How to care for Cheiracanthium mildei ?

[KristianDobias]

Hello fellow hobbyists, it's been some time since I posted here but I could use your help

So a day ago my aunt gifted me a spider she found in her house (she knows I keep spiders and decided not to kill the poor things so she caught it and gave it to me), Iam pretty sure it's Cheiracanthium mildei as there are no other similary looking spiders in Slovakia and C. inclusum doesn't occur in Europe

C. mildei was a species I wanted to get for a while as it's really fascinating and adorable little spider so Iam glad to have it, but unfortunately there aren't many informations on care for this species

I gave it a small enclousure in which I keep all of other ground dwelling spoods (it's a box in which you buy feeder insects, and after the feeders are gone the boxes make good enclousers for small ground-dwelling spiders and Lythobiomorph centipedes as they have both enough space for these small species and amazing ventilation), substrate (dirt), piece of cartoon to climb on and hide under as I heard these spiders are more comfortable on vertical surfaces than on ground (it's not scientific tho), some rocks as I read on Natura Bohemica that natural habitat of Cheiracanthium mildei are rocky steppes and rocky slopes, I think I will be dewing the enclousure 3 times a week as I read on Czech arachnological society that these spoods were mostly found im semi-humid environments, but despite all the knowledge I have about these spiders Iam still not at all sure about their care

What do you think am I doing it right or would you change some things on the care ?

Is anyone here who has experience with keeping Cheiracanthium mildei and could give me some suggestions ?

Also what would be the best feeders for this species ?, I gave it flightless Drosophila hydei today and it didn't seemed interested so far

And if you can identify it is my specimen adult or a juvenile ?

Poor thing is missing one leg but that shouldn't matter much for a spider

First 4 pictures are photos of my specimen of Cheiracanthium mildei and the other 6 pictures are pictures of it's enclousure

 

[Godsmack1934]

I'd say that's a decent enough enclosure for the given spider, I don't have much experience with this specific species, but I have kept Loxosceles Reclusa before and I believe they are pretty similar spiders. As for the missing leg, most spiders can actually grow missing legs back over time through molts!

I hope I was able to help at least a bit!

 

[KristianDobias]

I'd say that's a decent enough enclosure for the given spider, I don't have much experience with this specific species, but I have kept Loxosceles Reclusa before and I believe they are pretty similar spiders. As for the missing leg, most spiders can actually grow missing legs back over time through molts!

I hope I was able to help at least a bit!

Thank Youuuu Very Much ^ ^

WOW I would really wanna keep some species from the genus Loxosceles, they are fascinating spoods , but no species occurs here in central Europe and I need to be atleast 18 years old and probably have a permit aswell to keep them but I hope to get one in the future (maybe L. simillima or L. rufescens as the latter occurs in the Mediterenian I could maybe just go and catch it myself there but I gotta check the legislative about transporing medicaly singnificant animals through EU borders )

I guess you're right, they both are active ground hunters atleast but Cheiracanthium mildei needs some vertical surfaces to make a sack on them (they are also more comfortable on them from what I heard), which here haves and it also needs more moisture (semi-humid, unlike L. reclusa which likes it dry) from what I read but I would want to get clarification on that as Iam not really sure about it

Yes I know Thank You, so if it's a not an adult it's gonna, atleast somehow re-grow the missing leg

I also handled this cutie as it escapes almost every time when I open it's enclousure (getting the spider on hand and then letting it drop from my hand (it uses the "safety line" to get down so it's not gonna hurt itself don't worry ) is the best way to get it back to it's enclousure) and despite their bad reputation, the spood showed no signs of defense

It also ate flightless Drosophila hydei which I gave her on Sunday

Iam surprised that almost nobody keeps these spoods, they are not just beautiful but also fascinating and adorable :33

Here is my little beautie killing an Acheta domesticus nymph I gave her today :3

 

[goofyGoober99]

I had a Cheiracanthium inclusum for a while and he was pretty fun. I don't know if care between the mildei and inclusum is too different. He would eat fruit flies, pinhead crickets, chopped up mealworms, tbh he probably would have eaten whatever I gave him lol. Pretty simple care. I would spritz a wall with some water every now and then and dampen some of the substrate. I think I had a couple pieces of cork bark and a little fake plant in the enclosure or smth I can't quite remember.
Very fun little guys to keep. Pretty speedy too.
I doubt anyone is selling them but I've definitely seen a couple other people on here keeping wc Cheiracanthium sp.

 

[CRX]

Be careful about being bitten, these guys will bite for no reason at all lol and it hurts

 

[KristianDobias]

I had a Cheiracanthium inclusum for a while and he was pretty fun. I don't know if care between the mildei and inclusum is too different. He would eat fruit flies, pinhead crickets, chopped up mealworms, tbh he probably would have eaten whatever I gave him lol. Pretty simple care. I would spritz a wall with some water every now and then and dampen some of the substrate. I think I had a couple pieces of cork bark and a little fake plant in the enclosure or smth I can't quite remember.
Very fun little guys to keep. Pretty speedy too.
I doubt anyone is selling them but I've definitely seen a couple other people on here keeping wc Cheiracanthium sp.

