Mexican Fireleg Tarantula opinions

[Jebbles]

Mine just reached the Juvie stage. They grow relatively slow, expect a molt every couple of months to a year. Mine's very skittish... but I leave him alone most of the time. He only kicks hairs if you poke at him. There was this one time where i had to prod him out of his burrow in his old enclosure to put him in his new one. For some reason my hand had to twitch at a REALLY bad moment, and his burrow caved on him, making him flick hairs EVERYWHERE. He had a pretty nice bald spot for a month or two until he molted. They're beautiful overall... they're my favorite new world species. Not recommended for handling in my opinion, unless you like T's with bald bums.

Goodluck!

 

[Tarantuloid]

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Mine just reached the Juvie stage. They grow relatively slow, expect a molt every couple of months to a year. Mine's very skittish... but I leave him alone most of the time. He only kicks hairs if you poke at him. There was this one time where i had to prod him out of his burrow in his old enclosure to put him in his new one. For some reason my hand had to twitch at a REALLY bad moment, and his burrow caved on him, making him flick hairs EVERYWHERE. He had a pretty nice bald spot for a month or two until he molted. They're beautiful overall... they're my favorite new world species. Not recommended for handling in my opinion, unless you like T's with bald bums.

Goodluck!

I'm starting to notice that with this one, he hasn't flicked hairs yet, but was very skittish when I had to move him. He really mellowed out though afterwards and ate some crickets without my assistance. Here's a picture of him, he's missing three legs on one side but is still surprisingly agile.

 

[viper69]

It's good he's eating on his own. I can't tell in the pic, but I count 6 legs. I must be missing something. With my PinkToe, I named him 7. S/He has great colors from what I can see. It's more skittish than smithi generally.

 

[abigayle2996]

Personally, my B boehmei is kind of a butt head, but I do love her. She's a bit more aggressive than your typical Fireleg, though, and as a result...she's pretty much completely bald from flicking so much hair. I got her in July and she hasn't molted yet, although she's only around 2 inches. She isn't a very aggressive eater, either. She's very quick to go into threatening displays and charge whenever she's disturbed, too.
I'm pretty sure she's just a weirdo when it comes to Firelegs, though. I don't know many other people with such angry little Firelegs as her. I think it was an awesome idea of you to rescue the poor fellow. I'm sure he'll regrow all his legs in no time and live a good happy life with you!

 

[BoehmeiBabe]

My B.boehmei can be both a spitfire and an angel, she always eats and is always out for show. Never given me a threat display but did charge once and often flicks hairs when disturbed. She likes to get snuggly when I'm handling her, and its harder getting her off my hands than on haha. Props to you for the rescue and best of luck with you new little friend

 

[SpiritScale]

Xochitl (my 2" B. boehmei sling) is a pretty easy keeper and hardy.
Doesn't flick hairs, startles a little depending on if or how I need to pick up or move their enclosure but usually stays still, out all the time and always eats unless in pre-moult.
I bought them (ventral sexing suggests a boy so far...but I'm still holding out hope and waiting for a moult to confirm it) the first week of September and in that time they've moulted twice (end of September and just last week) and if the growth pattern continues they'll moult again hopefully in two-three weeks from now. They were a 1 inch sling originally so I'm fairly impressed with the growth, being a brachypelma and all.

The caveat here is that I don't handle my T's...so as far as personality goes YMMV...I don't know how Xochitl would handle it if I tried to handle them and I don't plan on finding out. Same goes for growth rate as all my T's are fed weekly/twice weekly and the room is kept at 80-85F all year round--if you're feeding small meals once every two weeks etc or keeping at 65-70ish F then your growth rates likely won't match the ones I see in my spiders.

 

[Tarantuloid]

My B.boehmei can be both a spitfire and an angel, she always eats and is always out for show. Never given me a threat display but did charge once and often flicks hairs when disturbed. She likes to get snuggly when I'm handling her, and its harder getting her off my hands than on haha. Props to you for the rescue and best of luck with you new little friend

I handled him once when I was moving him to a better terrarium, he does sprint a little at first, but has been really good as far as flicking hairs and being skittish goes. To keep the tradition of naming our arachnids after Zelda bosses, this one is named Scaldera (our G. Rosea is Gohma and our emperor scorpion is Moldarach lol)

 

[viper69]

OH man, the poor little guy, now I see! I'd name him Five. That's a real shame that happened. I'm surprised he's able to get around with missing 3 on the same side though!! I'll be curious to see how quickly it grows back the legs (all at once, 1 at a time etc). I've only had a T lose a leg once, and it was a spiderling, took 1 molt for a completely new leg (slightly less thick though). Keep us posted on the leg grow back, this is interesting.

 

[Simon83]

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I handled him once when I was moving him to a better terrarium, he does sprint a little at first, but has been really good as far as flicking hairs and being skittish goes. To keep the tradition of naming our arachnids after Zelda bosses, this one is named Scaldera (our G. Rosea is Gohma and our emperor scorpion is Moldarach lol)

Great to see someone else who names their spiders after Zelda characters! I have an avic versicolour sling called Navi healthy looking t there, beside the leg loss

 

[reunsch]

Poor T! I'm glad it's in safe hands now, I look forward to seeing the legs regenerate.

 

[elportoed]

His legs should be normal size with in the next 2 molts gauging by how big he is. I had an adult female Brachy that lost a leg during molt. Took her 3 molts before the legs would look normal again.

 

[Tarantuloid]

Poor T! I'm glad it's in safe hands now, I look forward to seeing the legs regenerate.

