Is it wrong for me to keep spiders?

[Bider]

Starting to feel demotivated on keeping spiders. Started when I caught a baby house spider over a month ago, but I'm pretty sure it just died. It curled up into a ball after eating like the fly I caught was toxic to it. I hear they do something like that when they molt, but I never heard about it after eating. Before I looked it up I lightly poked it with my little tweezers just to see if it would move, but it didn't. So I'm guessing it's probably dead.

Before that I kept messing up like making the enclosure too humid, which forced me to move it. Kept feeding it the wrong things like beetles that it refused to eat. Even with what I think could be a correct set up I just don't think I am getting it right with anything. I can't be sure because it feels like NO ONE keeps spiders (and google, when I mean spiders I mean true spiders, not tarantulas thank you. I don't believe in keeping exotic pets).

Anyway then there's the money spider I kept... Well two. First one died before I even could put it in proper containment for reasons I don't even know. Probably stress or something. Second one is doing ok I THINK, but it has white balls on a branch I put in. So for all I know that's mould that is going to kill it, or eggs.

God after all this I thought maybe I could keep a false widow that I found. I don't know what I was thinking. I feel like I know things, but at the same time know nothing at all, no matter how much I try to research the limited information there is.

 

[Rlc9021]

Hi sorry to hear your having trouble.
For set ups it depends on what you have me I have a g.rosea and its basically a pet rock she eats once in a blue moon had four healthy molts in the past 2 years and I just keep some water in a dish and overfill it a little ..
With house spiders Im not really sure but Id use pretty much the same I use with my rosea

 

[Ratmosphere]

You could always get tips in this section of the forum, @Ungoliant is helpful for these kinds of topics. Before you keep them, try and do as much research as you can. Can you post pictures of your setups?

 

[Andee]

For True spiders it depends on the species. I keep a lot of different species of True spiders. I can say one thing, your money spider would do best with eating from a fruit fly culture. I have larger species than most money spiders but I have species who also prefer smaller prey so there's that. For my larger guys (like Queenie) who aren't too picky then I feed them very tiny dubia nymphs. You need a small hand mister, that has a very thin mist, and a well ventilated enclosure. I usually mist once a day because my enclosures are so well ventilated. Otherwise I only mist when there is no signs of water left. All my species of True spiders are currently arborial and moneys are for sure, so get some fake plants and clip them so they give your little guy a place to safely make it's web. I don't keep any of my true spiders with any substrate currently because they aren't terrestrial species. Do you have a picture of your money's white ball? thing going on? It sounds like it might be egg sacs.

 

[schmiggle]

White balls on a branch are probably fine. Apart from egg sacs, the balls could be from a fungus that came in on the wood, which will be harmless to a spider. But we would have to see pictures.
To address the more general concern--don't give up just because you've had some setbacks. Everybody has them--if you didn't fail you could never learn. I've killed a whipspider and a half dozen plants, but you improve with practice.
It's worth remembering, if it makes you feel better, that wild-caught spiders have every odd stacked against them (otherwise they wouldn't produce so many eggs), so there's a good chance they would have died anyway (this is much less true of adults than juveniles, of course, but still rather true). It honestly might not be your fault in the slightest--who knows what parasite loads these guys come in with, or how old they are. I'd try searching for info on here, if you haven't yet, to improve your chances for the future.

 

[Andee]

I agree, I have had random ones died on me when it doesn't seem correct... but you gotta remember, out there they live with the threat of constantly looking for prey, being kicked out of their home from various things, finding a good home that provides a lot of things, predators, diseases. etc... honestly once you get it right and such they will be much happier in a deli cup with you. People don't seem to understand, but spiders don't want for much, I am slowly learning this, but they want safety, food, water, and that's about it. Usually they are happy with those things.

 

[RTTB]

You will get great information right here from people with a lot of experience.