Never owned a Turantula before

[Wizard Lizard]

tl:dr don't know what I'm doing.

My neighbor who's in his late 60's had a heart attack recently, Asked me to keep his spider (Trying to get rid of animals and lighten his load I would assume). I didn't want to turn him down and figured they would be low maintenance in comparison with Lizard's I've owned in the past. The only thing he told me was that it was around ~6 years old and that he thinks its a "Mexican Blond" and he last fed it around 2 weeks ago.

Spoiler: Here's what it looks like:

I don't want to improperly care for it and decided to turn to this forum after a couple of hours watching youtube videos on how to care for a tarantula to see if there was anything I'm missing. I've added warm water to its water bowl the day I got it and waited a couple of days before putting two crickets in its enclosure. I'm getting kinda worried because it's supposedly around week 3 of it not eating and it seems disinterested with the crickets. It also keeps rubbing its abdomen on the substrate, I'm going to assume its webbing but I wasn't aware Tarantula's do that.

Any information would be greatly appreciated, especially if you could identify what kind of T it is. Thanks!

 

[Myhouseisazoo]

It might be your lighting, but that looks like a rose hair (Grammostola rosea)to me. But i am far from an expert.

 

[MassExodus]

Howdy. Yeah it looks like a Grammastola sp, not an Aphonopelma chalcodes(mexican blond). Abdomen is fat, and Grammastola are known for fasting. They lay thin triplines of web all over the enclosure, all tarantulas do. They like bone dry substrate and a fresh water dish. These spiders have been known to fast for over a year.

 

[Myhouseisazoo]

And if that is what it is, your in a bit of luck. They can be pretty easy going ts. Mine was very "friendly" and never objected to being handled. Although keep in mind that all animals are diffrent, just like people.

 

[Wizard Lizard]

Howdy. Yeah it looks like a Grammastola sp, not an Aphonopelma chalcodes(mexican blond). Abdomen is fat, and Grammastola are known for fasting. They lay thin triplines of web all over the enclosure, all tarantulas do. They like bone dry substrate and a fresh water dish. These spiders have been known to fast for over a year.

Well that explains everything lol, Thanks for the info. Think I should wait before changing its enclosure?

 

[Whitelightning777]

If it ain't broke, why try to fix it?

Just keep the water dish at least half full but don't overflow it. Offer a feeder every other week or so.

 

[Wizard Lizard]

If it ain't broke, why try to fix it?

Just keep the water dish at least half full but don't overflow it. Offer a feeder every other week or so.

Sounds good! Thanks for all the help guys.