Anybody keep jumping spiders as pets?

I saw a rather large jumping spider today and was wondering if anyone ever kept any as a pet. If so , were they difficult to care for at all?

jo1718 said:

I saw a rather large jumping spider today and was wondering if anyone ever kept any as a pet. If so , were they difficult to care for at all?

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Sigh. I'ts my job. Being a snark, you know. Your question is more complex than asking what is required to keep a dog. A toy poodle on your arm, a cannibalistic Akita, a coursing greyhound, a Newf that would very much like to have it's own swimming pool?

To the point, jumpers are fun rewarding animals to have around. Excellent for learning about arachs in general. There are as many habitats and needs as there are breeds of dogs. I'd suggest following a basic rule of thumb. 1, the animal isn't a toy or a show piece. It's well being comes first. Then decide what habitat you want to keep it in. An attractive terrarium on your coffee table all the way to the free ranging monsters populating a scorching hot porch roof. Then research what animal would be ultimately comfortable in that habitat.

Jumpers give one bonus. They adapt easily to being in proximity with humans and will quickly learn to ignore you. Over to the experts now!

I have kept a few jumping spiders before, all very easy to care for and voracious eaters. Never had a problem with any of them, and I usually keep them in condiment/dressing cups that you can buy 5 for $1.00. Just be careful that you don't over mist them, they get most of the moisture they need from their prey. From my experience they readily eat mealworms.
I've kept Salticus scenicus and Phidippus audax this way and never had any problems

Fun family to keep. I've kept P. audax, P. tyrelli, P. regius, P. mystaceus and a variety of smaller species that I haven't gotten around to identifying yet. You can keep them in just about any sort of enclosure, though I personally don't think they need something huge. Some people keep the larger Phids in one gallon enclosure and they do just fine, but I keep mine in much smaller containers, such as empty pill bottles and spice vials and haven't had any issues.

As Gala BK said, be careful with misting. I don't really mist unless the spider has been refusing food and its abdomen looks shriveled. A shriveled abdomen typically means dehydration. They're voracious predators and will take down just about anything their size and smaller. I've given mine several different roach species, crickets, mealworms, meal moths, and fruit flies and all have been readily accepted. The fruit flies can be fun because if the jumper is pretty large it will gather several fruit flies first before settling down to eat.

Great starter into true spiders and I wholeheartedly recommend keeping them

Back in 1st grade a caught a jumping spider and kept it in a little enclosure and it was the coolest! I would catch flies every day to feed it and i loved watching it pounce on them. That was a long time ago though. But i would highly recommend keeping a jumper. They are a really interesting true spider.

Breeding them is a lot of fun too from what I've heard. I haven't done it myself yet but I know their mating rituals are really interesting. From what I've been told salticids are easy to mate

Can you house Jumping spiders together?

My gf and I have a bold jumping spider in a very nicely set up peanut butter container. She's been a good eater and seems rather happy in her set up.

RoslynRose said:

Can you house Jumping spiders together?

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Yes. Do you want to? Probably not. While there are exceptions, one common exception is males taking exceptions with each other. While their battles can be hilarious they do not always end well. Then females who aren't interested in mating consider males as meals.
If you can give us the species we could refine that answer a little.

Was a pleasurable experience for sure.
I had 2 set ups in small pretzel containers with sticks and fake leaves and water dishes.

They were so much fun to watch jump around like monkeys lol. from branch to branch.

They loved the flightless fruitflies too. Watching them hunt was entertaining hehe

The Snark said:

...An attractive terrarium on your coffee table all the way to the free ranging monsters populating a scorching hot porch roof....

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I keep my jumpers on the screen of my balcony. Perfect enclosure for them, as they have access to both inside and outside. They get their fair share of leaf hoppers that live on the same enclosure (yes, it's an enclosure, as it has two sliding doors). For feeding time, I put a pill bottle over a jumper and they jump inside it instantly. Then place pill bottle over a leaf hopper.

Simple pets, really. I have yet to mist them.

I have heard that studies suggest that jumping spiders possess an extremely high level of intelligence when compared to other similarly sized spiders. Can anyone back me up on this? They seem to be very curious creatures. Also what is the average life span for jumping spiders? I have considered getting a few but I'm not really into true spiders.

ARACHNO-SMACK48 said:

I have heard that studies suggest that jumping spiders possess an extremely high level of intelligence when compared to other similarly sized spiders. Can anyone back me up on this? They seem to be very curious creatures. Also what is the average life span for jumping spiders? I have considered getting a few but I'm not really into true spiders.

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Well call it a little unscientific but it's really really unlikely you will ever see a jumping spider plow over a street light pole in a new pickup then get out, still talking on the phone, and step backwards into traffic to survey the wreckage. So you can score one for the sloths and spiders but that blows the Darwin theory all to ****.

On a more serious note, jumpers have demonstrated incredible sight recognition and memory retention. I've got one right now that patrols the walls of the porch. It sees me coming out the door and zoops on over as I often put out a piece of insect attracting food. If I don't put out any food it paces back and forth on the railing where I normally put the food. And since I've never seen it fall off the railing it must be smarter than our cat.

I keep the larger species of phidippus and they're super easy! My enclosures are 4x4x7 inch containers with some ventilation.
The spiders like to web and make their hidey spots in the top of the cage, so I always keep the containers upside-down with the lids on the bottom.

I usually feed them about twice a week unless their abdomens are looking huge and about to pop, lol. Crickets, wild-caught moths and flies, etc.
I do a tiny itty bitty misting of water in only one corner of the cage if I've gone longer than usual between feedings. But as others have said, do not overdo the misting!!!

I have bred P. audax and it was actually pretty darn easy! Very entertaining to watch the male's mating dance too!

ARACHNO-SMACK48 said:

Also what is the average life span for jumping spiders? I have considered getting a few but I'm not really into true spiders.

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This is a question I also had for a long time. People don't seem to talk about it much. From what I can gather, their lifespan seems to be a year to a year and a half on average, with two years being on the extreme edge of their range. Most of my research though was for P. audax. As a whole, I haven't heard of any jumper living longer than 2 years. If any do, I'd love to know which one(s).

I've got a little 5mm jumper I'm raising at the moment (probably P. audax, but I'm not 100% sure) and I feel fortunate to have caught such an agreeable little creature. When I need to get into its container for any reason, it just stays out of the way and lets me work without trying to bolt. My primary food source for it is to beat the grass for leaf hoppers every few days (I'm very bad at this. It takes me a number of attempts), and with its container open right above the lawn, I've not ever had it make a jailbreak. It just waits patiently till the food gets scared in, and then it feeds. I've taken its lack of running to be a compliment. No insecurity on its part to seek greener pastures.

I read somewhere of a keeper who accidentally left the lid of their jumper's critter keeper open for about 12 hours, and they were pleasantly surprised to find their jumping spider still safely snug at home in the container. It knew where home base was, and if it happened to wander off in that time, if at all, it came back. One of the comments on the post was that they seem to have a home area, and as long as they're happy there, they stay.

+1 to watertiger21's comment about webbing a hidey spot at the top of the cage. My jumper does this as well.

ARACHNO-SMACK48 said:

I have heard that studies suggest that jumping spiders possess an extremely high level of intelligence when compared to other similarly sized spiders. Can anyone back me up on this? They seem to be very curious creatures. Also what is the average life span for jumping spiders? I have considered getting a few but I'm not really into true spiders.

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I've heard this too. It apparently has a lot to do with their highly advanced eyesight. At least in comparison to other spiders.
They're like little dogs. I'm not much into keeping true spiders simply because they just don't live very long, but these have been on my radar.