Exotic Pets - Mexican Red Tarantula - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. This is a Mexican Red-kneed Tarantula. They are native to Mexico. This is not quite full-grown. A full-grown female will get about the size of my entire hand. This is captive bred. They are venomous. All tarantulas are venomous, however the venom on this animal is not harmful to people. It will hurt really bad, but it definitely would not kill you. They rarely ever bite, especially these that are bred in captivity. This is on the endangered species list in Mexico, so they are illegal to import, so all of these have to be captive bred to keep them legally. They have two big fangs right up here at the front and also to help them deter predators, there is this little bald spot here. When they get upset, they actually kick the hairs off of their body and these hairs are very irritating and deter prey from attacking them. Very simple setup for this animal. They require a small pen. We use little plastic cages. They need a water bowl with a sponge so they do not drown. Sometimes they will get in the water that is too deep and that is a problem for them. They eat crickets, mealworms, other type of insects. When they get larger such as this one, this one will eat small live mice, and then of course bigger live mice as they get larger. Very easy to keep, room temperature is very good. If your home is a little bit cooler, they may need a small low-wattage heat lamp to keep them warm. A very lovely animal. Very neat pets despite the way they look and the way people feel about spiders, these could actually be very rewarding pets. Not a lot of challenge to keep them. They live for a very long time, up to 25 years, and just a very neat thing to have.