Tarantulas, tarantula articles 

Mexican redknee tarantula

The Mexican redknee tarantula (Brachypelma smithi) is native to Mexico, but might be found in small numbers in neighboring countries.

The mature Mexican redknee tarantula has a dark-colored body with orange patches on the joints of its legs, the second element of the legs (the trochanter) is orange-red. Right after molting the colors are more pronounced, the dark part is really black, the orange-red will be far more on the reddish side. This is usually the best time to take pictures.

These types of tarantulas are very docile and are often kept as pets. They can be kept in a relatively small terrarium of about 20 × 20 × 20 cm, but since they like to wander around, a good size would be around 50 to 60 cm long, 30 to 40 cm deep and 20 to 40 cm tall. Since they like to climb up the walls of the terrarium, but are usually too heavy to stay up there for long (they are terrestrial, not arboreal), one has to be careful to keep the height of the terrarium under 50 cm, and one must not put stones or any other hard elements close to the walls, as the spider might fall down and be injured. They usually do not dig holes, so the soil can be kept at 5 to 10 cm height. It is quite possible that they will dig out a plant and remove it, or carry around other items they do not like.

Food: Baby spiders have to be fed with small flies like Drosophila. When they are around half a centimeter in size, one can switch to small crickets. Adults like to eat large insects (grasshoppers) or mice. One mouse is enough for four to five months.

An adult female has a body roughly 4 cm long; including the legs it can sit nicely on the palm of a person's hand. The weight is around 15 to 16 grams.

Resources

- Brachypelma smithii photography

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Source: Wikipedia