could go without eating, didn't want to try it! ROFL..........and we raise our own roaches so the food is always sitting right here.

That being said......most of my guys are very young and just now reaching adulthood. I may slack off on feeding the adults so often.

Thanks and I really appreciate the time you took to write all of that.

Nina

No problem, they key is to pay attention to the T. If the abdomen is getting big, cut back, if it is starting to shrink, feed more.

I think once a week is great for adults, and twice a week for slings is probably the best all around feeding schedule.
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KJ Vezino
My Gallery

American Tarantula Society
British Tarantula Society
Nebraska Tarantula Enthusiasts Club
Wiccan Tarantula Circle