Pink Toe Tarantula- All The Info Plz!

[CrazyPinkToe2day]

So, I just bought my first tarantula last week from Petsmart. Yes, I know, probably not the best decision, but the Petsmart here has great people with lots of knowledge. The manager there walked me through how to take care of the tarantula, which is a average Pink Toe (A.avicularia). I looked up what she said when I got home and everything she said was acurate. She even knew it's gender (female), which was correct (the Pink Toe was laying eggs). Anyway, I got her for $24.99 (I live in Maryland, so stuff cost a little more dough) and, after slowly adjusting to her cage, she became very active. She is about 3.5 inches, so she can get larger (thinking of buying an Exo-Terra 12x-12x-18x so she has more climbing space).
So, here are my questions and it would be great if anyone would be kind enough to answer them (and maybe give me a full "care-list" of everything else I should do)-
1. How big should my cage be if she gets, say, 4.5 to 5.5 inches?
2. How often will she molt? (Once every year?)
3. I feed her every other day (like Petsmart did), but should I feed less or more often? Or should I just feed her spontaneously to replicate natural conditions?
4. And lastly (not looking to start a nasty {and frankly pathetic} fight), as the Pink Toe tarantula is a tropical species, should I provide her with a very shallow water bowl (which I already am) or just mist her often? I know it's good to mist anyway, though. And how often should I change her water? Every other day?
5. Last lastly, when is A.avicularia going to be fully reclassified by the scientific community?? Avicularia was all mixed up recently in 2017. I get the whole scientific reclassification thing, but really?
Thanks for your help, guys and girls! Arachnoboards is literally the best.

 

[miss moxie]

1. I've never houses an adult Avic so not positive.
2. About that, maybe a little less or a little more depending on ambient temperature and feeding schedule.
3. I'd feed her twice a week with a small-medium meal, once a week with a large meal.
4. Why would someone fight about water dishes? Haha, no tarantula can drown so you don't need a shallow one. They have hydrophobic setae that repels water, and they'll float right atop of the water surface. You can mist onto her web once in a while, but keep a medium sized water dish with her at all times. Change it once a week, or more often if it gets fouled up with poop or dead prey.
5. Who knows?

 

[MissHarlen]

First of all, if she's laying eggs and from PetSmart she's likely wild caught, so definitely observe her behavior for anything unusual and keep an eye out for mites. You will likely not be able to ever breed her because you can't be certain what color morph of Avic avic she is and we don't need more muddy Avics in the hobby.

1. My big female pinktoe (5.5-6") is in a Jamie's adult arboreal enclosure (14x8x8) and it's plenty big for her. These are expensive enclosures though so a cheaper option would be an ExoTerra Nano Tall which run for $45 on Amazon
2. I can't say how OFTEN she will molt but you could probably figure at least once a year maybe twice.
3. Edit: I agree with Moxie
4. I offer mine a shallow water dish and mist the sub every two weeks, letting it dry out in between. You don't need to change her water just fill it, let it dry out, and fill it again. Also you don't need to put in a sponge or pebbles she won't drown. If you are misting make sure you have PLENTY of ventilation.
5. No idea on this one I'm no scientist.

Also a tip on the water dish is try and put it high up since this species is used to living off the ground.

 

[Walker253]

So, I just bought my first tarantula last week from Petsmart. Yes, I know, probably not the best decision, but the Petsmart here has great people with lots of knowledge. The manager there walked me through how to take care of the tarantula, which is a average Pink Toe (A.avicularia). I looked up what she said when I got home and everything she said was acurate. She even knew it's gender (female), which was correct (the Pink Toe was laying eggs). Anyway, I got her for $24.99 (I live in Maryland, so stuff cost a little more dough) and, after slowly adjusting to her cage, she became very active. She is about 3.5 inches, so she can get larger (thinking of buying an Exo-Terra 12x-12x-18x so she has more climbing space).
So, here are my questions and it would be great if anyone would be kind enough to answer them (and maybe give me a full "care-list" of everything else I should do)-
1. How big should my cage be if she gets, say, 4.5 to 5.5 inches?
2. How often will she molt? (Once every year?)
3. I feed her every other day (like Petsmart did), but should I feed less or more often? Or should I just feed her spontaneously to replicate natural conditions?
4. And lastly (not looking to start a nasty {and frankly pathetic} fight), as the Pink Toe tarantula is a tropical species, should I provide her with a very shallow water bowl (which I already am) or just mist her often? I know it's good to mist anyway, though. And how often should I change her water? Every other day?
5. Last lastly, when is A.avicularia going to be fully reclassified by the scientific community?? Avicularia was all mixed up recently in 2017. I get the whole scientific reclassification thing, but really?
Thanks for your help, guys and girls! Arachnoboards is literally the best.

