Ready to get a Spooder?
Have you heard about the Spooder craze? No that’s not a typo. A spooder is a spider - usually a jumping spider - that people keep as pets.
Jumping spiders are little darlings on TikTok, where their attentive behavior and big eyes have endeared them to many fans. And some people have turned the little eight-legged predators into beloved pets.
The hashtags #jumpingspider and #spidertok have more than 1.5 billion views combined. Millions of users, most of them relative newcomers to the wonderful world of spiders, have fawned over clips of jumping spiders dancing around their reflections in a mirror or peering up at their owners, appearing to ask for a lift.
There are many different species of spiders that can be kept as pets. Some of the most popular choices include tarantulas, jumping spiders, wolf spiders, and orb-weaver spiders. Many spiders are shy to people like the Joro spider.
Jumping spiders are a fascinating and diverse group of spiders known for their excellent eyesight, agility, and often colorful appearance. They belong to the family Salticidae, which is one of the largest spider families, comprising over 6,000 species.
Jumping spiders are rarely, if ever, dangerous to humans. They’re typically harmless and generally run away rather than confront you. The old saying still goes here: they’re way more afraid of you than you are of them.
Whats Special About Jumping Spiders
Jumping spiders can be found all over the world, and range in size from just 1 mm in length to 23 mm (almost an inch).
Jumping spiders can leap up to six times their body length and possessing some of the keenest vision in the animal kingdom.
Most of them are active hunters, with several species being able to bring down species much larger than themselves like moths and crickets. In other words, they don’t really use webs that much — in fact, most species of jumping spiders don’t even build webs to catch prey, they simply use them for reproductive activities.
Big Puppy Dog Eyes
Their enlarged pair of eyes offer them very good vision, which is rather unusual among spiders. Jumping spiders generally have tetrachromatic color vision, which means they see four primary colors (unlike humans, for instance, which see three primary colors).
Humans are hardwired to like big eyes, so we instinctively consider things like jumping spiders, whose eyes stand out, to be cute. However, this conflicts with our instinct to dislike spiders.
Their eyes are too close together to enable proper depth perception, and jumping spiders don’t make use of motion parallax (the mechanism through which animals like owls perceive depth). So instead, the spiders have developed a method called image defocus. They defocus parts of their sight, and based on how defocused they are, they calculate the distance and depth. Some researchers found out that they follow laser pointers just like cats - how cute.
Vivid Colors
Jumping spiders are also known for their striking and often vivid colors, which can vary greatly between species. These colors are often used for courtship displays and communication between individuals, and some species even have iridescent scales that can change color depending on the angle of light.
Another unique feature of jumping spiders is their courtship behaviors. Male jumping spiders will often perform elaborate dance routines to attract a mate, waving their front legs and displaying their brightly colored bodies in a showy display. They will also engage in tactile communication, using their legs to tap out a specific pattern on the ground to signal their intentions to potential mates.
Some spiders have ‘milk’ and it’s very nutritious. Uniquely among spiders, jumping spiders care for their brood for a long time, until they become sexually mature.
They also sleep like us - in 2022, a study looked at their leg twitches, which are remarkably similar to the twitches of humans. According to the findings, these eight-legged critters do indeed enter a “REM sleep-like state” at night.
They also have ‘spidey senses’. Although they don’t have ears, they can hear you talking across the room by tracing vibrations.
How do they jump
Most species tend to have larger, muscular front legs that help with grasping and holding the prey. Remarkably, it’s their smaller hind legs that help with jumping. Some species can jump a whopping 30 times their body length — that’s the rough equivalent of a human jumping 50 meters (or 168 feet). However, most species “only” jump around 3-4 times their body length.
So if it’s not muscles, how do jumping spiders leap so much? Turns out, they do it by shifting their blood pressure and contracting their small muscles very intensely. They create a surge of blood flow to the lext which forces them to extend rapidly, snapping in a big leap.
Researchers also trained jumping spiders to jump on demand, showing that in addition to their remarkable physical abilities; some species of jumping spiders also exhibit a remarkable ability to plan and solve problems, hinting that they may also be more brainy than you think — despite technically not having a brain.
The Face of Spooders
With new species like “Sparklemuffin” and “Skeletorus” being discovered every year, the jumping spider family is becoming more and more numerous.
