mexican red knee

[gaz2374]

iv had it roughly since begining of december and its eaten 3 times up till now do we think its preparing for molt or not. anything i could be doing wrong it always has a bowl of water in its cage .

 

[elliot]

if it's in premolt the skin on its abdomen (if it has a bald spot) will turn black. whether it is in premolt or not, eating 3 times since december is normal. B. smithi sometimes doesn't eat much. mine has gone for months without eating.

 

[Aleks32]

My B. Smithi, which I got for Christmas, is not a big eater. I can only confirm 2 feedings since I got it. I thought it was in premolt, since it wasn't eating. But little Azreal (1 1/2" immature) accepted food today... go figure. I'm sort of disappointed, as I am anxious to sex him/her -- but at least I know it is not hungry!

 

[Arlius]

Rather slow growers Smithi's are... be prepared for feeds and fasts before the final fast of pre-molt. They eat a fair bit, but once they have eaten a fair bit (ie. their butts are getting nice and big; in proportion to the head/body size of course) they wont eat much of anything.

 

[SpiderZone2]

I have 2 of these and I just have to make sure the crickets are much smaller the the T. Otherwise they will not eat it. The don't eat as often as the rest of mine. However since they finally reached the 2" stage they will eat weekly now.

Good luck with yours.....

 

[southern]

Don't worry!

I got my b. smithi sling the week before Xmas and I've had a few panic threads on here worried about the cute little critter not eating.

I've started pre-killing, or at least damaging, crickets for it, mainly so that I CAN confirm it's eating.
Last night I actually SAW it getting a cricket - normally it's shy about me watching, so I'm VERY happy

It's abdomen is noticably larger and is finally starting to darken towards pre-molt.

Be patient, and maybe try de-legging/killing the food you're putting in so you can be sure it's eating.

Good luck,

Hels

 

[Windchaser]

Don't worry about it. Tarantulas don't really require huge amounts of food. As a matter of fact, my normal feeding schedule is a couple of crickets every week or two. I usually feed once a week, but on occasion I will go two weeks. In general, a diet of 6 to 8 appropriately size crickets a month is more than adequate.

 

[Becky Wheeler]

One of my red knees i've had for a year and she's a piggy! She will snap up anything you put in? Apart from when she's in pre-molt. My other 3 Red knees are not such big eaters? I think it depends on the individual? Also, what temp is she kept at? Slightly increasing the temp can increase there metabilism.

 

[gaz2374]

temp roughly between 70-80 so should be fine i think like u say its individual

 

[Buspirone]

Desert species tend to eat less often than rain/forest species which is perfectly normal. Most keepers, especially new ones, tend to go overboard on feeding a new acquistion and once the tarantula gorges itself on the suddenly unlimited supply of prey it doesn't need to feed again for what seems like a long time. My B. smithi has gone into pre-molt for as long as 8 to 10 weeks but YMMV.