1) A 12x12x18 Exo is way too big. For an adult A avicularia, an 8x8x12 is about perfect. She'll never need anything larger.

2)Molts can vary. There are a lot of factors involved. Once she is fully mature, I'd expect once every 9-12 months for a molt.

3)I'd feed her once a week max. A couple crickets is a good sized meal. You could stretch it to once every two weeks and she would be totally fine. Once every two weeks, I'd still say no more than 3 crickets.

4)Avics like it pretty dry. No misting. A water dish is fine. Maybe once a month, overflow it a little. Good ventilation is key to good Avic health.

5) Avicularia avicularia is a species all to itself. Several species that got bunched into it. Hopefully they get reclassified at some point. It may not also. If you know the locale, keep it separate and only breed with those from the same locale. Some examples being metallica and geroldi. It's a mess that deserves much more discussion.

Enjoy your fluff ball

 

[cold blood]

I feed her every other day (like Petsmart did), but should I feed less or more often?

Way way less...that's ridiculous. Once a week is a good feeding schedule....for my adults I feed every 2 weeks. Excessive feeding leads to excessive hiding and fasting....but it won't necessarily harm the t, so don't fret about feeding so much.

should I provide her with a very shallow water bowl

Yes, water bowl, but you do not have to worry about depth...tarantulas float...on top of that, their breathing apparatus (book lungs) are on their abdomen, so the entire front half can stay submerged indefinitely...ts cannot drown though.

I know it's good to mist anyway

No, not really...that was popular back in the day, when Avic care was so messed up that care sheets actually told you how to kill them (still do, care sheets are garbage). Misting is only effective for offering drinking. The rare times you would mist, it would be very very light and on either the webbing, or the side of the enclosure near the T. Misting isn't something one should ever do as a part of general husbandry or to maintain humidity (which they do not require).

And how often should I change her water? Every other day?

Whenever its empty or fouled.

Last lastly, when is A.avicularia going to be fully reclassified by the scientific community??

The Avicularia genus just underwent many changes and re-classifications, however Avicularia avicularia its self is a specific species and its name hasn't undergone any changes or re-classifications its self and I would doubt it would any time soon....but ya just never know.

 

[cold blood]

Also a tip on the water dish is try and put it high up since this species is used to living off the ground.

I've never elevated a water dish once for any avic, a dish is fine on the ground.

First of all, if she's laying eggs and from PetSmart she's likely wild caught, so definitely observe her behavior for anything unusual and keep an eye out for mites

Whaaa? While she may very well be WC, being gravid can happen to CB ones, too (but yes, pet stores do very often deal in WC)....and mites and WC have absolutely no connection...mites are everywhere on the planet except maybe Antarctica. It would be internal parasites that would be the concern for WC specimens.

I don't mean to look like I am tearing up your post, the rest was indeed very good

 

[Ellenantula]

Do you have a picture of the eggs? Were they like a runny yellow goo (ala raw egg yolk in colour) or more beige/white? How large was her rump? Did she make a sac for the eggs? (Not that dud eggs require a sac).

I am wondering if this was poop.

No harm meant in suggesting this. Just very coincidental, imo.

 

[CrazyPinkToe2day]

Do you have a picture of the eggs? Were they like a runny yellow goo (ala raw egg yolk in colour) or more beige/white? How large was her rump? Did she make a sac for the eggs? (Not that dud eggs require a sac).

I am wondering if this was poop.

No harm meant in suggesting this. Just very coincidental, imo.

That could be very true, my friend! Ha! Ha! I never thought of that, but you may be right! Thx!

 

[CrazyPinkToe2day]

I've never elevated a water dish once for any avic, a dish is fine on the ground.

Whaaa? While she may very well be WC, being gravid can happen to CB ones, too (but yes, pet stores do very often deal in WC)....and mites and WC have absolutely no connection...mites are everywhere on the planet except maybe Antarctica. It would be internal parasites that would be the concern for WC specimens.

I don't mean to look like I am tearing up your post, the rest was indeed very good

Yah, I was kinda wondering about the elevated dish part... thx for responding!

 

[CrazyPinkToe2day]

Way way less...that's ridiculous. Once a week is a good feeding schedule....for my adults I feed every 2 weeks. Excessive feeding leads to excessive hiding and fasting....but it won't necessarily harm the t, so don't fret about feeding so much.

Yes, water bowl, but you do not have to worry about depth...tarantulas float...on top of that, their breathing apparatus (book lungs) are on their abdomen, so the entire front half can stay submerged indefinitely...ts cannot drown though.

No, not really...that was popular back in the day, when Avic care was so messed up that care sheets actually told you how to kill them (still do, care sheets are garbage). Misting is only effective for offering drinking. The rare times you would mist, it would be very very light and on either the webbing, or the side of the enclosure near the T. Misting isn't something one should ever do as a part of general husbandry or to maintain humidity (which they do not require).

