#spider keeping

[ask-a-bot]

Starscream I have a few spiders and I can't keep all of them I mean I have sine I wanna give, and do you want one?

More spiders? Please, no. One is enough!

You've got frogs! I don't like green slimy things and you've got loads!

Urrgh. Very well. You may keep more, but they are not to leave your room.

Fair! Thank you!

[what-ever-is-left]

look at my beautiful boy

[vampiremasochist]

It's all fun and games until you get a text that says "honey I've lost a roach while feeding my pet mantis"

[snackhouse]

Spiders are great because you can have just the sweetest little darling in the world and she looks like This

Leggy Catherine might look like a demon but she’s actually just a polite little lady who will eat out of your hand

[bedpissercastiel]

hey spider people i need advice:

i have a spider in my bathroom he is my closest friend his web is attached to the little trashcan i keep in there and i need to take the trash out soon but that involves moving the trashbin

so if i disturb his web will he come back?

and any advice for how to move the trashcan without physically touching him i am scared of spiders

how do i know if he's gone so i can do it? he likes to hide under the lip of the little step to open the bin i cant have him coming up on me from under there while im that close

[missingintranquility]

Keeping a Jumping Spider as a pet.

I'd seen many people on Youtube caring for/feeding and breeding tarantulas.

My first thought was "damn that's cool...BUT SCARY!!". Their engagement with the spiders really fascinated me and I was relatively envious of their experience, but at the same time, I was terrified at the thought of actually having a pet tarantula.

Luckily, I found a middle ground! So many other videos of people keeping Jumping Spiders as pets, people who were initially big time Arachnophobes found a level of compromisation with owning a Jumping Spider. I myself was aware of the harmlessness of a Jumping Spider, and all the memories as a child being told that “they don’t have strong/big enough fangs to bit you, and even if they did, their vemon has no effect on humans”.

Finally I decided... I WANT A PET JUMPING SPIDER! This wish only grew stronger when I saw youtube channels breeding them and mixing beautiful colours through generations of selection. It appealed more to me when I learnt that the gestation period of a Jumping Spider is no longer than 5 weeks! WOW! 5 weeks and I could have a boat load of harmless little spider-lings (slings) all with traits/colours of their paired parents!

I deeply compared this to a game I played in my childhood called “Dragon Vale” where the premise of the game is to breed different types of dragons together to try and own every type of dragon. It felt like a real life version of the game I’d loved as a kid! But at the same time I knew: These are lives I’m tempering with, it’s not REALLY a game and I could truly create some cruel living conditions for another life that has no say in the matter...

I made sure to consider the conditions I was going to be creating for these potential new friends/pets of mine, It was only fair that I treated them with as much caution as I would any other pet. My goal was then to understand and learn how to bring them an environment that would be as comfortable as possible for them. Researching this, I found out that they are really really hardy pets! J.S. (Jumping Spider) owners would go on and on about how easy they are to care for, and how clear their signs of discomfort are. Many youtubes highlighted that “as long as they’re eating, they’re on the comfortable end!”. Apparently these little monsters are genuinely easy going and don’t need much, A full belly and lots of climbing space sits at the top of their priority list, over and above this, they are just really curious, so the more space they have to explore, the happier they are!

Ok, so it was time, I wanted to get a J.S., but from where?

RIGHT OUTSIDE!

Wild caught J.S. can be easily domesticated, and as long as they have a sterile + mite free living space, can be the happiest little buggers (or bugger killers for that matter) you could ask for!

And so just the other day, I was sitting in my room, minding my own business when a little J.S. came crawling along my wall and onto my desk, I saw it and thought “HE CHOSE ME! THIS IS WHAT I’VE BEEN WANTING!”

I caught the little guy and slowly and as cautiously as possible, stuck him into a little clear box after cleaning it, got some twigs from outside and voilà! the hardest part was done!

The very next day i check on the little man and he was just as curious as the day before, scanning every centimeter of his temporary new home. I went to the shops, bought him a fancy spider enclosure, some pin-head crickets for food, a mister, substrate and some fake little plants.

Now as I type out this post, he sits next to my pc, the guardian over his new domain!

I hope I don’t suck as a J.S. keeper!

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

[toknowaspider]

Hunting:

I recently renovated Isa's terrerium and placed a cutting of a house plant inside. After a day Isa dissappered for several days in a row, something she has not done before. Initially I thought it could be time for her moult, but after the flies all died very quickly i suspected the plant may be to blame. I removed all the extra possesions from her terrerium. Her permanent possesions include a long sliver of smooth bark and a piece of dried plant that she likes to make her sleeping hammocks in. I did this because i suspected that the plant cutting i had placed in the terrerium was potentially toxic to invertibrates. I placed her in a sick bay container over night with a fly, but she did not take it. In fact the small space stressed her out worse. I became more and more concerned with her wellbeing as she refused food. Till this point it has been nearly three weeks since she has eaten. She has seemed stressed and timid since she disappeared the first time. But she has appeared every day recently, so she is feeling better. What is the matter? Why is she still not taking flies? Well that would be because i didn't think about her perspective. Isa is an ambush hunter, and i stripped her terrerium of things for her to run and hide in to catch the flies. So then i filled her terrerium with specifically selected plants that she has lived in before and checked on her 20 mins later. She had obviously caught a fly because her abdomen was SO FAT and she was lifting it in the air looking very uncomfortable. She might also have been taking an aggressive stance at one of the flies, she is always cautious when i put new plants in. I wish i could tell her that I've checked and cleaned it all. So she is eating and much happier now.

