Discover the Delightful World of Jumping Spider Pets: A Comprehensive Care Guide

Introduction

Jumping spiders, with their captivating large eyes and curious nature, are rapidly gaining popularity as unique and fascinating pets. Unlike their often-feared arachnid cousins, jumping spiders are celebrated for their intelligence, vibrant personalities, and relatively simple care requirements. If you’re seeking a pet that’s small in size but big on charm, a jumping spider might be the perfect addition to your life. This comprehensive guide will delve into everything you need to know about keeping jumping spiders as pets, ensuring a healthy and enriching life for your eight-legged companion. We’ll cover essential aspects from setting up their habitat to understanding their behavior, drawing upon years of experience and insights to provide you with the most helpful information.

Why Jumping Spiders Make Amazing Pets

Jumping spiders stand out in the spider world due to their exceptional intelligence and engaging personalities. These aren’t creatures that will simply hide in a corner; they are active, inquisitive, and seemingly aware of their surroundings, including you! Many jumping spider owners report that their pets seem to recognize them, often watching their movements outside the enclosure and even reacting to interaction.

One of the most appealing aspects of jumping spiders as pets is their temperament. They are known to be among the friendliest spider species, and bites are incredibly rare, especially when handled gently. Anecdotal evidence and personal experience suggest that bites are often defensive nips, feeling like a pinprick at most, with minimal to no venom injection. This gentle nature makes them a much less intimidating pet option compared to other arachnids. Each spider boasts a unique personality; some might be naturally bold and outgoing, readily exploring their environment and interacting with you, while others may be more reserved and observant, preferring to watch from a safe spot. This individuality is part of what makes keeping jumping spiders so rewarding.

Finding Your Jumping Spider Pet

One of the unique aspects of starting your Jumping Spider Pet journey is the possibility of finding your new companion right in your own environment. Jumping spiders are widespread and can be found both indoors and outdoors. They are particularly fond of sunny spots as warmth is crucial for their active lifestyle.

Catching a Wild Jumping Spider:

If you decide to find a jumping spider in your local environment, look for them on sunny days, as they thrive in warmth. Ideal locations include:

Sunny Windowsills Indoors: They often bask in the sunlight near windows inside homes.
Outdoor Walls and Fences: Brick walls and fences exposed to the sun are prime hunting grounds.

To safely catch a jumping spider, the cup method is highly recommended:

Prepare a Cup: Use a small, clean cup or container.
Approach Gently: Slowly position the cup in front of the spider.
Coax it In: Gently guide the spider into the cup using your other hand or a soft object like a piece of paper. Avoid sudden movements or grabbing, which can stress or frighten the spider, potentially leading to a defensive bite.
Handling: Always allow the spider to walk into the container or onto your hand rather than forcing or squeezing it. This gentle approach minimizes stress for the spider and significantly reduces the risk of bites.

Important Considerations:

Respect Wildlife: If you choose to catch a wild spider, consider taking a common species from a stable population. Avoid taking spiders from sensitive ecosystems or endangered areas.
Observe and Release (Optional): Catching and observing a jumping spider temporarily before releasing it back to its habitat can also be a rewarding experience, especially for educational purposes.

By understanding their behavior and employing gentle capture techniques, you can safely welcome a jumping spider into your care, whether temporarily for observation or as a long-term pet.

Setting Up the Perfect Home for Your Jumping Spider Pet

Creating the right habitat is crucial for the well-being of your jumping spider pet. While their needs are relatively simple, providing an appropriately sized and stimulating environment will ensure they thrive.

Enclosure Size and Type:

Size Matters: While a small container might seem sufficient, jumping spiders are active creatures that need space to exercise their jumping and hunting skills. A cubic foot or larger enclosure is recommended, especially if your spider will spend most of its time in the habitat. This allows for exploration and prevents muscle weakness and premature death due to lack of exercise.
Ventilation: Adequate ventilation is essential. Ensure the enclosure has small holes or a mesh top to allow for air circulation while preventing escape.
Material: Glass or clear plastic terrariums work well, allowing for good visibility and light penetration.

Substrate and Decor:

Keep it Simple: Elaborate decorations, while aesthetically pleasing, can make it harder to locate your spider and maintain a clean environment.
Napkins or Paper Towels: A slightly crumpled napkin or paper towel on the bottom of the enclosure provides a comfortable and easily maintainable substrate. Spiders readily build their resting sacs within the folds, offering them security and comfort.
Optional Decorations: If desired, you can add small branches or artificial plants, but keep them minimal to avoid making it too difficult to find your spider for feeding or cleaning.

