trapdoor spiders, would they be hard to keep?

[squidkid]

idk, i found some near my house. does anyone keep those as pets? if so how would one go about catching them. are they hard to care for?

 

[squidkid]

FYI, i live in southern California San Diego area

 

[chanda]

Catching them without hurting them can be difficult because they spend the majority of their time in their burrows and are very quick to retreat to their burrows when threatened. The burrows can be fairly deep and are usually angled, so digging one out can take a fair amount of work - and you run the risk of killing or injuring the spider in the process.

If you want to keep one as a pet, it will need a fairly large container with a deep layer of packed dirt for it to burrow into. Unfortunately, that also means that you will almost never see it. You might just as well have a jar full of dirt. But if you keep it without the dirt to burrow in so you can see it, it will be stressed out, may refuse to eat, and will most likely die shortly.

I do have a pet trapdoor spider (it was flooded out of its burrow during the heavy rains we had this spring) - but I have not seen it since it made its burrow and trapdoor. I'm sure it's still alive because the feeder crickets I give it keep disappearing, but I have never seen it take one. They are so sensitive to movement and vibration that it knows when I'm in the room and when I open the cage to drop in a cricket - and waits until after I've gone.

 

[squidkid]

k, thanks. good to know!

 

[RezonantVoid]

Yes, they are cool pets.
No, not hard to keep.
20cm of damp sub, compacted down. A few twigs and bits of moss and leaf on top for them to arrange around the lid and they will be fine