Whenever its empty or fouled.


The Avicularia genus just underwent many changes and re-classifications, however Avicularia avicularia its self is a specific species and its name hasn't undergone any changes or re-classifications its self and I would doubt it would any time soon....but ya just never know.

Thanks for the post! I believe you are right about the misting, but the spot I keep her in is very dry, so I do believe that a light misting once a week will not harm her (or grow mold) and maybe even help her feel more comfortable. I could be wrong, but we will never know will we? Ha! Ha! Thx for the advice, man!

 

[CrazyPinkToe2day]

1) A 12x12x18 Exo is way too big. For an adult A avicularia, an 8x8x12 is about perfect. She'll never need anything larger.

2)Molts can vary. There are a lot of factors involved. Once she is fully mature, I'd expect once every 9-12 months for a molt.

3)I'd feed her once a week max. A couple crickets is a good sized meal. You could stretch it to once every two weeks and she would be totally fine. Once every two weeks, I'd still say no more than 3 crickets.

4)Avics like it pretty dry. No misting. A water dish is fine. Maybe once a month, overflow it a little. Good ventilation is key to good Avic health.

5) Avicularia avicularia is a species all to itself. Several species that got bunched into it. Hopefully they get reclassified at some point. It may not also. If you know the locale, keep it separate and only breed with those from the same locale. Some examples being metallica and geroldi. It's a mess that deserves much more discussion.

Enjoy your fluff ball

Thx man! I will definitely be feeding her less now!

 

[chill1n06]

So, I just bought my first tarantula last week from Petsmart. Yes, I know, probably not the best decision, but the Petsmart here has great people with lots of knowledge. The manager there walked me through how to take care of the tarantula, which is a average Pink Toe (A.avicularia). I looked up what she said when I got home and everything she said was acurate. She even knew it's gender (female), which was correct (the Pink Toe was laying eggs). Anyway, I got her for $24.99 (I live in Maryland, so stuff cost a little more dough) and, after slowly adjusting to her cage, she became very active. She is about 3.5 inches, so she can get larger (thinking of buying an Exo-Terra 12x-12x-18x so she has more climbing space).
So, here are my questions and it would be great if anyone would be kind enough to answer them (and maybe give me a full "care-list" of everything else I should do)-
1. How big should my cage be if she gets, say, 4.5 to 5.5 inches?
2. How often will she molt? (Once every year?)
3. I feed her every other day (like Petsmart did), but should I feed less or more often? Or should I just feed her spontaneously to replicate natural conditions?
4. And lastly (not looking to start a nasty {and frankly pathetic} fight), as the Pink Toe tarantula is a tropical species, should I provide her with a very shallow water bowl (which I already am) or just mist her often? I know it's good to mist anyway, though. And how often should I change her water? Every other day?
5. Last lastly, when is A.avicularia going to be fully reclassified by the scientific community?? Avicularia was all mixed up recently in 2017. I get the whole scientific reclassification thing, but really?
Thanks for your help, guys and girls! Arachnoboards is literally the best.

I have a nice female Avic, Avic I keep her in a decent sized tank I have a water bowl and I also keep terrarrium moss in there and I spray that heavy once a week or so plus keep the substrate moist (cocoa husk) she is doing great! very easy to keep and beautiful

 

[viper69]

1. How big should my cage be if she gets, say, 4.5 to 5.5 inches?
2. How often will she molt? (Once every year?)
3. I feed her every other day (like Petsmart did), but should I feed less or more often? Or should I just feed her spontaneously to replicate natural conditions?
4. And lastly (not looking to start a nasty {and frankly pathetic} fight), as the Pink Toe tarantula is a tropical species, should I provide her with a very shallow water bowl (which I already am) or just mist her often? I know it's good to mist anyway, though. And how often should I change her water? Every other day?
5. Last lastly, when is A.avicularia going to be fully reclassified by the scientific community?? Avicularia was all mixed up recently in 2017. I get the whole scientific reclassification thing, but really?

1. As big as you want it AND that it can still find food, and has plenty of cover to feel secure. Anyone that tells you "that cage is too big", ask them "WHY" first. I use small ExoTerra for 5"+ DLS Avics, about 8x8x12 or so. There's an ExoTerra Nano Tall I use as well
2. No one can tell you that, depends on many factors.
3. I feed all my Avics as often as they will eat, but there are times when they don't eat for a couple weeks too. I have no set schedule, neither does the wild.
4. I always provide a water bowl. Sometimes Avics will "forget" their water bowl and stop using it.

The one big key thing to keeping an Avic alive, aside from good mass air transfer, is keeping a watchful eye on their abdomen size. This is true for all Ts.

 

[Ungoliant]

Also a tip on the water dish is try and put it high up since this species is used to living off the ground.

