Wolf Spider Care Questions

[Veles]

This is my new substrate! Custom made baby haha. Last night after some research I realised I should put some water in there. after I did so he/she (dunno which) crawled over and drank some. I've never been so excited for a bug in my life lol. I caught a month, threw it in, but no reaction.. He actually acted scared. I took the moth out cause I didn't want to stress it out if its planning to molt. Do y'all think it is about to based on its behavior?? I'm trying not to be worried

Have you tried feeding it again?

 

[ironfeather]

Have you tried feeding it again?

I have not, I'm going to tonight when I hopefully catch a bug. Maybe she likes her new enclosure, isn't stressed out anymore and will feed. Pray for her. (I'm assuming it's a female cause of the drag line?)

 

[Ungoliant]

What are drag lines?

When spiders are on the move, they usually leave drag lines (of silk) behind them. For those that jump or climb, this is a safety feature. Wolf spiders usually stay on the ground, so their drag lines are less about safety and more about communication. (Males can identify potential mates by the pheromone-laced silk of females.)

Some relevant quotes from Biology of Spiders by Rainer Foelix:

The safety factor of draglines ranges from 4–6 times for orb weavers to only 1–2 times for jumping spiders. During a fall the spider is drawing new silk, thereby keeping the load below failure level (Ortlepp and Gosline, 2008).

The carrying of chemical stimuli is not restricted to orb webs alone but applies also to the draglines of wandering spiders (Tietjen and Rovner, 1980).

The males use their contact chemoreceptors, and perhaps also olfaction, to recognize the silk of the females. Draglines of female wolf spiders are known to induce "following behavior" and courtship in the male (Tietjen, 1977, 1979a, b; Pollard et al., 1987).

 

[Smokehound714]

This wolf spider is Alopecosa kochi, they burrow and build turrets with debris.

 

[Wolfspidurguy]

UPDATE my wolf spider has been staying elevated on top of its platform The past couple days. I just noticed there is strands of webbing like lasers from a spy movie covering the top of its substrate, I barely noticed it. What does this mean?

thats normal all my wolfers ive kept have done that

wait so someone here tried to feed there wolfer a moth but the wolfer was scared of it? because im seeing messages that are quoting that. but i said to toung feed it moths because they cant catch flying things... at least not very easy

 

[ironfeather]

wait so someone here tried to feed there wolfer a moth but the wolfer was scared of it? because im seeing messages that are quoting that. but i said to toung feed it moths because they cant catch flying things... at least not very easy

Yea she was afraid of it. The moth was just crawling around, didn't even try to take flight

 

[Veles]

thats normal all my wolfers ive kept have done that

wait so someone here tried to feed there wolfer a moth but the wolfer was scared of it? because im seeing messages that are quoting that. but i said to toung feed it moths because they cant catch flying things... at least not very easy

Moth isnt a bad prey item if you pluck out its wings.
Well,at least that is much better than when my dumb brother tried feeding his schizocosa avida a parson spider.
It didnt end well.....

 

[Wolfspidurguy]

Moth isnt a bad prey item if you pluck out its wings.
Well,at least that is much better than when my dumb brother tried feeding his schizocosa avida a parson spider.
It didnt end well.....

yeah i remember you telling me about that... didnt sound fun at all for your brothers spider

 

[Veles]

yeah i remember you telling me about that... didnt sound fun at all for your brothers spider

On the other hand he was really inexperienced with spiders at thst time period.

 

[ironfeather]

I do work for this lady that grew up in the Philippines and she told me she used to dip some cotton in milk, and the spiders will drink the milk from the cotton as a way of feeding them

 

[Veles]

I do work for this lady that grew up in the Philippines and she told me she used to dip some cotton in milk, and the spiders will drink the milk from the cotton as a way of feeding them

Thats not even remotely true.

 

[ironfeather]

Has anyone tried it?

 

[Veles]

Has anyone tried it?

No.
But spiders cant digest milk,fats arent healthy for them.

 

[ironfeather]

UPDATE! after eleven days of ownership, my beautiful spider has finally ate. She didn't go for the pincher when I dropped it in so unfortunently wasn't able to see the fury unleashed. But she eventually did eat it cause what was left of the poor insect was decimated.

She still hasn't made a burrow, and doesn't go in her shelter I set up; mostly stays purched on her little pad. I keep her in my closet, is it a problem that she doesn't get sunlight?