Why Captive Bred is ALWAYS better

🕷️ Controversial or the ugly truth? Regardless, I feel the need to advocate for these creatures that mean so much to me. Do you?🕷️

It deeply saddens me that still so many wild caught Regal jumping spiders are being sold in the pet trade. We have more than enough captive breeding going on for them that it’s absolutely unnecessary to take large amounts of them from the wild. This for some may be an obvious statement, while for others it’s something they didn’t know, so I think it is fundamental for everyone thinking about getting a pet jumping spider to know in order to be able to make an informed decision.
 
Of course all the current captive bred ones come from ancestors that were taken from the wild, and also we need new genetics in order to maintain a healthy captive population, but that is a very reduced number of them that should only be acquired by breeders in order to be able to continue to deliver healthy captive bred babies to pet owners.

Why not wild caught?

Of course I’m not saying that if you find a wild one you shouldn’t keep it, that’s for you to decide, but there’s people massive poaching them by the hundreds, who wholesale them to pet stores, resellers, etc. and then these sell them to the public as pets. There’s absolutely no need for taking hundreds (if not thousands) of Regal jumping spiders from the wild, where many won’t make it as they’re kept in terrible conditions.

Why do they do it when Jumping Spiders are so prolific? The answer is simple. Raising jumping spiders is extremely time consuming and it requires a lot of dedication, so it’s easier for them to just pull them out of the wild and make quick money.

Also, the ones taken are mostly females, because they are the most desired, so they are not only taking them from the wild, but entire generations of their offsprings that were supposed to be born in the wild and continue the cycle. This is how we decimate their wild population, destroy ecosystems and perhaps even cause their extinction one day in the near future.

Every time you get a wild caught Regal jumping spider, you’re contributing to perpetuate this practice. 

Not to mention that they can be gravid, carry parasites, not adapt properly to captive living and pass away early, or even be very old (as their age is unknown).

If you really love these animals, PLEASE, get captive bred ones. There’s many wonderful breeders out there, just do your research and pick one that you’re sure is a conscientious breeder and not a wild caught reseller. 

These creatures are amazing, we should want to continue enjoying them without contributing to their destruction. They deserve better. 

Let’s protect our wildlife so that it can be enjoyed by many generations to come 🩷 

Andrea