Well I certainly didnât expect to illicit so many questions when I reblogged this post and added some tags about jumping spider content online.
Firstly, let me say thereâs nothing wrong with keeping jumping spiders as pets. I have one myself. Sheâs a captive bred regal jumping spider. Sheâs currently a bit over two years old. Iâve had other jumping spiders as well, but they passed of old age and in one instance, a failed molt, which is fairly common.
Before and after getting pet jumpers, I joined some jumper groups, read a lot of care guides, and watched a slew of videos about keeping them.
It became obvious pretty quickly that apparently due to their cute fuzzy appearance, large round eyes, and intelligent behavior, people (owners, admirers, and popular content creators) assign human and mammal emotions and behaviors to them, often to their detriment.
I personally believe bugs are complex creatures that can be intelligent and have emotions, but that those emotions and behaviors are NOT analogous to human or mammal behavior and ignoring their natural needs and behaviors means youâre likely not providing proper care for them.
This is mainly about handling. Bugs donât want to be handled. They get nothing positive out of it emotionally. They donât want to be pet or cuddle with you. They donât want to hang out with you. Youâre a big scary predator, and it likely wants to get away from you. Forcing handling can stress, injure, or kill them. Thatâs why I tagged the post (linked above) âyour spider is not a cat.â It doesnât seek affection from you.
I canât tell you how many posts or videos I saw where people were super upset because they let their jumper out of its enclosure to handle it and it either escaped and got lost or they somehow crushed it and killed or injured it badly. Iâve also seen people chasing their jumper around its enclosure trying to grab it or get it to jump onto their hand when itâs clearly just trying to hide.
As an example, a very common thing Iâve seen in videos about jumpers is people saying when they lift their front legs at you and jump or climb onto you/your hands itâs because they âwant uppiesâ and want to be pet and be close to you. This is a wild misreading of behavior. Sometimes raising the front legs is a defensive display, trying to make itself look larger to scare away a threat. Other times, theyâre waving their legs around to sense and feel their environment, or preparing to jump onto something. They are arboreal, and their natural behavior is to find a high vantage point, so climbing onto the big thing (you) nearby is normal. Itâs not because it seeks your affection.
Certainly if you DO handle them frequently they can get used to it, and it becomes less stressful for them. But in my opinion the dangers outweigh any positives, and I donât handle mine. These are wild animals that have not been domesticated, even when captive bred. If you want to give them enrichment, and you should, offer them prey to chase or interesting things to explore in a larger enclosure. For those that do still handle them, Iâd encourage you to watch their behavior closely and read the spidery cues theyâre giving you rather than assuming theyâre feeling what a cute little mammal might be feeling in the same scenario.
I could go on with specifics about certain videos, but I wasnât planning on writing a huge post and this is already long. Also Iâm sure many people would disagree with me about some things Iâve said, and Iâm not going to argue about anything. This is just how I feel based on what Iâve seen of online jumping spider content, and itâs why I no longer interact with most of it.