Salmon Pink Birdeater Tarantula (Lasiodora parahybana) Care Sheet

Scientific Name: Lasiodora Parahybana

Common Name: Brazilian Salmon Pink Birdeater Tarantula

Type: Terrestrial

Category: New World

Endemic Location: Brazil

Diagonal Leg Span (DLS): 11”(28cm)

Urticating Hairs: Yes Type I & III

Growth Rate: Medium - Fast

Life Expectancy: Females 15 years / Males 5 years

Recommended Experience Level: Beginner

Lasiodora parahybana, known in the hobby as the Salmon Pink Birdeater is a New World Terrestrial Tarantula endemic to North Easter Brazil. This species is argued to be the 3rd or 4th largest tarantula in the world growing anywhere from 9-11 inches with most only being about 8-9”. The Salmon Pink Birdeater is a very fast growing tarantula and can reach adult sizes in as little as 2 years and have a lifespan up the about 15 years. Females can produce sacs that have anywhere between 1200-3000 eggs. Though this tarantula is large, its venom is not known to be medically significant, so the fangs would be potentially more painful than the venom. This species does possess urticating hairs , like most New World tarantulas, and I find this species hairs to nearly as uncomfortable as the T. blondi or Brachypelma boehmi. Even as a juvenile, while rehousing this T, it kicked hairs that caused itching and swelling on my fingers for a week or two. Though this species isn’t particularly defensive, in fact they're pretty docile, they will kick hairs when they feel threatened. But the real threat of getting hairs on your skin is when rehousing. This T is known for kicking hair on it webbing around its burrow, so if you are emptying out the substrate while cleaning an enclosure or moving substrate around in the enclosure...you are at risk of kicking up those hairs into the air or coming in direct contact with them. That is why anytime I am rehousing or cleaning an old enclosure that use to house and species in the Lasiodora genus I take precautions to protect myself. I wear thick nitrile gloves and even eye protection and long sleeve shirts if I really think the risk is high. Even when dealing with spiderlings. You can visit my Amazon store to see exactly which gloves and eye protection I use and there is a link to the store down below in the description. 

    I house my spiderling Lasiodora species in a basic terrestrial spiderling enclosure made of acrylic. This species tends to prefer to burrow deep as slings so I normally use an enclosure that is taller than longer, but fill it at least 2/3rds of the way up with substrate so there is more length, or as much length, as their is height. This gives the sling plenty of room to burrow down and not too much space to climb up and risk injury from a fall. I pour water down opposite corners of the enclosure so that it seeps down into the bottom layer providing a gradient of moisture to the substrate. The deeper the sling burrows, the more damp the substrate becomes. This gives the sling the ability to choose the moisture level of substrate it prefers while keeping the humidity level optimal for a sling and providing a layer of dry substrate on the top. 

  Once the sling begins to outgrow its enclosure I move it into on of two types of juvenile acrylic enclosures. One is a 4x4x4 box with top and side ventilation that I use for the slings that seem to have preferred to spend most of their time deep in their burrows. Again I fill the enclosure at least 2/3rds the way up with substrate and I treat the substrate in the same way I did in the spiderling enclosures, keeping the bottom layer damp and the top layer dry letting the humidity seep up from the bottom. The other style of enclosure I have had a lot of success with is a long but short 4x5x6 acrylic enclosure that I purchased from a local hobby store that has since gone out of business and I have yet to be able to find anywhere to purchase this style of AMAC boxes again. These enclosures are great, especially since this T is such a fast grower as the give enough depth for the T to burrow some, but also plenty of room for them to move around. I use this set up particularly for the specimens that seem to spend more time outside of their burrows as slings. I still pour some water down the corner enough to keep the lover level of substrate damp while the top remains dry and opt for more side ventilation than top ventilation in this particular setup.For both types of enclosures I am sure to provide a water dish and hide for the birdeaters.

  When this enclosure is beginning to get to small and it is time to rehouse them again, I make the jump to a large adult enclosure as its final home. Again, this T is a fast grower, so it may seem a little large at first but within a few molts they seem to fill out the enclosure nicely. I tend to use 10 gallon aquariums or an exo terra medium low enclosure that measure 24x18x12. The latter being my preferred final home for the Lasiodora parahybana as it is short enough to not cause a risk from falling if the T crawls up the side of the glass and across the top and long and wide enough for it to have plenty of space while providing ample cross ventilation. The front opening doors also make feeding and maintenance much easier since I keep them on a rack opposed to having to pull out a 10 gallon glass aquarium to remove the lid. You can find an example of this type of exo terra enclosure in the amazon store linked below in the description. I fill this enclosure up all the way up to the door with substrate and then ramp the substrate up higher towards the back so there is enough depth for the T to burrow. And I am always mindful of keeping the water dish clean and full as I see this T drink from its dish more often than any other T in my collection. 

    This T is a voracious eater any stage of growth. As spiderling I feed them prekilled small crickets til they are over 0.5” in size then I feed them one small cricket once or twice a week until they are in premolt or their abdomen becomes too large. For juveniles I will feed them 3-4 medium crickets every week until they stop showing interest in eating as they approach premolt. I will feed a few more crickets a week if they are looking underfed or a few less if they appear to be getting chunky. And for adults, I feed 8-10 large crickets every week or two, again more or less depending on size of abdomen and appetite and switch it up sometimes with large super worms, green horn worms, or a few large dubia roaches. There is a lot of talk online about feeding them a pinkie mouse or house gecko once or twice a year, but that is something I normally do not engage in. Not because of fear of a potential calcium buildup or any real ethical reason...it is just anytime you feed your T a vertebrate there is a mess to clean up. And if you don’t clean the mess up promptly then there is a real risk of issues with mold and mites. That being said, at least once I have fed my L. parahybana a small feeder lizard, but it isn’t something I would make a habit of doing and not something I highly suggest trying. 

   This is a large, hardy, and beautiful tarantula that stays out on display most of the time as an adult. They are not aggressive or defensive, but I would not suggest trying to handle this species for a few different reasons. The first reason being that they have nasty urticating hairs that would be miserable to deal with if they kicked them on you or the even just brushed off onto your skin. The second and probably most important reason is that this T is so large as an adult that if you were to handle it and accidentally dropped it from almost any height, it could be fatal to your T. Even being as steady and careful as possible, tarantulas are prone to suddenly burst in movement for short distances when startled of when they perceive a threat and it isn’t something you would be able to react to fast enough to keep the T safe. So handle at your own risk and at your T’s possible peril. This is another great staple in the hobby and the Salmon Pink Birdeater is usually widely available and affordable.