Lighting and Temperature:

Sunlight is Beneficial, but Indirect: Jumping spiders benefit from natural light, but direct sunlight in a glass or plastic enclosure can quickly overheat and harm your spider. Position the enclosure where it receives indirect sunlight or partial shade for about 4-5 hours daily. Ensure there’s also a shaded area within the enclosure, like the folds of a napkin, where the spider can retreat from direct light and heat.
Temperature Range: Jumping spiders are adaptable to typical household temperatures. A range of 68-85 degrees Fahrenheit (20-29 degrees Celsius) is generally suitable. Monitor the temperature within the enclosure, especially during warmer months, to prevent overheating.

By focusing on simplicity and functionality, you can create a comfortable and safe habitat that meets your jumping spider pet’s essential needs, allowing you to easily observe and care for your fascinating pet.

An example of a simple jumping spider enclosure. A clear container with a paper towel substrate and a small branch provides a suitable habitat for these active spiders.

Feeding Your Jumping Spider Pet

Providing the right food is vital for your jumping spider pet’s health and longevity. Understanding their dietary preferences and safe feeding practices will keep your spider well-nourished.

Dietary Needs:

Insectivores: Jumping spiders are insectivores, meaning their primary diet consists of insects.
Frequency: Feed your spider every 2-3 days, although they can survive for about a week without food.
Avoid Hard-Shelled Insects: Beetles and pillbugs are not ideal due to their hard exoskeletons.
Ants are Problematic: Ants can bite and inject formic acid, which is harmful to jumping spiders.
Ideal Food: Flies and small crickets are excellent food choices. Moths also work well and, like flies, pose no risk of biting your spider. Webworms and silverfish have also been reported as accepted food sources by some jumping spiders.

Cricket Size and Safety:

Size Matters: When feeding crickets, choose sizes no larger than 1.5 times the spider’s body length to prevent the cricket from overwhelming or biting the spider.
Individual Preferences: Interestingly, jumping spiders can exhibit individual feeding preferences. Some might prefer cricket legs first, while others go for the head or abdomen. Some may only eat crickets when very hungry, preferring flies when available. Some spiders may even kill flies without eating them, seemingly to eliminate the buzzing annoyance.

Sourcing Food:

Catching Flies: In warmer months, you can catch flies using a fine-mesh butterfly net.
Pet Stores: Small crickets are readily available in most pet stores. Avoid large crickets, which can be too intimidating for jumping spiders.

Feeding Procedure:

Drop and Wait: Simply drop the live insect into the spider’s enclosure.
Observe Hunting: Enjoy watching your jumping spider’s impressive hunting skills as it stalks and pounces on its prey.
Remove Leftovers: After the spider has finished eating, remove any uneaten insect parts or shells to maintain a clean and odor-free enclosure.

By offering a varied diet of appropriate insects and observing your spider’s feeding habits, you can ensure they receive the nutrition they need to thrive as your fascinating pet.

Watering Your Jumping Spider Pet

Proper hydration is essential for your jumping spider pet, but it’s crucial to understand their unique respiratory system to water them safely.

Understanding Book Lungs:

Breathing Mechanism: Spiders breathe through book lungs located in their abdomen, not through their head. These structures are delicate and function like pages in a book for gas exchange.
Water and Suffocation Risk: Water droplets on the abdomen can interfere with the book lungs, potentially leading to suffocation. Therefore, direct spraying or puddles of water should be avoided.

Safe Watering Methods:

Misting (Lightly): Use a misting bottle to lightly spray a fine mist of water onto the side of the enclosure every few days. One or two small squirts are usually sufficient.
Droplets: Alternatively, drip a few small drops of water onto the side of the enclosure. The spider will drink from these droplets as needed.

Important Precautions:

Avoid Puddles: Never create puddles of water in the enclosure, as jumping spiders can drown in even small amounts of standing water.
Observe Drinking: You might observe your spider approaching and drinking from the water droplets, ensuring they are staying hydrated.

By using these careful watering methods, you can provide your jumping spider pet with the necessary hydration without risking their health, keeping them thriving and healthy in their habitat.

Cohabitation and Breeding Jumping Spiders (Advanced Considerations)

Generally, jumping spiders are solitary creatures, and cohabitating them, especially in a pet setting, requires careful consideration and is often discouraged.

Separate Housing is Key:

Avoid Fighting: Housing multiple jumping spiders together, whether male or female, will likely lead to aggression and fighting, potentially to the death. They are territorial and do not naturally live communally.