Sorry I'm kinda late to reply, and thanks! Whether you guys care or not, I'm going to try and monitor his improvement and then post before and after images. I think sometimes a lot of people forget that despite their bad reputation, spiders deserve a lot more credit then what they're mostly given. I found it hilarious because people asked me a lot why I "waste" my time with injured arachnids and snakes. "Cute" animals are not the only animals that deserve proper care and respect.

 

[viper69]

Sorry I'm kinda late to reply, and thanks! Whether you guys care or not, I'm going to try and monitor his improvement and then post before and after images. I think sometimes a lot of people forget that despite their bad reputation, spiders deserve a lot more credit then what they're mostly given. I found it hilarious because people asked me a lot why I "waste" my time with injured arachnids and snakes. "Cute" animals are not the only animals that deserve proper care and respect.

Keep me posted! Id be really interested.

 

[Atalictasia]

I have a Mexican Red Knee T. I have had her for 9 1/2 years now and I have had a lot of joy watching her grow up. I use to pick her up but I noticed of course her flicking the hairs at me so I got tired of my daughter calling her Boldly Butt. So basically I only take her out to feed her in a round plastic critter cage and if I need to clean her home. Which being I don't feed her in her cage I don't really need to clean it. She has been easy to keep. She eats about 5 to 6 crickets a month I was in the middle of my daughters wedding and with all that was going on I didn't keep her on her regular feeding routine so the last time I fed her she ate 11 crickets in one sitting. I have never had problems with her health other than the Boldly Butt. I am so glad you got the chance to rescue the Fireleg. They are very beautiful. On Nov. 16th my son came to me asking if I wanted a Chilean rose tarantula they said it was a male Pretty large. I never had any knowledge of any T's but the Mexican Red Knee but I said yes come to find out "SHE" is larger than my Mexican and her cage was so neglected it saddened me. Then I got another call yesterday asking if I wanted another one they thought it was a female. We just got her/him today a lot smaller then the other one not sure if its a he/she but I'm sure we will find out sometime soon again neglected cage.... So I went from having 1 T for 9 1/2 years to now having 3. They told me Both are aggressive and kick hairs and do the "I'M LARGER THAN YOU THINK ATTACK MODE". When I picked each one up to put them in a proper cage I didn't get any of them kicking hairs at me or that they were aggressive. Both of them came up to my hand and I was able to pick them up and actually enjoy their company. I am waiting before I try to feed them just in case the move and where they were might of stressed them out. I will try next week. I am lucky I have a husband who can handle my out of the ordinary pets. Our joke is "No more pets that have to eat daily come into our house" we have a cat a dog who do eat daily but no more are coming into the house. We also have a beautiful Tiger Reticulated Python (she doesn't eat daily so she was allowed to become a pet" :biggrin: Please keep us updated on the health of your T. and Good luck.

Here are the pics of my Mexcian and the 1st Chilean rose tarantula I don't have a pic of the smaller one yet. I just got it today and want it to relax some.

 

[Tarantuloid]

I have a Mexican Red Knee T. I have had her for 9 1/2 years now and I have had a lot of joy watching her grow up. I use to pick her up but I noticed of course her flicking the hairs at me so I got tired of my daughter calling her Boldly Butt. So basically I only take her out to feed her in a round plastic critter cage and if I need to clean her home. Which being I don't feed her in her cage I don't really need to clean it. She has been easy to keep. She eats about 5 to 6 crickets a month I was in the middle of my daughters wedding and with all that was going on I didn't keep her on her regular feeding routine so the last time I fed her she ate 11 crickets in one sitting. I have never had problems with her health other than the Boldly Butt. I am so glad you got the chance to rescue the Fireleg. They are very beautiful. On Nov. 16th my son came to me asking if I wanted a Chilean rose tarantula they said it was a male Pretty large. I never had any knowledge of any T's but the Mexican Red Knee but I said yes come to find out "SHE" is larger than my Mexican and her cage was so neglected it saddened me. Then I got another call yesterday asking if I wanted another one they thought it was a female. We just got her/him today a lot smaller then the other one not sure if its a he/she but I'm sure we will find out sometime soon again neglected cage.... So I went from having 1 T for 9 1/2 years to now having 3. They told me Both are aggressive and kick hairs and do the "I'M LARGER THAN YOU THINK ATTACK MODE". When I picked each one up to put them in a proper cage I didn't get any of them kicking hairs at me or that they were aggressive. Both of them came up to my hand and I was able to pick them up and actually enjoy their company. I am waiting before I try to feed them just in case the move and where they were might of stressed them out. I will try next week. I am lucky I have a husband who can handle my out of the ordinary pets. Our joke is "No more pets that have to eat daily come into our house" we have a cat a dog who do eat daily but no more are coming into the house. We also have a beautiful Tiger Reticulated Python (she doesn't eat daily so she was allowed to become a pet" :biggrin: Please keep us updated on the health of your T. and Good luck.

Here are the pics of my Mexcian and the 1st Chilean rose tarantula I don't have a pic of the smaller one yet. I just got it today and want it to relax some.

View attachment 122395 View attachment 122396

Beautiful tarantulas, the colors are really vibrant especially on the Red Knee. I have a Chilean Rose Hair myself, I still think they're great tarantulas.

UPDATE ON THE INJURED MEXICAN FIRELEG: His behavior has improved a lot, for awhile he hid and refused to eat, now he stays out in the open and eats regularly every week. Surprisingly, he has had no problems eating crickets so far. I thought he might've needed to be fed with tongs or something, but it doesn't seem to slow him down any.

 

[viper69]

That's a beautiful smithi. Her colors are as vibrant as my own..that's an impressive T!