I'm told my presence is requested.
I actually got #s 15,16, & 17 in the mail the other day. He's right that I only have 14 right now though.
Your girl is gorgeous! I'm assuming that she's probably a female because a male at that size would probably be mature and have a slightly different leg-to-body proportion. That's an incredibly inaccurate way to --- a tarantula, of course.
There's no way to tell her age unless your friend has raised her from a baby. All you can say is that she's an adult and rosehairs are estimated to live between 25 and 40 years. They're considered the #1 starter species because they are so docile (which doesn't mean there aren't a few psycho rosies out there
).
Zephyr, your petstore guy was probably just scared. Pinktoes are famously friendly! Their only downside is that they can be really fast. Most of the New World species (North & South America) are fairly docile. Their primary defense mechanism is to flick urticating hairs, which can cause some minor itching. Old World species (Europe, Asia, Africa, etc.) are more defensive/aggressive because they don't have this defense mechanism. If they are threatened, their first and only option is to bite, which is why they often do. Some New World species are more likely to kick hairs than others, but you should be pretty safe with either a rosehair or a pinktoe. Every spider is an individual, so the best way to tell is really to watch the spider carefully for threat displays/signs of irritation until you know its temperament.
My rosehair looked exactly like yours until she molted. Here's a picture of her before and after...
After...
Here's a picture of her with her first pinkie mouse!
Your setup looks great. She's got a nice big water dish and a place to hide. If you give her a deeper substrate, she may burrow, or she may not. Mine did, but only before she layed her egg sac. (I bought her from a petstore. She was wild-caught, and it turns out she was pregnant. No babies tho... she ate the sac a few days later). Rosehairs are famous for being weird and unpredictable. Don't be alarmed if she stops eating for months on end, or just starts doing really strange things around the tank. You're gonna love her tho!
