I think I annoyed my friend by telling her I don’t agree with pet spiders being constantly handled…
So basically this friend kept spiders for a short time before I began, and at least three times a week if not daily, I would be sent snapchats of her removing her from her tank to take videos and photos handling her. One day she tells me that her regal jumper female has lost a front leg (which made my heart sink), but that she was handling her the day before and wasn’t sure how it had “managed to lose a leg” since then. I asked her questions to find out if she had fed her something which could of injured it or if she herself had dropped her to cause injury as spiders don’t tend to just “lose” legs once they are fully matured. She tells me she had put a black cricket in the tank, but that it had not touched it and was still roaming her enclosure (am I insane or is this just not good keeping??) but that since the missing leg was in her bed, it “couldn’t” have been that. I explained to her that if her leg was injured she would chew it off to avoid death essentially and that is probably why it was in her bed, as well as that a large black cricket is probably too large and aggressive for an older jumper and that she shouldn’t leave food to roam for days as again it can cause injury or distress. She continued to handle the seven-legged jumper claiming that “she loves her” and “loves” being held by her. She forcefully takes it out of its enclosure into her hand, and when handling her again after the loss of her leg, she was bitten straight away- and threw the spider onto the floor.
She messaged today with a new spider since her regal passed away a few days after being dropped, handling it in a lengthy video where half way through she lost the spider on her jumper and had to remove it to find it. I replied to the video and simply said I do not find personally that unless it is required for rehoming/medical purposes there is reasons to constantly handle spiders. I have great bonds with mine without the need for forceful holding sessions and that the risk of injury outweighs my want to hold them for personal enjoyment.
She has left me on read for 28 minutes and I feel as though I’ve said something wrong, but in all honesty I don’t understand what it is since I feel it should be obvious to her especially given the circumstances. She even said in the video that she “knows how to handle spiders now” before losing it and it just makes me worry as she keeps buying more.
If anyone has any advice on how to resolve things let me know, or let me know why I’m wrong if you disagree because I am really conflicted and confused on how to handle this.
