Spider eating dog

[Guest Anonymous]

If my dog see's a spider he EATS it. Thankfully they are not posonous but can they do him any harm?

[Horsefeathers!]

First of all let me start off by saying...


EW EW GAG CHOKE SHIVER SHUDDER YUCK!!!

I have on more than one occasion dove out of a moving vehicle to get away from a spider. There's nothing in the world I'm more afraid of. From the "who cares" files...

Anyway, I'm sure someone here will know better than me, the EW SPIDERS freak, but my thinking would be that if they're not poisonous, they're harmless? I've heard lots of facts vs. myths on the granddaddy long legs spiders over here, so I really don't know. I would think they would have to be poisonous to be harmful. I've caught my dogs eating spiders that I know were poisonous *shudder*, if only a little, and so far, no damage that I've seen (not that I encourage this behavior). Anyway, I'll sit back, too, and await expert opinion on this subject.

[Guest Anonymous]

We don't have any poisonous spiders in the UK which I'm glad about cause the first thing that moves (other than a human) he tries to eat it, and it is usually either a spider or a beetle.

[Aroura]

[quote name='Horsefeathers!']I have on more than one occasion dove out of a moving vehicle to get away from a spider. There's nothing in the world I'm more afraid of. From the "who cares" files....[/quote]
Sounds alot like me, I've been known to jump onto the drivers lap because there was a big huntsman OUTSIDE the car!!! I jump on chairs when I see a spider across the room and scream loud enough that the neibours come knocking at my door to check that I'm ok!

Well, as to the question, if its not harmless its probably good for him! All that protein and other things that he probably wouldn't get in his normal diet...

Oh, and Horsefeathers, just to ease your fears a little, Daddy Longlegs are harmless, and technically aren't even spiders!!! Just big mites with long legs 8)

[Horsefeathers!]

[quote name='Aroura'][quote name='Horsefeathers!']I have on more than one occasion dove out of a moving vehicle to get away from a spider. There's nothing in the world I'm more afraid of. From the "who cares" files....[/quote]Sounds alot like me, I've been known to jump onto the drivers lap because there was a big huntsman OUTSIDE the car!!! I jump on chairs when I see a spider across the room and scream loud enough that the neibours come knocking at my door to check that I'm ok![/quote]

No, you don't understand... I was DRIVING at the time I dove out :-? ! Once in a parking lot and once in a fast food drive through window. Fortunately, each time, no damage. I don't know how. I jumped out and the car kept going. Both times, I managed to reach in just in time and pull the emergency brake. Eeeeek! I'm afraid the same thing would happen if I saw one and I was doing 70 down the highway. I've often said that my tombstone will read, "Spider finally got 'er." I even once came flying out of a public restroom, pants still around my ankles, when I saw one. :oops: No, I'd rather come face to face with the Grim Reaper, himself, than have to face ANY kind of spider. *shiver*

And y'all have reason to be afraid of them over there. For years, I'd planned to vacation in Australia someday. My plans for that trip ended abruptly when I was watching a Discovery Channel show about deadly spiders and y'all have this monster spider called a funnel web spider that's not only the most poisonous... the thing is outright aggressive *shudder*. I started saving my pennies to go to New Zealand instead. The idea of poisonous snakes and all the other boogerbears in Oz doesn't bother me. Just the spiders.:-?

[Guest Anonymous]

I think I would try training with the "leave it" method... First do it with treats. Hold them it your hand and tell her to leave it. When you are ready to let her have then say take it or okay but stick to one word. Once she gets this down turn it around to the spider thing. Tell her to "leave it" when she sees the spiders. If you continur with the treats it should work but will take time.

Horsefeathers you sound like my sister who is scared of bees (not allergic either). Stopped in the middle of road and got out!!!
Hubby's mom called us at store (15 mins away) to come home and kill spider!!! :D :D

[science_doc]

Okay by now some of you may think that I am a "know it all", but I can't help it that's the price I pay for studying science :oops:

Daddy Long legs are not spiders at all, and they are not poisons either, see this website if you don't believe me:

[url]http://spiders.ucr.edu/daddylonglegs.html[/url]

I like to think that I can help you guys out a bit since you are always full of useful stuff for my former and future pets. I have no idea if dogs eating posionus spiders could make them sick, but since posions are proteins I would think their stomach acid might be able to destroy the toxin before it hurt the dog. Birds eat posions snakes right???? I'm thinking Bald Eagles and Rattle snakes, but I could be wrong about this too.

