Keeping A Pet Pink-toed Tarantula – All You Need To Know

The Pink-toed Tarantula

If you are thinking of owning a pink-toed tarantula, then get to know the right ways and methods to take care of this creepy, curious-looking creature!

A pink-toed tarantula can be both pleasing and creepy to see at the same time. Pink-toed tarantulas are gentle and mild-natured when handled gently, which makes them ideal as pets. However, these arboreal spiders do have defense mechanisms to protect themselves from harm.

So, if you consider getting this mini creature for yourself, you need to have basic knowledge about its survival. For instance, how they like to live, what they eat, etc. So, without confusing you with loads of information, I will tell you about the basics here. The rest you will learn as you get one as your pet!

Tips You Must Know Before Having a Pet Pink-toed Tarantula

1. Housing: Do’s and Don’ts

Pink-toed tarantulas are arboreal creatures. Hence they like to live on trees and plants rather than the walls or floors of your home. Therefore, its housing should contain enough ‘living’ plants and not fake ones. For the enclosure, a standard tank setup is not enough to fit in live plants.

Keep in mind, the enclosure must be four times the height of the tarantula’s entire size, which will allow them to move freely. Also, to easily see your spider inside, you can opt for glass enclosures rather than blurry plastic ones.

Cleaning the Tarantula’s House

The living plants inside the house will create more humidity, which will increase the chances of bacteria and mold growth. So, you have to keep the house environment clean for your tarantula.

Moreover, cleaning also depends on how frequently they are fed. The leftover dead insects and mites should be cleaned to prevent bacteria from growing. In your routine cleaning, make sure to get rid of all the webs made by the tarantula.

The temperature of the House

For your tarantula’s comfort, its house interior should have a temperature between 78-82 degrees Fahrenheit. Use a thermometer to track the temperature.

Moreover, a pink toe tarantula loves highly humid environments since they are arboreal species. Therefore, the housing enclosure must retain at least 75-80% humidity throughout the year. Use a hygrometer to track humidity levels. If the weather is dry and cold outside, spray mists inside the enclosure to humidify the habitat.

Type of substrate

You don’t need to make much effort while choosing a substrate for your pink toe’s house. Fortunately, you can use a hard floor material substrate.

Also, it would be best if you tried to keep the flooring as less messy as possible for ease of cleaning. Dead bugs and insects should be cleaned daily to prevent mold and bacteria growth.

Lighting Inside

By keeping unnatural lighting minimal, try to keep their habitat in natural lighting as much as possible. However, please do not keep them under direct scorching sunlight.

During the nighttime, do not use heat lamps as they will literally cook them. Instead, use soft table lamps with a maximum 40-watt incandescent bulb, and it is more than enough.

2. Feeding Habits of Pink-toed Tarantula

One of the many reasons why humans want to have pink-toe tarantula as pets is their feeding habits. Unlike other arboreal species, pink-toe tarantulas do not require exotic insects and bugs to live.

They can survive simply by a steady cricket, roach, grasshopper, and other flying insect diet. Wax moths can be a special treat for them. However, you do not need to feed them all of these mentioned insects. Go along the flow and treat them with whichever bug is available.

Apart from those widely available insects, pink-toe tarantulas also eat Anolis lizards, South American lizard species. The juvenile Anolis are best for tarantulas because they are small and won’t hurt your spider.

How Often Does A Pink-toe Tarantula Eat?

An adult pink-toe tarantula is made to survive with 2-3 crickets a week. This is because they like to hunt for their food. Place some crickets inside their house at night so that they can hunt and eat. The next morning, you should clean up the leftovers and dead shells of the bugs.

In the case of baby pink-toes, you should keep feeding them until they want to stop themselves. They don’t hunt. To fit in their tiny mouths, their food should be nymphs, which are smaller crickets. Juvenile pink-toe should be fed routine-wise.

What Do They Drink?

Pink-toes like to drink fresh water from time to time. The water dish should be similar to a soda cap so that it’s easy for them to reach. Change the water every other day because they like to drink clean water.

3. How to Determine their Gender?

Male pink-toes have smaller bodies than females. Typically, a full-grown adult male is 3.5 inches, whereas a female is 5 inches.

Although both genders have fuzzy and hairy bodies, females are chunkier than males. Also, another difference is males have darker abdomen than females.

4. Health Problems of Tarantula

Pink-toes can suffer from some health issues, such as dehydration. So, always keep fresh water ready for your tarantula to consume. Also, keep the humidity level within 80% because too much of it will rapidly dehydrate the tarantula.

There is a health concern for pink-toes regarding mites. Mites breed quickly in a dirty substrate, so always keep the housing substrate clean and fresh. In addition, these pesky bugs cause fatal infections to tarantulas by invading the spiders’ mouths.

If your tarantula is suffering from mites or other health issues, veterinary care may be necessary, and veterinary financing with no credit check can help ease the burden of unexpected expenses. It is suitable for those tarantula owners who had credit issues in the past.

5. Average Lifespan

Female tarantulas live way longer than male tarantulas. The average lifespan of males is 2-3 years. For most male pink-toes, it is common that they will die after mating at their maturity age. The average lifespan of female pink-toes is 10-12 years.

Final Thoughts

So these are the basic facts you should know if you want a pink-toe tarantula as your pet. They are straightforward to keep as a pet as they don’t require special treatment. You also don’t need to constantly keep your house clean as you would do with cats and dogs.

Just build pink-toe a comfy habitat, feed them from time to time, and let them live by themselves. I am sure that you will enjoy owning this fuzzy-looking, slow-moving, mild-natured creature.