Care for eggsac: johnsoni jumping spider

[beesknees]

Hi,

Haven't been here for awhile, but I'm back! I caught a Phidippus johnson the other day and it looks like it has an egg sac now. Some questions I'm hoping someone can help answer for me:

-should I still provide prey for the mom?
-does it take 6-8 weeks for the egg sac to hatch?
-how many babies are there usually in an egg sac?

thanks much!

 

[Ranitomeya]

She should still eat if you provide her with prey. Mine hatched out pretty quickly in less than a month. The number of spiderlings depends on how many eggs she's produced. Generally the first egg sacs will have more eggs than later ones. Egg count also depends on how well-fed you kept her before she laid. Expect anywhere from a dozen to around fifty.

 

[Kumo Punch]

...just make sure not to leave them together for too long. My sling count dropped significantly because I didn't separate them. Eventually I released mine back into the wild.

 

[chanda]

Yes, the mother will continue to eat while guarding her eggs.

When the eggs hatch, the babies will most likely hang out for the first week or so in and around the egg sac. Once they start to disperse, that's when they need to be separated - otherwise you'll lose a lot of them to cannibalism. With my jumpers, I'll usually keep a few of the babies (each in their own container) and release the rest into my garden. If you choose to keep some of the babies, they do well on fruit flies.