Orb Weaver as 'pet'?

[silverfish]

Hi,
I'm new to this form, but not new to spiders (wild ones that is). I've recently came upon a six spotted orb weaver. It was strangely on my car when I drove home this afternoon (must have hitched a ride?) and since it was supposed to thunderstorm this evening I decided to get some dirt, grass, dead leaves, and some small living leaves and placed it into a long container until the morning. I've really came to adore it, and I was wondering what the possibility is to keeping them as a pet? It seems to me not the best idea, considering it was once wild, but I was just curious myself. I have silverfish right now (a growing amount) so I'm used to dealing with small delicate insects. Just curious
Thanks

 

[Ah Lee]

Hi there! You can keep orbweavers, but just some things to take note:

1. They usually do not thrive/eat/drink without a web.

2. For such tiny spiders, they actually need a pretty large space to build a web. Enclosure should also have enough anchor points and lots of ventilation, so people usually use flexariums.

3. Instead of a flexarium, you can also opt to keep it free-roaming.I keep my golden web in a corner of my room, away from usual activities. Bear in mind though that coaxing your spider to stay where you want it to isn't always easy. A good way to encourage web-building is to have enough anchor points in the area, and help the spider out by coaxing it to lay its web across these points, or gently moving existing lines to these points. If your spider really built it's web somewhere unsuitable, you may have to destroy it and move the spider. But bear in mind that this can be very stressful for the spider. especially those that do not tear down and rebuild their webs often in the wild. Usually I might do it once, and if the spider still builds a web where she shouldn't, I will live with it for a week or so to feed her and let her regain some strength before tearing the web down again. But chances are she will build a web at where you want her to if it is suitable, so also try to figure out why that area isn't suitable. One last strange tip I have is to blow a fan lightly in the direction of the web when the spider is done. Strangely almost all Nephilas i have kept will start strengthening their webs and adding anchor points when there is a breeze. I do not know why, but I suspect that when the web is moving, it helps them better detect weak spots. Also sometimes they let out anchor lines which are carried by wind, so ventilation is of utmost importance when caring for orb weavers.

4. Feeding is the fun part. As long as a web is up, your spider will probably eat. Surprisingly some of them take dead prey, so sometimes I kill their prey before feeding if they are young. Why kill? Because for the really young slings, their webs can be quite weak. I have seen the tiniest mealworm destroy almost 75% of my golden web's web. They rebuild really quickly after prey destroys their web, usually even before feeding on the prey, but I still try to avoid that nevertheless. Also for young slings, crushed insects are a viable option if you can't find prey small enough. They even eat pollen off their webs, so orb weavers are sometimes known to be omnivores. For water, just mist the web around the spider.

This is from my experience in keeping Nephilas, which are large and do not move very often once they have a web (my first one stayed in the same corner till her death), so YMMV when it comes to smaller orbweavers, but having a free-roaming orbweaver you can say hi to every morning is a pretty special experience!

P.S. I attached a photo of my latest Nephila. It's been years since I kept one, and I stumbled upon her on a hiking trip. The reason why I went so long without keeping one is because I try not to remove adults from their habitats, and juveniles are hard to find. I estimate she is less than a month old, and will grow to be a palm-sized monster in a few months. She now lives happily above my PC table, dropping mealworm crumbs all over it, so I've named her Crumbs.