Baby Mexican Red Knee not eating

[Mr BugMan]

I got this tarantula about two months ago, and everything was going fine until about a week ago it had just stopped eating. I tried using different kinds of prey such as crickets and baby Dubia roaches, but nothing worked. It has not molted yet and the breeder who I got it from said that it might molt around November. I wanted to know if it was not eating because it was going into primolt or if its cage was bad. The container I currently have it in I got from the breeder and he said that I could keep the tarantula in there until about three more molts. I do have a better cage for it but I don’t think that it is big enough to go into that cage yet.

 

[JonnyTorch]

Cage looks fine. Maybe add cork bark for a hide.. They don't always use the hide though, some do, some don't. But it's nice for them if they want it. But to your question; They sometimes just stop eating for long periods of time (and they are known for this). Your spider looks healthy enough. It's abdomen looks pretty full.. but it's not fat and it's not skinny either. Just offer food once a week. One of these days it will either molt, or eat. When it molts, wait a week to offer more food. My B. hamorii stopped eating about 2 or even 3 months ago. It just doesn't want food. When it's hungry, it'll eat again. Your current cage size is fine.

 

[Cmac2111]

Could be in premolt, but it also could not be. Maybe it just doesn't want to eat, which is fine because mx red knees can go long periods without food (we're talking many months here). Keep offering food once per week if you want, you could even leave it for a month and then try feeding again, but whatever you do don't stress about it not eating as this is totally normal for this species, even at a small size. Just make sure it always has access to clean water.

the breeder who I got it from said that it might molt around November

There's no specific timeframe on when a tarantula will molt. It happens when it happens, and red knees are famously slow in the growing department so don't expect it to happen often! There's no way this breeder could know exactly when this T is going to molt, even if it was already in premolt when he had it (and if it was still eating when you first got it, I highly doubt it was in premolt when he sold it to you. Though some T's will eat right up to a molt like my own C versi did, all the red knees I keep are VERY fond of not eating for ages before molting).

 

[The Grym Reaper]

Not eating for a week is a non-issue for a tarantula, especially a plump one.

While not as slow as Grammostola/Aphonopelma, Brachypelma do have slow metabolisms which makes them very easy to overfeed (albiceps is the worst for it as they have the worst appetite/growth rate of the genus). Slings only really need to eat once every 7-10 days, juveniles every 14-21 days, and adults every 4-6 weeks, if you're feeding any more often than that then you can expect random bouts of prolonged refusal to eat as well as extremely long pre-moult.

Setup could use a small piece of cork bark as a hide but other than that it's good, once your tarantula's leg span exceeds half the diameter of the container you'll need to rehouse, can't say how many moults that'll take exactly.

 

[viper69]

Not a problem for a plump T

 

[cold blood]

A t not eating isnt a worry....in fact when a fat t stops eating, you can literally just stop feeding them altogether and wait for a molt....even if this takes many months. just keep water in the dish and be patient, that's all you need to do.

 

[Mr BugMan]

Cage looks fine. Maybe add cork bark for a hide.. They don't always use the hide though, some do, some don't. But it's nice for them if they want it. But to your question; They sometimes just stop eating for long periods of time (and they are known for this). Your spider looks healthy enough. It's abdomen looks pretty full.. but it's not fat and it's not skinny either. Just offer food once a week. One of these days it will either molt, or eat. When it molts, wait a week to offer more food. My B. hamorii stopped eating about 2 or even 3 months ago. It just doesn't want food. When it's hungry, it'll eat again. Your current cage size is fine.

Thanks, I’ll put a small hide in there and see if it uses it.

 

[joossa]

Add a hide so it can retreat and feel safe if it needs to.