Advice for my new acquisition

[Tracemul]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this board, and new to tarantulas.

I have acquired a Mexican Red Kneed Tarantula.
I don't know much about it at all, not even age, sex etc

I went to a reptile shop near my house, and they recommended i get some crickets for it, and give it one at a time - only it has taken a week to find the cricket we gave it. meanwhile the other crickets have been eating eachother! The reptile shop said "give them some veg like lettuce/cabbage" so we did, and since they had that they seem to be just eating eachother all the time! Is this normal??

Also, my tarantula (which i have named Rodney red knees) has not been handled, and kicks his hairs if you go near it. Is it worth trying to handle it, or will it be too stressful for it?

I don't know it's age, but it is over 2inches long.

Can anyone give me any help or advice? Please!

Tracey

[Adam Smith]

At two inches it sounds like a juvenile and would be a year maybe more, but this is just a rough guess but rest assured it will be a long lived species if kept right. As for the crickets, they are known to be canibalised creatures, keep feeding them greens, fish food, bran and stuff like that, also if want can supply them with cricket dust. Handling tarantulas is an optional thing, some people wont touch any tarantula and goes against it, others may hold it. Rubbing its hairs of its abdomen is common with Brachys and is generally a nervous twitch.

Check out these sites to find out more:

https://www.brachypelma.co.uk

https://www.arachnopets.com

(or) www.arachnoboards.com which is the same but a forum built in to the site.

https://www.tarantulabibliography.net

Hope that helps. If you need to find out anymore there are numerous books you can buy, most likely from the reptile pet shop you are near or online.

[Adam Walters]

Hi Tracey, welcome to the BTS Boards and the world of tarantulas!

'Brachypelma smithi' - Commonly named Mexican Red Knee. You've been very fortunate to obtain a perfect, and very beautiful, starter species. Generally they are of docile nature, slow moving and long lived. It's also, in my opinion, a great size to start out with! You'll find that B.smithi are prone to kicking hairs, this is quite normal for them and it may calm down with age (and/or once it's settled in to its new home). Take care not to breathe directly on, or make any large/sudden movements, around it.

Crickets do tend to eat eachother. If feeding them hasn't helped prevent this situation, then try keeping them in a larger container as they are apparently quite territorial. Failing that, try another feeder such as locust, mealworm, waxworm etc.

As for handling; it certainly isn't recommended, especially if you're not confident that both you and the tarantula are comfortable with it. Hope this helps

Cheers,
Adam.

[Mike Shaw]

Hi Tracemul,

welcome to the world of T's,

What a great spider to start with.

The problem with crickets is when you buy a box it's far too many for one T.They get smelly, canabalize Etc Etc.

However if you have more than one T and be warned it is addictive then you find a box will only last 1-2 weeks.Thats my experience with 4 T's and 2 Scorpions.

I do throw in a Pinky mouse for the adults now and again.

If your new spider's abdomen is quite swollen it might be getting ready for a moult.Thats when you need to make sure they have enough moisture(humidity) in the tank.I would avoid a water bowl until the T is a subadult about 4-5 inches I use a cotton wool ball to hold water.

Hope this helps,

Cheers Mike.

[Layla McInnes]

make sure you have egg box carton or something for the crickets to hide in so they can get away from each other a bit. Lettuce is a bit of a rubbish food for them....something like carrot is a wee bit better.
Congrats on your new acquisition. Brachypelma smithi are from my favourite family of spiders

[ornithoctonus]

Hi

Hi there Tracemul and welcome to the B.T.S I think it grate that so many people are geting in to tarantulas and that the old way of thinking that tarantulas and many other spiders are going to kill you by the drop of a hat which is obviously not true. Any way about those crikets what you will find is that thay all eat each other I have seen them with there heads bitten of by other crikets and still walking around. But the thing is that the pet shops were most people get there crikets from do not look after there tarantulas and other animals so there not going to look after the crikets any better. The thing is that thay never feed them oky may be some do but lets face it most dont so when you get your crikets or any other live food for your animals you need to feed them with things like oat meal or poridge this is with out the milk just as it comes in the box. And then get some orange or any other frut like mellon or apple but try to avoid things like Ice berg lettece becouse it has no nutricinal value for any thing realy just water and what you feed your crikets will effect your spiders. For instance if you feed your spiders crikets which have been fed a bad diet then your spider will not be as healthy as the other spider that has been fed on a healthy diet. so you are what you eat at the end of the day hope this helps and I hope you have a long stay at the B.T.S thanks james.

[Mike Shaw]

Hi James , I agree.

Also bran is a very good food for cricket's.

James I know what you mean about pet shops. I got my L.Parahybana last march and she was 1.5 inches.By november she was 5 inches.

I went back to the pet store and her siblings were maybe 2 inches. I asked how often they were fed and they said 1 micro cricket per week.I personally think this is way too little.Surely a sling should be fed every couple of days.

Especially this species they are voracious eaters.I suppose it is cheaper and easier for the store thats why I only buy from breeders now.

sorry to digress on your thread tracey

Cheers Mike

[Ian Foxon]

The only way to stop crickets cannibalizing is make sure they have a water supply. Food alone is not enough.
A test tube with cotton wool, changed every couple of days is my preferred method.
A dish with some stones in (to stop them drowning) will work just as well.
Get them out of the tiny tubs they come in and into a larger container as well.
A healthy, well watered and fed cricket makes a nutritious spider dinner.
Crickets that are cannibalizing are generally dehydrated and not nearly as good for your T.

[Layla McInnes]

I dont think bran is that good as a feeder for crickets tbh. There are much better things you can give them imo.

[Howard Farley (Huk7)]

Hi Tracey,

As you can see, the subject of how to best keep crickets is debatable, with everyone having their own methods.

I have been keeping spiders for a fair few number of years and consequently the crickets to feed them with. So if it's any help here is my clean, cheap and easy method, which has some elements of the ideas above:

Place the crickets into something larger than the tub they come in, a plastic food container or ideally a 'pet-pal' type tank, whatever you use, it must have good ventilation as any build up of moisture will not only make the crickets smell, but can also wipe a whole colony out very quickly. If you use a food container to store them in, use something like a pair of tights over the top to act as a very well ventilated lid, if using a 'pet-pal' type tank, the secure lids are already well ventilated.

Place some egg cartons and toilet/kitchen roll carboard tubes in for them to hide.

For dry food, just use a good quality fish flake food, ideally for goldfish as this has a higher veg content, but place it in a shallow bowl, such as a plant pot saucer, just to keep things cleaner. Some people also recommend putting in dry dog or cat food, but I have never found the crickets to be that keen on this as much as flake.

For moisture, a couple of pieces of apple (normally a quarter of a whole apple then cut in half for adults, less for smaller crickets), cut and washed beforehand (to remove any pesticides), replace this every 1 or 2 days, any longer and it goes a bit manky.

Once you have used all of the crickets, make sure you give the container and the dry food bowl a good wash and dry thoroughly before putting anymore crickets in.

and that is it, you will find when first put in, the food, especially the flake will be devoured very quickly, but the amount will then slow down a bit. Leave the crickets for around 24hrs with the food before using them to feed the spiders and they will be well gut loaded.

As I said, I have been using this method for a vast number of years and it has always worked very well for me, with my spiders being in top health.

Hope this is of some use and welcome to the hobby and the forum!!

Howard