[jumpingspiders]

My jumping spider just died, but left behind a damaged egg sac. The spiderlings are hatching and I have no experience with baby spiders. What should I feed them that would be easy for them to eat while they are so small?

I’m sorry, I am just a fan of jumping spiders and not a caretaker! I wish you the best of luck, and I’ll reblog this to my main so maybe someone with caretaking knowledge will see it.

[the8thpage]

Cassidy, E truculentus

[sir-p-audax]

so I have been thinking a lot about getting a spider friend but I have this really big fear of it getting squished somehow by accident???

It takes a good amount of finesse to handle spiders, so I can understand your fear. When I fist started keeping smaller spiders, I would get so nervous about accidentally dropping something in the container or knocking the container off the shelf.

One thing to keep in mind is that if you’re more confident, you’ll shake less. Don’t psych yourself out. Try to create the safest environment possible — this includes keeping the container/tank out of reach of other pets (I have heard many stories of tarantulas getting loose because a cat knocked the tank over), making sure the lid is secure (Smaller plastic lids should be snug, mesh lids on larger tanks should have clasps), and the decor in the enclosure isn’t in a place where your friend might get stuck and need human intervention.

If you plan on handling your spider friend, there are also a few things to keep in mind. The first one is to know what species it is. If it’s naturally skittish and defensive, don’t try to handle it. Do a bit of research and learn to recognize the warning signs of a defensive spider.

The second thing is if you decide your friend is safe to handle, take a moment to breath before hand. Calm yourself down. Convince yourself that it won’t hurt you and you won’t hurt it. If you’re nervous, you’ll have less control over your hands and you’ll probably shake.

The third thing is to make sure you can deal with it if it leaves your person. With tarantulas it’s best to sit on the ground to avoid falling hazard, as a fall from a standing height will kill it. With smaller spiders, have a capture method ready (like a small container or a cup) so you can quickly scoop it up if it escapes.

Overall just be kind to your spider friend! Send out good vibes. They’ll feel if you’re nervous. Let the spider trust you.

Good luck and happy hunting!~Caine

[what-ever-is-left]

got himself a cricket!!! he came out of his hide to finish snacking

[what-ever-is-left]

redid the enclosure a bit!!! flattened it out and took out the largest bural in there. moved and rearranged the other two cork wood pieces and added in an extra skull and fake plants. currently he's been hiding in that front log

[what-ever-is-left]

[toknowaspider]

Flies:

Initially Isa was being feed on Musca domestica. A small (5-7mm with wings) species with 'soft' exoskelleton. I call it 'soft' because when she has finnished eating them the abdomen is totally dessicated or eaten, unlike the Lucilia sericata. L.sericata is a larger fly, (7-10mm with wings) with a bottle green colour. The ones i buy tend to be on the smaller size, around 7mm as Isa herself is only 7mm long. Lucilia sericata exoskelletons do not dessicate and she does not consume them. This makes it difficult to determine if she has fed or not when the flies reach the end of their lives, as they will sometimes die before she is hungry enough to eat them. The first time she accepted L.sericata was when i had completely run out of M.domestica as the ones i purchased were contaminated with parasitoid /predatory flies. Description of contaminates: small (3-5mm) Diptera with mantis like front legs. The magots pupated, but they stopped the M.domestica from germinating from pupae entirely. No adult flies. L.sericata was less effected, with several adult flies being present within the container. The parasitoids present in L.sericata were physically larger than those germinated in M.domestica. Isa was able to catch all the flies after she found she was able to catch them.

[the8thpage]

P pulcher sling! Still unnamed.

[the8thpage]

They’re heeere!

I din’t want to bug them too long before they could get settled in, so I took these photos immediately after housing them in their new enclosures.

The little P pulcher was the first one I unpacked. You can imagine the size difference if you look at the packing cups they were shipped in. This sling is tiny, and although pulcher are reputably very fast and skittish, especially as chillins, this little friend was very calm the entire time. I haven’t decided on a name just yet, but I want to decide on something that works for both genders, since I won’t know one way or the other until it sheds many more times. Speaking of such, when it left its napkin shelter behind and I pulled it out, I found a molt tucked in there, too. Must’ve made the ride a little squished! It’s pretty much been chill since I housed it, moving from here to there, but mostly still whenever I take a peek. In any case, the pulcher is off limits for at least a week, but after that I’ll offer it a meal.

I was a big concerned about the second tarantula, my female E truculentus, because I had a surprise work shift jump out that left me with only about half an hour to unpack her. I was prepared to ease her out of the cup and into her cage gradually as I did with the pulcher, but the moment I tugged the top layer of napkin off, she was already fighting to get out. I let her do it on her own and removed the cup/napkins later, and she was exploring her new enclosure without even a little bit of pause. She kept trying to climb the wall just over her water bowl, and fell in a couple of times before learning her lesson. I haven’t seen her sit still even for a second. I think I’m going to name her Cassidy! She’s so comfortable after such a short time that I think I’ll offer some food in a couple of days. For all I know she’s about to molt as well, considering a slight patch on her abdomen, so it’s up in the air whether she’ll take a meal at all.

The pulcher sling has somewhere around a 1.5 inch legspan, while the truculentus is closer to 4 inches!