I've had two Avics. My first, an elderly female, went into an exceptionally long pre-molt fast (13 months!). Toward the end of this period, I honestly thought she was dying of old age, because she was skinny and lethargic. I realized she wasn't going down to her water dish anymore, so when I saw her perched on the top of her cork log, I held the water dish up to her level, and she drank for a good five minutes until I could no longer hold that position.

Thinking it might make her more comfortable, I added an elevated water dish (like the one my juvenile Avic has) so that she could reach it more easily, and I saw her drink from that as well. She finally molted a week later.

She definitely preferred the high dish to the low dish. In the two years that she had both water dishes, I saw her drink from the high dish several times but never from the low dish. (She just liked to poop in it.)

For elevated water dishes, I use these Command soap dishes from Walmart. (You just need to plug the drain hole.) Once mounted, you can slide the dish up and out to clean it.

Note: this particular dish might be too large for an 8x8x12; I use these in an Exo Terra Mini/Tall (12x12x18), which is more space than an Avic needs (but works fine with the right furnishings).

I like that these dishes have a gentle slope, allowing the Avic to drink from multiple angles.

 

[The Grym Reaper]

1. How big should my cage be if she gets, say, 4.5 to 5.5 inches?

An Exo Terra Nano Tall (8"x8"x12") will suffice, you can you go slightly larger if you wish.

2. How often will she molt? (Once every year?)

No way to tell, moult cycles get longer as a tarantula gets larger and there are many factors that determine the length of a moult cycle (temps/feeding/genetics), could be anything from 6 months upwards at that size.

3. I feed her every other day (like Petsmart did), but should I feed less or more often? Or should I just feed her spontaneously to replicate natural conditions?

I feed every 10-14 days at that size (I think that's subadult size for a smaller Avic), try to keep prey size smaller than the abdomen.

4. And lastly (not looking to start a nasty {and frankly pathetic} fight), as the Pink Toe tarantula is a tropical species, should I provide her with a very shallow water bowl (which I already am) or just mist her often? I know it's good to mist anyway, though. And how often should I change her water? Every other day?

Just provide a large water dish (depth doesn't matter as they can't drown unless you completely submerge them by force for half an hour or more) and keep the substrate mostly dry, slightly overflow the water dish to moisten the substrate around it every now and again, misting is next to useless for providing humidity.

I only change the water out when the dish becomes soiled (arboreal species tend to defecate and dump boluses in their water dishes), otherwise I just top it up as needed.

5. Last lastly, when is A.avicularia going to be fully reclassified by the scientific community?? Avicularia was all mixed up recently in 2017. I get the whole scientific reclassification thing, but really?

The genus was just revised and A. avicularia is one of the 12 remaining species from that revision (most of the others were considered doubtful names/possible morphotypes of the 12 species that the genus was cut down to/moved to other genera), it's probably not going to get changed any time soon.

I use small ExoTerra for 5"+ DLS Avics, about 8x8x12 or so. There's an ExoTerra Nano Tall I use as well

Exo Terra Nano/Tall (12x12x18)

8x8x12 is the Nano Tall
12x12x18 is the Mini Tall

 

[JoshDM020]

Laying eggs at 3.5 inches? Can they be sexually mature at that size? Im genuinely curious. Because mine is slightly larger than that and the spermethecae weren't fused (signified by darkening from a pinkish to a blackish, correct?) in the last exuviae. I guess they could be NOW but i thought that happened closer to 5".

 

[The Grym Reaper]

Laying eggs at 3.5 inches? Can they be sexually mature at that size? Im genuinely curious. Because mine is slightly larger than that and the spermethecae weren't fused (signified by darkening from a pinkish to a blackish, correct?) in the last exuviae. I guess they could be NOW but i thought that happened closer to 5".

The spermathecae can sclerotise (the conversion of the tissue to sclerotin, this causes the darkening in mature specimens) at as little as 60% of maximum attainable leg span.
Assuming that A. avicularia can max out at 6 inches (I think they max out smaller though, I'm not sure) then a female could become sexually mature at as little as 3.6 inches.

 

[CrazyPinkToe2day]

Thx for all the great info guys!

 

[Venom1080]

http://arachnoboards.com/threads/avicularia-care.291340/

 

[Deeser]

Re: the elevated water dish: its useful for when housing Avics in top-opening enclosures, as their webbing can make it quite difficult to get tongs down to the sub to pull out a decent sized dish and replace it easily. I just find it convenient to have it up top where I can easily access it.

That being said, your flexibility increases greatly with a front opening enclosure and it shouldn't be necessary, but also not problematic. I can't find the pic, but I've seen someone use a fake bromeliad to great effect! Just put the water in the middle/core/funnel. The avic used the leaves for web anchors and goes down to the core of the bromeliad to drink. Very cool and something I mean to replicate with my caribena.