I recently ordered a B. vagans female from a breeder; she should arrive within the next few days. To prepare I went to the local reptile shop to get an enclosure etc. and OF COURSE couldn't resist looking at the T's they have in stock. The shop was willing to throw in all the equipment for just the price of a nice 1.5 - 2" B. smithii, so guess who needs some chip dip?

I've named her Renee, from REd kNEE. Here is a pic - she's a lot daintier looking than her "sister" Zsa Zsa the rose!



Here's Zsa for contrast:




Now to my ideas. I have a tendency to improvise but wanted to check that these ideas won't do any harm. First of all for Renee I'm using the lid from a large prescription pill bottle as a water dish. The interesting part is these childproof lids have an inner lid that could act as a barrier to prevent the T from going towards the centre of the dish to drink. I actually saw Renee at the edge of the dish tonight. But, my only concern might be chemicals leaching from the plastic (I did wash and rinse the lid well before use). I also change their water every day.

Second idea: I had to "herd" Renee into her new enclosure from the container she was in. She's a feisty one and was lifting her abdomen and kicking like crazy. To shoo her along, I used a forked pick that was originally used to hold the card in a bouquet of flowers. I found the size, length of the pick and angle of the fork were perfect for what I was trying to do. I've kept this "tool" to use again in future, after filing any rough/sharp edges with a nail file.

Hi there nice to see a fellow Canadian on board the addiction. Beware the people here are very helpful but they have no shame when it comes to getting you to get more T's LOL.

I use just an empty sports drink bottle cap filled with aquarium sand for the water dish for my smaller tarantulas. The pebbles stop them from falling in. I like your B. smithi. I'm not sure if it is just the perspective of the camera but her butt is sure big. Almost looks like maybe she's gravid. I ise a small spatula from the dollar shop to herd my critters around. Cheap and effective and won't puncture the little uns.

For substrate try using coconut fibre or even normal unfertilsed garden soil. Feed them one or two crickets every week or even every second week. Keep a bit of water in the dish. Room temperature (20-25deg C) works OK for most. There is a great book called "Tarantula Keepers Guide" by Stan and Marguerite Shultz (sp?) that is the bible of the hobby if you don't have it already. Good Luck!

Welcome to the boards !

That is definitely one well fed Brachypelma smithi! They do tend to flick a bit of hair if they don't agree with what you're doing with/to them.

One suggestion, instead of the plastic fork you might want to pick up a paint brush. One of the long handled fluffy brush types. Hard plastic with parts that can poke really isn't the best thing to use to direct a tarantula.

Best of luck and welcome to the bestest hobby in the whole wide world!

The reptile shop where I got Renee feeds all of their T's on a once-a-week, several crickets per T schedule, and I'm thinking this girl could be overfed, if that's possible. Since she's far from mature at that size, I'd be surprised if she's gravid, but I'm a novice. I don't know what else could cause an oversized abdomen in a T. I haven't received my books in the mail yet!

Re the fork. Today I was reading different T articles online and found a reference to brushes being used to "herd" tarantulas. So out goes the fork and I will go and find a suitable brush. I have an extra blush brush if needed. For some reason a pun about "rosea cheeks" comes to mind!

At that size, her plumpness just means she's closer to her next molt, i suspect.

Cool - if that's the case, then seeing her go through the molt will be a good educational experience for me!

Mine didn't eat for 2 months prior to its last molt, so get ready for a wait.

It actually means that she is overfed, which can cause molting problems. I would only feed her a cricket every two weeks.

She refuses food, so I'm guessing it could be a molt. She hasn't eaten since before I got her, but her abdomen is the same size.

I just got the TKG book in the mail. Should be an interesting read!