Captive raised Geolycosa Rafaelana? (Burrowing Wolf Spider)

[Kibosh]

Found this beautiful Geolycosa on my family's property in Colorado. They seem to be everywhere down there. Find a spider sized hole and pour a bit of water down it and either one of these or a juvenile Aphonopelma comes shooting out. The GR's seem to be much quicker and more aggressive though. Truly beautiful spiders with a black/slate grey body and strong contrasting blonde/red chelicerae. This lady was quite large too, about 5cm.

My question is what are the communities thoughts on keeping them captive?

I don't have any experience raising Lycosidae. How long do they live? How do they handle captivity?

Obviously I would keep wild caught specimens in as similar conditions to the Colorado prairies I find them in. They seem like they would adapt well as burrowers who never leave their holes except to feed or mate.

Thoughts?

 

[Penn]

I can only speak on Hogna sp., but I find wolfies to be great pets. I caught my carolinensis back in July, and she has been doing great. I have her on coco coir with a log hide and a little ceramic dish. She has molted for me once already and is always up to something. This gal is definitely a look-no-touch spider as she is super fast and loves to throw up threat poses and bite whatever utensil I am using to do cage maintenance ect. Other wolfies have never been that aggressive for me though, and I often caught the local Schizocosa//Trochosa species with my hands with no issues or bites.

I don't know too much about Geolycosa, but I do believe they are obligate burrowers. I assume you will only see them during feeding, but all wolfies are great eaters so it shouldn't be too bad.

As for lifespan, I can't locate much on the burrowers. I'd take a guess at 1-3 years maybe.

 

[pannaking22]

Definitely give them a few inches of substrate to burrow in. I had a G. missouriensis for a while that did pretty well in captivity before popping up as a mature male.

 

[SpiderLadyLyle]

I've kept several species of wolf spiders, but haven't had the pleasure of keeping Geolycosa yet. In general, they're amazingly fun to keep, have great feeding responses, and are great pets! I've kept mine in critter keepers with coconut coir, reptisoil, or just some sort of dirt mix in the past, and they've done fantastic!

 

[ReignofInvertebrates]

Yes, they’re obligate burrowers so replicating their natural habitat with plenty of substrate is a necessity. I think they’re quite fun. I keep a lot of Hogna spp, but they rarely make nice wide burrows like Geolycosa do.