Please help. I know nothing about my cat faced spider (Araneus gemmoides)

[Holliday598]

Hi I am new my name is Heather my passion is my Cat faced spider (Araneus gemmoides). I have a few questions and I am not sure where to post this. I have had this spider since she was a baby in the spring of this year (2013) we noticed her beautiful web in the window of our garage door. She has not moved all year and has been getting very big. We have been feeding her every week all summer and have grown very attached. I thought she died when it started getting cooler outside. I took her little body down from her web thinking she was dead and after bringing her into my warm house she moved a little. I put her in a jar with a damp paper towel and she has been drinking water and resting. We were so excited she hadn't died. Now it's snowing outside and I'm not sure what to do. I ve been reading online that orb weaver spiders are hard to keep as pets because they need tonz of space to build their web. Im considering buying her a ten gallon tank so she has room but not sure if it will work. Does anyone have any info at all on keeping this kind of spider indoors? How long they live etc...Any information at all would be so appreciated. Thank you!


Heather

 

[Smokehound714]

I would personally allow her to build a web near an open window, in a corner of the house. (But then again, i dont live with people that freak out over these spiders)

 

[The Snark]

How much space they need depends on the size of the spider. I've got 3 itty bitty's presently living comfortably within the 17 inch steering wheel of my jeep. One the size of my little fingertip has a comfy 8 inch web among the carport junk, one slightly larger has a 12 inch orb on 6 foot guy lines off the telephone line and a similar sized one has an 18 inch web off the corner of the house connecting to a papaya tree 5 feet away. Their need appears to be the size of the orb itself and the guy lines are extraneous and if too long can even be a detriment..

PS Over the years I have noticed they appear to be more content and stay around longer when they have sturdy stable frameworks to work with as Smokehound714 mentioned. The more effort they have to put into rebuilding their webs the shorter their life span is my guess.