I do I do!!

Her name is Morrigan, and she's fabulous! She lives in a ten gallon tank, with a log hide at either end, and a shallow ceramic water dish. I have a 25 watt heat bulb on her at night, and also during the day IF it's a cool day out.

They are a desert species, so they should NOT be misted, and in fact this can stress them out if done too often.

For substrate, I recommend Bed-A-Beast or Eco-Earth, or a similar product. (fine soil, DO NO USE BARK....they can fall and seriously hurt themselves on bark!) Once the bed-a-beast is mixed, pack it pretty hard into the bottom of the tank, it should be quite solid and not loose at all.

They need a shallow water dish, and it has to be very easy to clean. No wood dishes, or porous plastic, because these can build up bacteria and are hard to get really clean. Ceramic or hard plastic are the best. Don't use a sponge in their water dish, because the tarantula will actually DRINK from the dish, not just suck up moisture from the sponge. Sponges also build up harmful bacteria quickly.

Putting a small rock in the water dish is a good idea if you find drowned crickets in it.

The biggest mistake people make with tarantulas is not keeping them on a good feeding regimen. Offer the tarantula 3-5 crickets. If they aren't eaten in three days, pull them out and wait two to three weeks, then offer another 3-5 crickets. Any time there are uneaten crickets in the tank, there should also be some sort of food for the crickets, so that they don't munch on the tarantula!!

Feeding it other prey items....it's nice to offer a variety of food, and I think it improves the tarantula's health. I offer mine waxworms, mealworms, silkworms, anoles, and various other prey....and I've had varying degrees of success with her. However...I never offer rodent prey. Mice are simply too fattening. It would be ok to offer a pinkie mouse once in awhile (and YES, a spider WILL take frozen-thawed pinkies) but I really wouldn't. Even wax-worms are too fattening in my opinion, and I only feed them rarely.

Moulting is probably the least-understood behavior in pet tarantulas. Leading up to a moult, a tarantula's abdomen will get darker (this can be really hard to see, so don't feel bad if it gets missed the first few times) and the T usually stops eating.

If you find a tarantula on its back, DO NOT TOUCH IT!!! It is moulting, and even disturbing the cage slightly could kill it. For this reason, the tank should be set up on a very steady surface.....not on a computer desk like mine currently is. -_- Moulting generally takes a few hours.

After a moult, the tarantula is very fragile. Under NO circumstances should it be offered food for one week after moulting, because its exoskeleton is not hard and it is very vulnerable. It should also not be handled during this time.

(As a fun aside, if you find he moult soon enough after the tarantula is done, you can stretch it out and make it look like you have another tarantula! These moults are really neat and make great presents for bio teachers!)

Female Rose-hairs can live more then 20 years, and males tend to live only about 4-5. Males are also more skittish and generally aren't good to handle.

Please take the time to make sure you get a captive-bred spider, as many of the adults out on the market are wild-caught, and I think it's really sad. There are a lot of great online resources for captive bred tarantulas, and I'd be glad to help you (or your brother) find one.

If you'd like to do more research www.arachnoboards.com is the BEST source for information I've found so far. (they ectually have a sticky thread in the tarantula forum all about the care of Rose-hairs! ...the thread was put up by the authors of....) Also, see if you can find "The Tarantula Keeper's Guide" by Stanley and Marguerite Schultz. It is in my opinion the BEST book on the market about tarantulas.

Um....hope I've been helpful, I'd be glad to answer any questions or fill in any blanks I might have left!