Ok folks, this post is going to be heavy on pictures. Get the shades while you're at it, this is hot !!

So yesterday, when I got home around 9:15 PM, I did the usual "peek" in the cage. Still hadn't flipped. Got on the computer to browse until midnight. Before I went to bed, I had a second look, and what do you know, Fluffy had finally flipped !!

I wake up around 1:15 am. Still no changes. Went back to sleep.

Wake up for the second time around 2 am. Here's what I saw.

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii29 … /Molt1.jpg

Got back to sleep.

Woke up again at 3:30 am. Here's what I saw.

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii29 … /Molt2.jpg

I head back to sleep once more.

Woke up at 7 am. This is what I saw.

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii29 … /Molt3.jpg

Wanting to take a closer look, I gently pull the cage away from the T closet and put it on my bed.

Here's Fluffy in her brand new suit, side view !

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii29 … deView.jpg

From what I can tell, it's a perfect molt, all appendages (legs, pedipalps, spinnerets, etc) are accounted for.

Here's the top view, and it's really easy to see why the B. boehmei's common name is "Fireleg". Just LOOK at how VIVID that red is !!  WOW !!

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii29 … opView.jpg

So I can finally stop worrying and look foward to her first post-molt feeding in a week and a half to two weeks from now. To celebrate her new molt, I shall record her next feeding and post it up on youtube for all to enjoy !!

Thanks everyone for the kind words and support. Nothing makes me more happy than a fresh molt gone perfect

Awesome! I'm not too big on spiders, but the Fireleg really is gorgeous. Great color!

Tarantulas really do look awesome. How ironic it is that my favorite species, Cobalt Blues, look absolutely amazing, yet are rarely seen, due to their reclusive, burrowing nature.

That is an amazing looking spider! The sad thing, like most creatures in Myanmar and Thailand, it is endangered due to habitat destruction. Humans suck! As for the spider itself, I understand it's an old-world spider and thus does not have urticating hairs, however it has fairly strong venom and is quite aggresive! Probably not a good pet for most people, but perhaps for DG

The thing that turns me off from H. lividum (Cobalt Blue) is not only that it's fairly defensive (not aggressive, there is a clear diffrence) but there is also the fact that it requires high humidity to thrive and that makes mold and mite infestations difficult to keep under control. I don't have this problem with desert/scrubland tarantulas since their cages are too dry for mites to survive.

So I've finally got around to starting off my Youtube account. I had joined 3 years ago, but never bothered to record anything since I didn't have a digital camera.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ZTTFanatic

It's all very basic info anybody in the hobby knows, but it's kinda neat to talk about it myself.

I'll get the hang of my "speaking online" stress eventually. Just need to practice and keep making vids.

How does Niki like the spiders? Do the spiders ever get out of their cage? By the way, what happened to your other spiders (you only have one now)?

Thankfully, Niki isn't a cat, so she's not really curious about it. She can smell there's something alive in my room, but since it's on a shelf in a closet, she can't reach the cage.

My Fireleg feels at home in the Kritter Keeper, it's not likely that it would attempt to escape. My other spiders were sold to other enthusiasts since the 5 were slowly becoming a chore to care for. One for the time being is fine, but another would really spice things up a little. Thus far I'm considering either the Mexican Red Knee, Mexican Red Leg or the Socotra Island Blue Baboon (look it up on google and get a towel to wipe up the drool you might make ). All have the same type of care as my Mexican Fireleg.

I'm not a guy who drools over arachnids or most any creature with an exoskeleton
However, I do agree that they are beautiful animals, and I admire and appreciate them for what they are. How much care is required for such spiders? Do you think you can take pics/vid of the tarantula shooting urticating hair (which I take it happens when you need to clean)? I've always been curious to see what that mechanism looks like. Have you ever been hit by any?

Avatar!,

given these are scrubland/semi-desert/desert dwelling tarantulas, care is ridiculously simple. You provide some several inches of substrate like potting soil for instance, a water dish and a place to hide like a plastic cave. Clean the water dish once a week, feed 6-8 crickets a month with the occasional mealworm or roach. Remove leftovers of bugs a day after feeding if possible. Repeat until you or the tarantula passes on (these do live up to 25 years or more!). For the urticating hair bit, the hairs are simply too small to see with the naked eye. Look it up on youtube.

Anyways, I had the opportunity to take some new pictures now that she is nearly hardened up again.  Her colors are really intense now.

Top View

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii29 … olt3_1.jpg

Side View

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii29 … olt3_2.jpg

Frontal View

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii29 … olt3_3.jpg

I did have to gently nudge her away from her favorite spot to get these shots. I decided it would be a good idea to reacquaint her with the water dish in case she might get thirsthy, so that's why she has a "paw" in the water. I tried feeding her a mealworm earlier but she paid no mind to it. I guess she's still not ready to eat again. Her fangs must be close to fully dark by now. A couple of days ago, they were half black, half red, so it's only a matter of time.

So yeah, looking foward to the eventually first post-molt feeding.

I got some more shots, but first something neat !

Yesterday morning, I decided to hit the LPS for 3 crickets since I thought she was ready to eat now. I quickly dropped the crickets and headed out for work. That was around 11 am. I got back around 9:15 pm, tired from my day yet looking foward to see if she had eaten all 3 cricekts by now. She was in the process of finising up the last one. I literally sat and watched her until midnight. So I managed to see her make her food bolus as well as the post-meal grooming. It was pretty amazing to see and it made me appreciate her more than ever. I'm still counting my blessings on how I lucked out to get a female when I blindly bought unsexed.

If there is anything to be considered negative about her, it's her highly skittish nature ! This morning she was lounging near her food boluses and I used my tongs to gently nudge her out of the way. She quickly turned around and went to the opposite corner. Thankfully she didn't bother to kick hairs. So she chills in her favorite spot behind her cave hide, and she also eats there too. And now that I've witnessed her placing her food bolus behind the cave, it makes it easy to spot clean since it stands out from the substrate as well as the cave.

So I'm looking foward to the next feeding. I'll wait until I'm off work so I can witness everything, regardless of how long it takes.

Anyways, here are the pictures.

The first one was taken while she was still eating.

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii29 … NomNom.jpg

And the other one was after she was done grooming. It's hard to see from the angle, but she has a foot pointing at me as if to say "I see what you did there, stop staring at me !!"

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii29 … SeeYou.jpg

Still can't get over how beautiful she is since her molt. Despite her skittish nature, she was definitely worth getting

Next time I feed her, I will record, promise !!