Thank Youuuu Very Much ^ ^
Fascinating, I think I saw and read your post,

I also don't think care for Cheiracanthium mildei and Cheiracanthium inclusum should be too different as they are pretty similar and closely related species but Iam not very knowlegable on the latter so Iam not really sure

Thanks again for sharing your experience, I feed him/her flightless Drosophilas aswell but I think it's better to give these spoods bigger food so you don't have to feed them too often (for example pinhead crickets, unfortunately my Acheta domesticus got Cricket paralysis virus (I will probably have to euthanize all of them and buy new ones, maybe Gryllus assimilis as I failed to isolate just healtlhy specimens of A. domesticus, if any of them were healtlhy at that time yet) and even tho it shouldn't be able to infect arachnids I don't want to risk it so I bought fly larvae as feeders for my spiders and centipedes, hopefully it will be able to take them down but Iam afraid they would be too big, tho there is only one way to find out, hopefully it will be able to do so), I also dew the enclosure regulary 3 times a week (every Monday, Wenseday and Saturday) due to the reasons I mentioned above

My specimen is also (probably) molting at the time Iam writting this message so I wish him/her good luck

You mentioned your individual ate choped up mealworms, does that mean that they take pre-kills aswell ?

I also would wanna ask does my enclosure look good for this species ?

And is my care good overall or would you change something on it ?

You also mentioned other people keeping Cheiracanthium sp. here, can you please tell me who they are if you can, I would really wanna talk with other hobbyists who enjoy to keep spiders from this fascinating genus ?

(Yes my cutie C. mildei is also on my PFP, this species is also one of the most adorable spood species in my opinion >w<)

 

[Ratmosphere]

Enclosure looks fine. They may take pre-killed, try it out a few days after the molt.

 

[KristianDobias]

Be careful about being bitten, these guys will bite for no reason at all lol and it hurts

Thanks for the warning ^ ^

But honestly Iam really surprised at how chill my specimen is, it never shown any sign of defense, it tried to escaped many times when I opened it's enclosure and I found out that the best way to put the spider back to it's enclosure is to let it crawl on my hand and fall back into it's enclosure (don't worry it uses safety line so it won't get hurt , I also always wait for the spood to "choose" to fall into it's enclosure, I never force it or throw it, that would be terrible), I did this atleast 2 or 3 times and the spider never shown any sign of defensive behaviour, by which I was surprised as Cheiracanthium mildei has a reputation that it is a very defensive species that rather choosed "fight" then "flight", so my specimen has whether very chill temperament or it has to do something with the fact that it wasn't mature at that time (or people are a bit exagerrating how defensive these spiders really are) , we will see

But the truth is he/she is pretty aggressive, he/she took down Acheta domesticus nymph right before my eyes, just a few seconds after I dropped it to the enclosure and it killed it right before my eyes, tho the fact is these spiders probably have a very poor vision so it's very likely that it didn't even saw me, that being said this species relly'es on other senses such as smell and vibrations and probably more (maybe it smelled me with it's front legs but the smell of the cricket was stronger, since it was also closer so it triggered his/her insticts)

But there is another thing to look out for, if anyone is using the same (or maybe similar) box for an enclousure like I use (the "box" in which you buy locusts, crickets, mealworms etc.) I warn you to always properly close the enclosure and never let the lid to be loose as if you do so it is very similar to letting the enclosure open, the spider will be able to escape as it can (or atleast juvenile specimens can) squeze to the place between the lid and the walls of the enclousure and then it can squeze again to escape

Beside that it is pretty fascinating, beautiful and adorable little spider that is both cute and entertaining to observe, I really love this species and I wish more people would keep it

 

[KristianDobias]

Enclosure looks fine. They may take pre-killed, try it out a few days after the molt.

Thank Youuuu Very Much ^ ^, I really hope does

I will definitely do so ^ ^ (one of my Gnaphosids took pre-killed cricket nymph few days after molting, but I had to move with it a bit in it's web to trigger the attack (but who knows, maybe it would take it even without me moving with it, if it stumbled upon it in it's web), Cheiracanthium mildei doesn't make webs but it can maybe take pre-kill that isn't moving as this species seems to rely more on "tasting the air" (smell) than on vibrations but Iam not 100% sure on that)

I will inform everyone here how will the spood react to the pre-killed prey once I try it

 

[goofyGoober99]

You mentioned your individual ate choped up mealworms, does th

Mealworms will keep wiggling for awhile post chop so idk about prekilled prey that isn't moving.
Sorry to hear about your crickets! That sucks.

This video has a lot of cool information about Cheiracanthium mildei:

It's been linked on here a couple times (this guy's channel is great in general) but it's a great source of information on these guys.

Enclosure looks fine but the egg crate will probably start to mold after a bit so switching it out for some cork bark would make things easier. I'd also add some ventilation on the sides and top. Make sure the holes are small though as these guys are little escape artists