My Honduran Curly Hair

I have been fascinated with my Honduran Curly Hair (Brachypelma albopilosum) for more than a year now. It has been with me since October 18, 2011, it was still an inch big then. It was a gift actually and I never thought I'd be more than delighted having such mini pet. During my start, I had no idea how to really take care of this sensitive creature, but google's always ready to answer my countless q's. Today, my tee (as what I always prefer to call my little angel) is more than 4 inches big. It's kept inside a terrarium about 8 inches cube and provided with a mini pool for her hydration. By the way, she's a she and I'm glad about it because in their world, the females are always dominant than the males. The females are most of the time, larger and more vibrant in colors than the males. :)


Anyway, my tee is a terrestrial type, thus it's more than a crawler than a climber and needs a larger enclosure compared to other types. What I love most in her is her calmness and her ability to adapt with people. She seems friendly as she almost always allow people to hold her and even crawl on their arms. I have tried allowing her to crawl in my arms once but her huge physique was somehow not tolerable in my small arms. Based on what I have read from care sheets available in search engines, this specie has lower toxins and are less dangerous. I haven't heard anyone killed with its bites, and so far, with all my previous officemates so anxious to hold her, no one was bitten.

This was her in her enclosure, first few months

My tee is my first ever pet aside from our family dog. I consider her my diversion but not much of a passion. When I was still in TTSP, she was kept hidden inside a wooden compartment. I would provide her with feeders roaches a.k.a. lateralis, about half the size of her body, almost twice a day depending on the availability. I am always thrilled seeing her grab her food just like any other predator. 

For more than a year, here's actually what I have learned about her:

1. She has the cutest defense mechanism. She has this manner of raising up either of her two hind legs to rub it on her butt and secrete a powdery stuff which I think I am very allergic of because I will be itching and scratching my neck and arms after that. This happens always when I would try to play with her by poking her back. hahaha.
2. She knows when she's free or not and she knows how to resist captivity when freed. Just like any other creature, she's brilliant enough to find an escape and in fact, she once got out from her enclosure and I was really having a hard time of putting her back in it. She was also freed once and was made to crawl on a broad paved area of our covered court in TTSP. When it was her time to go back to her enclosure, she would simply resist crawling into my friend's hand because she knew she would be again my captive. 
3. I would know if she is about to molt because aside from her decreased appetite, she would dig up a burrow and hid herself there. After a few days, tsadah! her molted skins! 
4. She's not the perfect climber. She's been trying to climb the glass walls in her enclosure and I would just giggle watching her slide every now and then. There was one time she got out of her old enclosure hidden in my drawer, she was awfully crawling on one of the my wooden table's stand. She was really trying hard to land safely and I was preparing myself for her fall just in case. Thankfully, she made it to the floor safe and into her enclosure. whew!
5. Her breed is for beginners but just like other tarantulas, it's always better to be very extra careful handling them because once they are dropped, and their abdomen is cracked, they are considered dead.

For now, my Honduran Curly Hair consumes 3 adult roaches per meal. She eats almost once a day or once in every two days with her pool of water always filled. Though many spider lings of her breed are available these days, I still look forward to mate her and see another sets of her breed someday. By the way, I had a Singapore Blue (Lampropelma violaceopes) once, but unfortunately, it died when it was still a month old, still very tiny I can't tell her gender yet.

It was supposed to look like this when it matures but then the happenings were so sudden, I guess it was due to lack of moisture or perhaps the room's too cold (air-conditioned), I had no idea. Anyway, I think I am not ready for more aggressive breeds yet, may be someday.