The Peacock Jumping Spider
One of the most stunning species of jumping spiders is the peacock jumping spider (Maratus volans), which is found in Australia. The male of this species is known for its vibrant colors and intricate mating display, which involves lifting its legs and fanning out a colorful flap on its abdomen. This display is thought to attract females and made the peacock jumping spider a popular subject of study among biologists and arachnologists.
One of the most stunning species of jumping spiders is the peacock jumping spider (Maratus volans), which is found in Australia. The male of this species is known for its vibrant colors and intricate mating display, which involves lifting its legs and fanning out a colorful flap on its abdomen. This display is thought to attract females and made the peacock jumping spider a popular subject of study among biologists and arachnologists.
The Bold Jumping Spider
The daring jumping spider or bold jumping spider (Phidippus audax) is another species that is known for its impressive jumping ability. These spiders are found throughout North and Central America, and are known for their bold and curious nature.
They are often seen exploring their surroundings and hunting for prey, and have been known to take on much larger insects such as grasshoppers and beetles.
The Regal Jumping Spider
The Regal Jumping Spider, is the largest species of jumping spiders in North America, and there are over 5,000 species. They are also the largest species of jumping spiders in the world. Slightly larger than a quarter, the fuzzy creature has eyeballs, he says, that are quite accurate.
The Tan Jumping Spider
The tan jumping spider (Platycryptus undatus) is a common species found throughout much of the United States. These spiders are known for their distinctive markings, which include a tan body with dark stripes and a lot of “fur”. Tan jumping spiders are so fluffy they almost seem mammal-like in nature.
Portia Jumping Spider
Portia jumping spiders are some of the most intelligent spiders and exhibit a striking ability to plan hunts and solve problems. All Portia jumping spiders have some instinctive hunting tactics, but they can improvise by trial and error against unfamiliar prey or in unfamiliar situations, and then remember the new approach.
They’ve even shown an inclination to try new things simply for the sake of trying, which again is a remarkably advanced behavior. Still, despite their apparently advanced behavioral patterns and intellectual adaptability, they are slow thinkers, presumably due to their low biological processing power.
Can You Keep a Jumping Spider as a Pet?
Jumping spiders are becoming increasingly popular as pets, thanks to their unique personalities and fascinating behaviors. However, keeping a jumping spider as a pet requires some specialized knowledge and equipment, and it’s not the easiest thing in the world.
First of all, requirements can vary from species to species. Their personalities also vary, both from species to species and from individual to individual. Be sure to talk to a specialist to ensure the spider has all its needs and always handle it with care.
Is it Ethical to Keep Spiders?
Like with any pet that is not a cat or dog (since they were bred for domestication), we need to consider the environmental impact. Parrots and their type are one example where our desire to keep exotic pets led to decimation of species in the wild. Now invertebrates breed at greater rates, but there are still ways to be an ethical spider owner.
Collectors are now trading more than 1,200 species of arachnids (the group that includes both spiders and scorpions), according to a 2022 report in the journal Communications Biology, with 80 percent of them unmonitored and vulnerable to extinction.
The researchers found that from 2000 to 2021, 77 percent of one species known as the emperor scorpion were collected from the wild, with 1 million imported into the US. More than half of the existing species of tarantulas are being traded, including 600,000 Grammostola tarantulas, a group that includes the Chilean rose tarantula, which is commonly found in pet stores. The study estimates that two-thirds of spiders and scorpions that are traded commercially were collected from the wild, rather than captive-bred.
Avoid dealers who can’t identify the source of their arachnids, and to research dealers on chat groups such as Arachnoboards.
Where do I get a Spider?
Some people will buy a pet jumping spider from breeders, but they can also be caught wild, which means they're captured and made into pets. Jumping spiders are one of the few creatures that do extremely well being wild caught.
How to care for your first spiderling
Simple enclosure will be a plastic cup turned upside down (by keeping lid on the bottom of enclosure you will allow yourself to open it when needed without breaking spider web). Keep in mind the spider will very likely create its web sack on highest spot in the enclosure. Another good option is to use plastic smoothie cup with domed lid, just cover hole on the top of the lid with mesh. Enclosure is a very important aspect of jumping spider care.
Proper cross-ventilation can be achieved by poking small holes on perimeter of enclosure or cut out holes on opposite sides of enclosure and cover them with fine mesh.
Decorate enclosure with couple fake leaves glued to side of tub, remember to keep it simple so you are able to find spider when needed. Jumping spiders don’t require hiding place as much as most arachnids and will often make their web-sacks in the middle of open space.