Breeding (Advanced Level):

Male-Female Introduction: If you are interested in breeding jumping spiders, it requires careful management and is best attempted by experienced keepers. Introduce a male and female into a shared enclosure, ensuring ample food is available to minimize aggression.
Risk of Female Aggression: Even with precautions, female jumping spiders may sometimes attack and kill the male, even before or after mating.
Short Introduction Period: For safety, it’s recommended to only keep males and females together for a brief period (a few days or less) to allow for mating, then separate them.
Sperm Storage: Female jumping spiders can store sperm for up to a year. A female you catch in the wild may already be mated and could lay eggs later even without further mating. This can be a reason why a female might reject and attack a male introduced later. Observing a newly captured female for several months to see if she produces an egg sac can provide insights into her reproductive status.

Egg Sacs and Babies (Further Sections): The subsequent sections will delve into care for egg sacs and baby spiders if breeding is successful or if a female lays eggs after being captured already mated.

For most pet owners, keeping jumping spiders individually is the simplest and safest approach. Breeding is a more complex undertaking that requires careful planning and understanding of jumping spider behavior.

Understanding Your Jumping Spider Pet’s Life Cycle and Aging

Observing your jumping spider pet as it grows and ages is a fascinating part of the experience. From changes in appearance to signs of aging, understanding their life cycle helps you provide appropriate care throughout their life.

Shedding and Growth:

Molting Process: As jumping spiders grow, they shed their exoskeletons in a process called molting.
Color Changes: If your spider has orange markings or hairs as a juvenile, these may turn white with subsequent molts.
Sexual Dimorphism in Males: Male jumping spiders often develop longer and hairier front legs as they mature, a characteristic that becomes more pronounced with each molt.
Number of Molts: Jumping spiders typically molt about 5-6 times from spiderling to adulthood.

Signs of Aging:

Worn Hairs on Feet: The tiny hairs on their feet (setae), essential for gripping surfaces, do not regenerate after the final molt. As these wear down, you’ll notice your spider has difficulty climbing smooth surfaces like the enclosure walls.
Reduced Mobility: Older spiders may become less active, jump less frequently, and move more cautiously. This is natural as their gripping ability diminishes.

Caring for Aging Spiders:

Modify Habitat: To accommodate an aging spider, provide easier access to food and water. Line the enclosure floor and even some sides with soft materials like napkins to cushion falls and provide better grip.
Soft Food: Switch to softer-bodied insects like flies or pre-killed crickets. Avoid offering live crickets, which could bite a weakened spider. Dead crickets placed near the spider’s resting sac are readily accepted.
Limited Lifespan: Jumping spiders have relatively short lifespans, typically around one to two years. Providing a comfortable and supportive environment in their old age ensures their final months are as pleasant as possible.

Observing these life cycle changes and adapting your care accordingly will help you provide the best possible environment for your jumping spider pet throughout its fascinating life.

A juvenile jumping spider displaying orange markings before a molt.

The same spider after a subsequent molt, showing the transformation of orange markings to white and the development of white tufts on the front legs, indicative of maturity.

Caring for Jumping Spider Egg Sacs (If Applicable)

If you are fortunate enough to have a female jumping spider that lays an egg sac, understanding how to care for it can be a rewarding, though hands-off, experience.

Egg Sac Appearance and Location:

Silken Sac: A fertilized female will create a large, silken resting sac, often more substantial than their usual sleeping sacs, in which she will lay her eggs.
Hidden Location: In a natural setting, these sacs are usually well-hidden in corners or crevices for protection. In a pet enclosure, they might be similarly placed.

Incubation and Humidity:

Maintain Humidity: It’s important to prevent the egg sac from drying out. Lightly mist the outside of the sac with water from a spray bottle about once a week. Avoid spraying directly at the entrance holes of the sac.
Monitor for Hatching: Keep an eye on the sac for signs of baby spiders emerging. This usually takes 2-4 weeks. Avoid misting during this period as it could drown emerging spiderlings.
Pre-Emergence Molt: Remarkably, baby spiders will molt once inside the egg sac before they begin to emerge.

Allow Natural Emergence:

Patience is Key: Allow the baby spiders to exit the sac on their own. This process can take up to a month for all spiderlings to emerge.
Avoid Handling: Do not attempt to physically remove the babies from the sac as they are extremely delicate and easily crushed.

Maternal Care (Natural Instincts):

Leave Female with Sac: It’s generally recommended to leave the female spider in the enclosure with the egg sac. In nature, the mother stays with the sac, and there may be unknown benefits to her presence, possibly involving pheromonal communication with the developing spiderlings.
Provide Food and Water: Continue to offer food (small crickets or flies) and water to the mother spider, even though she may not eat much during this period. Some females eat regularly, while others may fast for the entire incubation period, but they typically continue to drink water.
Potential for Multiple Sacs: A female jumping spider can lay multiple egg sacs, sometimes in quick succession, even without re-mating, due to their ability to store sperm.

