how to care for a pholcid with 4 legs? :(

[vesperial]

hello all, i'm a stranger to this forum desperately looking for some advice! please forgive me if i'm missing any rules.

i searched through the internet and this forum for general care on daddy long legs/pholcids, and i understand they generally don't need much to live, but... well, i found one (at least i think it's a pholcid, blurry photo attached) in the bathroom at work and when i tried to catch it to take it outside (i was scared someone would see it and kill it as we have many anti-spider people here) 4 of its legs fell off. now it has 3 on one side and 1 on the other. i went to the pet store and got a case for it, idk what i'm doing, but i didn't know if it could survive alone like this

is there anything i can do for it? can a spider survive on 4 legs? he seems to be able to walk, but very poorly. i feel so awful that it got injured because of me.

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[HeartBum]

Hey, don't beat yourself up! You may have saved this little guy's life afterall. Spiders can live absolutely fine with less legs and when they moult (shed their "skin" to grow) they will grow them back and he'll be good as new If you don't have anything to feed him with, then my best advice would be to let him live in a corner of your room. He'll be able to catch his own food and keep himself very happy.

 

[vesperial]

Hey, don't beat yourself up! You may have saved this little guy's life afterall. Spiders can live absolutely fine with less legs and when they moult (shed their "skin" to grow) they will grow them back and he'll be good as new If you don't have anything to feed him with, then my best advice would be to let him live in a corner of your room. He'll be able to catch his own food and keep himself very happy.

thank you very much for the kind words. i just can't help thinking if i left it alone, maybe it would have been alright, haha.

i checked on it just now, it seems to have lost another leg while in the case now it only has 3 legs, all on one side. i don't even know what happened. but i can release it in a quiet corner of my house and see how it does? i worry it can't really move around now, but maybe it'll get used to it so long as there's no predators around. my house definitely has plenty of gnats!

 

[HeartBum]

Trust me, they'll be absolutely fine

 

[The Snark]

What is that log in the picture? Hoping it isn't pine.

 

[Biollantefan54]

It’s hard to tell in the photo but it kind of looks like a mature male. If it is, it won’t molt again and will be searching for a female. I would just let it go

 

[TheBigEmail]

What is that log in the picture? Hoping it isn't pine.

Zoomed creature bark most likely. Not pine.