Humidity/water can be achieved by light mist on the side of enclosure. You want to have small water drops to remain on enclosure walls for spider to drink from. Please make sure drops are not larger than about quarter of the size of your first jumping spider. Surface tension of water can be deadly for spiderlings. If your ventilation is correct, water drops will remain on side of enclosure for rest of the day, but evaporate next day.
Feeding your Jumping spider is one of the best parts of keeping one!
Offer food to a spider every couple of days. Do not feed if spider closed itself in thick web sack as it is most likely getting ready to moult. Chances are you will have to start with fruit flies (for spider size up to L6), but make sure to switch to a larger prey once spider is large enough. Good rule of thumb is – if spider attempting to catch second fly while first is still in the mouth, it is time to offer something bigger.
At some point of a spider development it will stop seeing fruit flies as food source and will not attempt feeding on them even if it will staving, so make sure you switch to bigger prey as soon as possible. Appropriate size of prey for Phidippus regius jumping spider will be ¾ to 1.5 of the size of a spider. Just keep an eye on it if offering something large. See more about different prey items in Care sheet.
Correct lighting is one of the most important aspects of jumping spider care. They love it BRIGHT. It is very important to provide plenty of light during the day for your spider. Without correct lighting spider will go off food. Therefore it will spend most of the time in its sack waiting for conditions to change for better. I recommend setting up LED light just over spider enclosure with 12h on/off schedule. However you can just set enclosure in bright part of the room.
Common mistakes
Too high humidity – Phidippus spiders like it dry, but need access to drinking water
Prey left inside enclosure. NEVER (unless you have A LOT of experience with Jumping spiders) leave any live prey inside spider enclosure. While there are few insects harmless to a spider, there is still a chance spider will be stressed enough to go through a bad moult due to buzzing flies, crickets and roaches left in enclosure.
Setting enclosure on heat mat or by the window. Try not to overheat jumping spider, heat mats do not provide steady temperatures, even with thermostat and bright sunlight can easily raise temperature of enclosure to over 40C. Jumping spiders prefer temperatures between 26C and 32C, but can do well in 21C-25C. It is better therefore to keep it low than risk overheating.
Checking on a spider while it is in premoult. It can be stressful if your spider is hiding in web sack for week or two, but please be patient. Do not try to poke it to see if it is alive. Just get more Jumping spiders if you want to maximise your odds to have at least one available to play at a time
What to feed your Jumping spider
Jumping spiders are agile hunters and will be readily feeding on following feeder insects: Crickets, flies, roaches, meal worms, wax worms, moths etc. You will find a few good tips on what to feed your Jumping Spider below.
Jumping spiders have superior vision compared to most other spiders and combined with advance hunting tactics and intelligence hunters. In fact, Pridippus johnsoni also known as “Nefertiti” was sent to International space station in 2012 where it learned to catch flies in zero gravity and even came back to earth after that.
Flies make an excellent feeder for a jumping spider that will provide the necessary nutrients and enrichment to a spider. These creatures are readily available in pet stores, online and fly larvae can be cheaply bought in most angler stores.
Feeder insect that is available in most pet shops which you can easily purchase online will, of course, be crickets. You can get them at any size, starting with micro crickets which will be perfect for spiderlings and up to sub-adults when they best used for adult Phidippus.
Jumping spiders will actively react on offered cricket if hungry. However, if there is no reaction from a spider within a few minutes, you will need to take the cricket out of enclosure as it can be dangerous for moulting, old or just not hungry spiders. Sometimes when the cricket is left in the enclosure it can try biting the spider and can even kill it.
Same applies on locusts.
Mealworms are cheap and easy feeders you can easily keep alive for long or even sustainably breed. Their babies make a great snack for juvie Jumping spider and adult Jumping spiders generally can overpower adult mealworm. You can breed them in plastic tubs or drawers.
If you are using the enclosure with smooth walls (mealworms can’t climb smooth surfaces), couple mealworms can be dropped into an enclosure for a spider to eat as it pleases. However, offer them in moderation, they are high in fat and do not provide the best nutritional value on a long run but make an excellent addition to a varied diet.
Mealworms have strong jaws and can hurt jumping spider if are too large for a spider to cope with. Also, if mealworms stay in enclose for too long, they will mature into beetles and believe me, no one wants that in spider enclosure.
Handling your Jumping spider
How to handle your spider for the first time?