By providing a stable environment and respecting the natural process, you can observe the fascinating development of jumping spiderlings from egg sac to emergence.

A jumping spider egg sac, showing the eggs within. In natural settings, these sacs are typically more concealed for protection.

What to Do with Unfertilized Egg Sacs (Informational)

It’s important to be aware that not every egg sac will result in baby spiders. Female jumping spiders can lay unfertilized eggs, especially if kept without a male for a long time.

Unfertilized Egg Laying:

Natural Process: Female jumping spiders may lay unfertilized eggs as a natural biological process, possibly to prevent health issues associated with retaining eggs indefinitely. In other spider species, egg retention can be fatal.
Appearance: Initially, unfertilized eggs may look similar to fertilized eggs.
Drying Up: Over time, unfertilized eggs will dry up and fail to develop.
Egg Consumption: In some cases, the female spider may consume the unfertilized eggs after a few weeks.

Distinguishing from Fertilized Sacs:

No Development: The key difference is that unfertilized eggs will not show signs of development, and no baby spiders will emerge.
Observation Period: If you are unsure, observe the egg sac for the typical 2-4 week incubation period. If no spiderlings appear, it is likely an unfertilized sac.

No Intervention Needed:

Natural Outcome: Unfertilized egg sacs are a natural occurrence and do not require any special intervention. The female spider will typically handle the sac and eggs naturally.

Understanding the possibility of unfertilized egg sacs is part of responsible jumping spider pet ownership and helps manage expectations regarding breeding.

Raising Baby Jumping Spiders (Advanced Care)

Raising baby jumping spiders, or spiderlings, is a challenging but rewarding endeavor, typically for those with a strong interest in arachnids and the resources to manage potentially hundreds of tiny spiders.

Challenges of Raising Spiderlings:

Cannibalism: Baby jumping spiders are highly cannibalistic and will prey on each other if not separated, especially when hungry.
Tiny Size: They are incredibly small and delicate, making handling difficult.
Specialized Food: They require very small live food, presenting a feeding challenge.

Releasing Spiderlings (Recommended for Most):

Humane Option: For most hobbyists, releasing spiderlings in a suitable outdoor environment is the most practical and humane approach, especially if a large number hatch.
Mild Weather Release: Release them during mild weather, ideally in the early morning or evening to avoid temperature extremes.
Sheltered Location: Choose a release location that offers shelter from direct sun and rain, such as a porch or shaded garden area. Avoid sunny locations as spiderlings are highly susceptible to desiccation.
Group Release: You can collect spiderlings in a cup and place the cup in the release location, allowing them to disperse naturally.

Raising Spiderlings (If Attempting):

Immediate Feeding: Spiderlings are hungry upon emerging from the egg sac and need food immediately to prevent cannibalism.
Flightless Fruit Flies: The primary food source for baby jumping spiders is flightless fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster). These can be purchased from pet stores specializing in reptile or amphibian food, or online from insect breeders like The Fruit Fly Company. Drosophila hydei (another flightless fruit fly species) is larger and suitable for slightly older spiderlings.
Culturing Fruit Flies (Optional): For a continuous supply, you can culture your own flightless fruit flies. Carolina Biological Supply Company and similar suppliers offer kits and instructions for culturing Drosophila.
Feeding Technique: Introduce a small number of fruit flies into a container with a few spiderlings. Observe to ensure they are eating. Separate spiderlings that have fed.
Individual Housing: As spiderlings grow, they must be separated into individual containers to prevent cannibalism and ensure adequate food and space. Small deli cups or similar containers work well.

Handling Spiderlings:

Air Blowing Method: The safest way to move spiderlings is by gently blowing air to guide them into a container. Direct physical handling is almost certain to cause injury due to their fragility.

Raising baby jumping spiders is a significant commitment. For most, releasing them responsibly is the most practical and ethical choice. However, for dedicated enthusiasts, carefully raising a few spiderlings can be a fascinating experience.

Baby jumping spiders temporarily housed in small containers. Flightless fruit flies, visible in the containers, are essential food for this stage of life.

Conclusion

Keeping jumping spiders as pets is a rewarding experience for those who appreciate the unique charm of these miniature arachnids. Their intelligence, engaging personalities, and relatively simple care needs make them fascinating companions. By providing a suitable habitat, proper diet, and gentle care, you can ensure your jumping spider pet thrives and brings you years of enjoyment. Whether you are captivated by their hunting prowess, their curious gaze, or simply their unique place in the animal kingdom, jumping spiders offer a delightful glimpse into a world often overlooked. Embrace the opportunity to learn from and interact with these incredible creatures – you might just find yourself as captivated by jumping spiders as so many others have become.