peru pinktoe

[jason botting]

hi guys & girls i`m just wondering how long my peru pinktoe will stay hiding for in her cork bark retreat? she arrived on thursday from the spider shop and she`s been hiding ever since ! is this just because she is settling in to her new home? any help would be great

[JensFalk]

Avicularia sp?

[Colin D Wilson]

Avicularia sp?

I'm guessing it is.

I'd leave it and let it settle down so it can start to manufacture some sort of web retreat if it feels the need to, this could be at any time really although lots of webbing doesn't neccessarily mean a happy Avic, they're all individual and web as much as they need to.
Some Avics only really web a lot when they are coming up to a moult and then after moulting they will destroy their webbing for some reason.
You could introduce some food if you wish and see if it eats.
The main things we've found with Avics is they like a fair amount of space to hunt and move around in, a good misting once a week or so for drinking water, a nighttime drop in temp of a couple of degrees and most importantly adequate ventilation so there's air movement within the tub.

[jason botting]

thanks colin she`s in a 24 inch tall exo terra by 12 by 12! do i mist all the inside or just the plants and substrate

[Lee Corless]

How big is the T? It might be that the enclosure is to big and she is just more comfortable in her retreat than venturing out into the "wild". My P.regalis is in the same size enclosure as yours and never ever comes out of her hide and she is a big old girl. Just a thought and probably wrong.

[jason botting]

she has a leg span of about 4 to 5 inch`s

[Colin D Wilson]

Thats fine regarding the size of both spider and tank, nearly all Avics will actively hunt using the whole of the area available and more often than not will be wandering around if you make a surprise visit to them through the early hours.
We heavily mist (as fine a mist as possible) the whole of the tubs/tanks so water soaks into the substrate, obviously it's best not to spray the spider direct but in some instances here the spider has actually come out of it's hide and stood directly in the fine mist and "had a shower"

@lee, pokies (in general) are a little more "homely" and tend to hang out in their web retreats throughout the day, but again they do wander around the tank throughout the night, although saying this we have a bookcase full of cereals tubs (mainly avics, the rest pokies) this catches the sun for half hour or so in the early morning for part of the year and (going against whats said about these spiders) more than half the tubs wil have them sunbathing, they even move position to remain in the sun as long as possible.

[jason botting]

colin thankyou for your help this is my first avic so your advice has really helped yes i have read (the tarantula keepers guide) many times and read everything on avic`s i could find . once again many thanks