Avicularia avicularia
Guyana Pink Toe Tarantula: Advanced Care Guide
Keeper Snapshot: A classic beginner arboreal, but only when airflow is excellent: adults reach about 4.5-6.5 inches across (size varies by morphotype).
Group: TarantulasDifficulty: Spice 2: BeginnerSetup: Arboreal with heavy ventilationHandling: Not recommended
Use This Guide Safely
- Confirm the exact animal. Match this guide to the species, locality, size, and life stage on your label. If the ID is uncertain, use the more conservative part of the range and ask before changing the setup.
- Change one thing at a time. Treat temperature and humidity as target zones, then watch posture, burrowing, drinking, feeding, and molt behavior before making another adjustment.
- Respect the handling boundary. If the guide says no handling, fast, defensive, or medically significant, plan transfers with catch cups, locked lids, and no bare hands. For serious bites, stings, or symptoms, seek emergency medical care.
Quick Snapshot
| Temperature | 75-82°F |
|---|---|
| Humidity | Moderate ambient (60-70%) with heavy cross ventilation; dry substrate, water dish, web droplets |
| Setup Type | Arboreal with heavy ventilation |
| Substrate | Mostly dry/lightly moist substrate + vertical cork |
| Feeding | Small prey weekly |
| Care Difficulty | Spice 2: Beginner |
| Handling | Not recommended |
Humidity zones: Very Low under 30% - Low 30-60% - Low-Moderate 40-70% - Moderate 60-80% - Moderate-High 70-85% - High 80%+ - Very High 90%+
Enclosure Format / Size Class
- Compact secure enclosure while it's a tiny sling
- Vertical bark setup with heavy ventilation for juveniles
- Taller heavily-ventilated vertical arboreal build for the adult
Warnings First
- Stale air is dangerous
- Do not keep wet and sealed
- Can jump/bolt
- Ventilation beats humidity every time on this genus. Cross flow means vents low on one wall and high on the opposite wall, not a few holes in the lid.
- Condensation on the walls is a warning sign, not a sign you have the humidity right.
Simple Care
- Ventilation is the #1 care point. Cross flow: vents low on one wall, high on the opposite wall.
- Dry substrate plus a water dish, rather than damp substrate.
- Shallow water dish with pebbles in it so slings cannot drown.
- Mist lightly and let it dry.
- Use cork and upper anchor points.
Advanced Keeper Notes
Enclosure & Microclimate
- Many pinktoe problems come from the old advice of high humidity with low ventilation. Prioritize cross-ventilation and fresh air.
- Offer water droplets by light misting, but allow the enclosure to dry between mistings. A small water dish can be used when size allows.
- Tall cork, fake foliage, and web anchor points encourage natural resting spots.
- Cross ventilation on an arboreal means a diagonal air path, and getting the geometry right is what saves pinktoes. Put vents low on one wall and high on the opposite wall so air enters at substrate level, rises past the cork, and exits above the retreat. Vents only in the lid do almost nothing, because warm damp air pools against the walls and sits there. For sling cups, err heavily on the side of too many holes; keepers who lose Avicularia slings almost always had too few.
- Ventilation and humidity are one dial, and on this genus you deliberately push it toward air. Do not chase an ambient number. Keep the substrate dry, run a water dish, put droplets on the webbing two or three times a week, and let everything dry back between times. Ambient will sit somewhere around 60 to 70% on its own, and it does not matter if it dips lower as long as the animal has drinking water.
- Judge the enclosure by whether it dries, not by a hygrometer. Substrate should read dry, webbing should be dry to the touch a few hours after misting, and there should never be condensation on the walls. Condensation means the air is not moving. That is what kills pinktoes.
- Keep a shallow water dish once the animal is big enough for one, and put pebbles or coarse grit in it so the waterline sits below the rim. Slings genuinely drown in open dishes, and the stones let you keep permanent drinking water available in an enclosure you are otherwise keeping deliberately dry. Rinse and refill a couple of times a week.
- The microclimate here is vertical rather than under a hide. A damp patch on the substrate in one lower corner, or the dish itself, releases a little moisture that rises through the enclosure while the webbed retreat up top stays dry and ventilated. That gradient is what you want: humid air passing through, never humid air standing still. Do not mist into the retreat itself, since a damp webbed tube with no airflow is exactly the condition this species dies in.
Feeding, Growth & Maintenance
- A tall, cross-ventilated vertical bark setup is the safer airflow-friendly setup for this group.
- Feeding schedule: slings small prey 2×/week; juveniles weekly; adults every 1-2 weeks. Keep prey smaller than the abdomen, feed more often if it looks thin, less if it's plump.
- Molting: a premolt pinktoe turns sluggish, sits tight in its silk retreat, and stops eating for days or even weeks. Normal. Pull uneaten feeders, leave it alone, and wait 5-10 days after the molt before feeding again.
Possible Origin / Range
- Likely native range: Northern South America and Caribbean arboreal habitats.
- Habitat translation: Cross-ventilated arboreal enclosure with water access and elevated retreats.
Advanced Keeper Details
- Ventilation is the difference between humid and stale; prioritize crossflow over sealed wet boxes.
- Slings are sensitive to damp stagnant conditions; use small prey and remove leftovers quickly.
- Adult size ~4.5-6.5 in DLS (varies across morphotypes); medium growth. Female lifespan can vary from ~10-12 years, with males much shorter at ~2-4 years.
- Not an aggressive species, but very skittish and fast, and famous for sudden jumping, which is a genuine surprise on maintenance day. It will also fling a jet of feces at a threat as a defense.
- Sudden Avicularia Death Syndrome (SADS) (pinktoes occasionally dying abruptly with no obvious cause) is what makes Avicularia avicularia trickier to keep than its 'beginner arboreal' reputation suggests. Current consensus pins the great majority of cases on husbandry, especially stagnant damp air, rather than a mystery illness. Build the airflow first.