BTW I was just looking this up recently cause my cats eat these thing all the time. YUCK!!!!!

[bk_blue]

I don't have any expert advice to offer BUT...for all you arachnophobes:
[url]http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/spider/pholcus1.html[/url]
The daddy-long-legs spider... "eats mostly other spiders. One of the spiders it eats is the much larger hairy funnel-web spider. So if you hate spiders, take a daddy-long-legs spider as a pet!"
As for them being the most poisonous spiders, check out this page:
[url]http://spiders.ucr.edu/daddylonglegs.html[/url]
It's really interesting and debunks a few myths too :wink:
Horsefeathers, we don't have funnelwebs in my part of Aus, it's too cold I think for them, but we get white-tails *shudder*

[Guest Anonymous]

[quote name='Horsefeathers!']First of all let me start off by saying...


EW EW GAG CHOKE SHIVER SHUDDER YUCK!!!

[/quote]

Took the words right out of my mouth!!! YUCK!!! I HATE spiders!!! EKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!! I am shuddering right now!!!!
[quote]The daddy-long-legs spider... "eats mostly other spiders. One of the spiders it eats is the much larger hairy funnel-web spider. So if you hate spiders, take a daddy-long-legs spider as a pet!" [/quote] EWWWWWW But we have a Funnel web spider in our yard and its REALLY nasty and Icky! GO DADDY LONG LEGS!!!!!!!!!!! :lol:

[Smooshie]

Oh I just HAD to read this thread,didn't I???....now I'm ITCHY! <shudder>.....we lived in Texas for a year when hubby was in the military, and boy do they have some big nasty looking spiders there.......AND scorpions....ewwww (no offense Aroura :wink: ).
Here in FL, the bugs are BIG but relatively harmless (except the disease infested mosquitos ).. :o ..oh but speaking of gross, we DO have palmetto bugs (picture very large FLYING cockroach) some of those are big enough to throw a saddle on <itch itch...scratch scratch> (they need to add an "itchy emoticon" lol

[science_doc]

I'm moving to Atlanta in a couple of weeks and I ran into some of those flying cows called palmetto bugs while apartment hunting in GA. My best guess is that I will not be sleeping for the first few months after arrival. I have lived my whole life in the Midwest where the bugs are a resonable size and weight :lol:

[Aroura]

Horsefeathers, I'm just glad I've never seen a spider while I've been driving.
On our way back from Gosford I'd been asleep in the car for about 2 hours, suddenly I got the urge to open my eyes only to see a spider hanging from a web just about to land on my leg! Well, at 120km I jumped all the way from my seat, across my sisters lap and was sitting on my brother squished against his door. The funny thing is, this spider was only like 1mm big and I wouldn't open my eyes until somebody killed it! :lol:
There was a massive spider in my shower curtains one day when I was living by myself, and I kinda FLEW up onto a ledge next to the shower, god only knows how spiders make people defy gravity, but it happens. I just stod there and screamed for a few minutes and then managed to pluck up the courage to get down and find a slipper (the spider was still harmlessly in the curtains, and I was dripping wet). Of course being the scaredy cat I am, I couldn't even squash the spider with the slipper and THREW it at the damn thing instead!!!! Lucky I hit it, but it goes without saying I didn't finnish my shower that day... :oops:
It was kinda like a scene from a horror movie :wink:
I'm lucky where I am too, no funnel webs here... I think there are some harmless little ones, a different species to the Sydney funnel web that can kill people. Oh, just some interesting trivia, cats and dogs are immune to 'em so you wouldn't have to worry about that!
I was going to explain how I knew about daddy long legs before too, my dad, in his many years of being a scientist, knew a spider specialist who explained it all to us. Its hard trying to get other people to believe though, even when you heard it strait from a scientists mouth! :-?