If it is your first experience in handling a jumping spider, best advise is – TAKE IT SLOW! There are no prizes to be won when it comes to bonding with your spider. Let’s go through preparation steps:
Make sure your jumping spider is not in premoult – while the spider is getting ready for moulting it can be dangerous to disturb it. Excessive stress can cause difficult moult. Spider getting ready to moult will most likely spend days in its sack. If your spider is out and about it is a good time to take it out.
Clear up an area around enclosure or take whole enclosure to clean desk.
Have “catching cup” ready – normal clear plastic up should do the job. You will need it to be able to catch the spider in the event something goes wrong.
Gently guide your spider out from enclosure using a paintbrush or plastic straw.
Once the spider is out, close the door of an enclosure and let spider familiarize itself with surroundings. Don’t rush it to walk on your hand straight away, rather spend some time on observing how the spider moves.
Jumping spiders will most likely want to take a position on highest place possible. So if you have an enclosure on top of the otherwise empty table it likely spider will prefer staying on top of it. In addition, you can provide another climbing surfaces, plastic bottles work well and if you place them in a row spider will likely jump from one to another while exploring.
Once your spider stops hiding and trying to get away it will begin exploring surroundings. It will walk slowly without sudden movements. Will stop to wave front legs to feel the air around. At some point, it will probably find a comfortable spot and start cleaning itself like a good eight-legged cat should.
There are two ways you can approach handling. Guiding spider to your hand with brush/straw or tricking spider it into jumping on your hand. Both of the ways will likely to work well when executed with patience.
To guide the spider to your hand you need to place your palm in front of spider, keep an eye on its reactions and gently poke spider abdomen to make it walk onto your hand.
To trick jumping spider into going to your hand, wait until spider gets to the highest spot and starts waving front legs. At this point offer your hand as a place to jump to. Place it on the same elevation as the spider is at this point but about 3cm (1 inch) away. It will interest and trigger spider to jump. Sometimes, once spider is on your hand, it will do a double-take and jump back. Be patient and let spider do it a few times until it is comfortable with unusual smells human hands have.
Once the spider is on your hand, place your other hand in front of the spider, so when it moves it is going from one hand to another. It can take a couple of minutes for a spider to calm down. However once it does, you know it feels safe.
The spider will use to interaction if handled correctly and regularly. If all done right, it will take less and less time for the spider to feel safe when out of its enclosure.
Jumping Spider moulting
Once a spider has enough energy stored it will go into a pre-moult stage. It will make a thick web sack in which it will be moulting. This process can take couple hours for a smaller spider or few days for sub-adult. The jumping spider will be eating more often to soak up all nutrition it can get. When it feels it has been enough. Jumping spider will close itself inside the sack at wait until new exoskeleton is growing under the current one.
It can be a stressful period for a new keeper who is not familiar with the process but try to stay calm.
While it is tempting to check on a spider every now and then try not to disturb it too much. Make sure there are no live insects left inside the enclosure, keep misting side of the enclosure as you always do. A good idea is to leave a few water drops near the sack for a spider to drink if it feels like it.
Jumping Spider Moulting
Once new exoskeleton is ready, the spider will excrete special fluid into space between an old and a new exoskeleton in order to separate them. Jumping spider with proceed to crawl from old “skin”. This is a crucial moment for every spider. It has to get out of old exoskeleton while the new one is still flexible. If a spider can’t make it in time new exoskeleton can start hardening while the old one is still on top of it. Dehydration is believed to cause some of “bad moults” in spiders.
Most of the time spider successfully extract itself from old “skin” and is waiting while new exoskeleton is hardening. While it happens spider is very fragile to any external influence and should not be disturbed.
If spider lost his leg before moulting it will grow a new one! It might not be as perfect as old, but no one is complaining when given this kind of superpowers, right?
New shiny exoskeleton!
It is time for our spider for going back into the world. When jumping spider is ready it will open its web sack and go out to look for much needed hydration and will appreciate a feeder insect which will help it in replenishing depleting energy reserves.
If a spider is still juvie, it will keep living its life at it always did, exploring enclosure, interacting with the owner and of course sitting in ambush waiting for juicy cricket to hop by.
If it was a “final moult” for spider its priorities in life will change.
Mature males will be less interested in food and explore more in hopes to find female that is ready to breed.
While mature female with concentrate on building up energy reserves setting up cosy web sack for chill time and growing eggs.
