Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Kind of pretty...but would I hold it?? Ugh...I think I'd scream "EEEk!," toss my hair about and run if someone put this thing on me...

He she is maybe the size of a 50 cent piece:

Here she is now:


-----
StarlightSpecialties.com

_____

Signature file edited; [phw 9/26/04]

>>Kind of pretty...but would I hold it?? Ugh...I think I'd scream "EEEk!," toss my hair about and run if someone put this thing on me...
>>

T's are addictive.

Most T's are not suitable for handling and out of my current collection, only the pink zebra beauty (& eventually the mexican red-leg) are handlable. The rest would try to rip me to shreds.

My mex red-leg is still a baby.. much too skittish to hold yet. It is playful though.. like a cat pawing at a toy through bars mine will occasionally stick it's tarsels through the slats of the critter keeper to tap at my fingers. My Goliath bird eater is little over half grown with a 7-inch leg span at the moment and she still has a ways to go till full grown. She actually hissed at me several weeks ago when I had to move her to a holding container to redo her tank. I also have a costa rican tiger rump, salmon birdeater, white-stripped birdeater, and brazilian black & white.. all babies still. The tiger rump is the smallest at the size of a quarter. The salmon birdeater should match or exceed the goliath in size when full grown (somewhere around 10-12 inch leg span).

I've also had a wide selection of other tarantula species in the past. I usually raise up from babies but the chances of ending up with a male that dies soon after reaching maturity is much greater when you go this route. So far my average for winding up with males has been high, but the turnover from that allows me to try more new species out.

Pictured below is the pink zebra. The color is a bit dull as she was within 6 weeks from molting. The closer to the molt date the more irritated and grumpy she got and started threatening.

-----
_____

PHWyvern

We knew little about spiders when we got them, so we didn't know if she should handle them. She just did. We have 2 red knees, though the one posted doesn't look like other Red Knees I've seen (whose leg joints are red). It doesn't have enough red to be a Red Leg...Since you seem a lot more spider educated than I...do you think it was sold to me correctly as a Red Knee? I guess there could be a varience...
-----
StarlightSpecialties.com

_____

Signature file edited; [phw 9/26/04]

>>We knew little about spiders when we got them, so we didn't know if she should handle them. She just did. We have 2 red knees, though the one posted doesn't look like other Red Knees I've seen (whose leg joints are red). It doesn't have enough red to be a Red Leg...Since you seem a lot more spider educated than I...do you think it was sold to me correctly as a Red Knee? I guess there could be a varience...

The photo you posted is a mexican red-leg; definitely not a red-knee. Painted Red Leg is another name it is sometimes known by. You may have been confusing pictures of firelegs with the redlegs when thinking there was not enough red - firelegs have a lot more red than the redlegs. flameknees on the other hand are the ones sometimes confused with the redknees.

Mexican red-leg: Brachypelma emilia
Mexican fireleg: B. boehmei
Mexican red-knee: B. smithi
Mexican flameknee: B. auratum

Many of the brachypelmas are good starter spiders. They are generally docile, though you do wind up with skittish/nervous inviduals. Some have no problem being handled, while others disklike it. If the spider is calm, not threatening and rearing and exposing fangs... you should have a decent individual.

Personally, I think the brazilian blacks, Grammostola pulchra, are among the most docile, but their availability in the pet trade is still spotty at times.
-----
_____

PHWyvern

oh, by the way. if the red-leg turns out to be a female.. expect her to have her around for the next 30-35 years <g>
-----
_____

PHWyvern

Holy smokes that's a long time. How long do the males last?

>>Holy smokes that's a long time. How long do the males last?

Male spiders have only one goal in life... grow up, find a mate (if they are lucky..maybe 2 or 3 mates) then perish. Generally speaking, males live a few weeks to a few months after they reach maturity. How long it takes to raise a male up to maturity varies on a lot of factors such as the spider species, habitat, amount of food, etc. Brachypelmas much like the Grammostolas are a slow growing group of tarantulas... probably looking at 5-7 years give or take to raise a male up to maturity.
-----
_____

PHWyvern

I thought she looked different.
-----
StarlightSpecialties.com

_____

Signature file edited; [phw 9/26/04]

You'd love it at our house! We seem to have a healthy adult population of Texas tarantulas living in our yard. We like them. Anything that fragile that can lie in this area for 15-40 years has my respect. We have to be very vigilant when mowing the lawn, that is for sure! We also have a small group of Texas Horned Lizards, so that goes double. Last year I got to witness one of those spider hawk wasps taking after one of our local residents. Unlike a National Geographic photographer, however, I simply couldn't stand idly by, and killed the wasp. Hey...it's my yard! LOL
-----
Kassandra Royer
Royer Reptiles

>>You'd love it at our house! We seem to have a healthy adult population of Texas tarantulas living in our yard. We like them. Anything that fragile that can lie in this area for 15-40 years has my respect. We have to be very vigilant when mowing the lawn, that is for sure! We also have a small group of Texas Horned Lizards, so that goes double. Last year I got to witness one of those spider hawk wasps taking after one of our local residents. Unlike a National Geographic photographer, however, I simply couldn't stand idly by, and killed the wasp. Hey...it's my yard! LOL
>>-----
>>Kassandra Royer
>>Royer Reptiles

I have a friend in Texas who would throw crickets into tarantula burrows every now and then LOL. She has a couple for pets that she rescued from kids harassing them in a park when the T's were wandering around. Surprisingly she ended up with two females...usually it's the males that go on walk abouts. She also has a small number of horned lizards on her property....loves watching them.
-----
_____

PHWyvern

Spiders are one creature that I just CAN NOT handle!!! They scare the daylights out of me! lol
-----
Amanda Burke
Email
Burke Reptiles Website

scare the crap outta me too but after working at a shop when I was a kid and seeing them up close and forcing myself to handle them, they really weren't that bad. There were a few that I definitely did not want to have anything to do with....you know the ones with the horizontal fangs.LOL....I didn't mess with those.