When spiders die, do they still react to touch and move a little bit for a while after?
I've had this female Phidippus Audax for about two months but I never saw her eat. She always had crickets and water available. I offered her moths, ants, flies, caterpillars, etc but none seemed to interest her. In the time I've had her though, her abdomen has never looked shrunk and I saw some dead crickets in the cage, so I assumed she had fed at least once or twice but never saw her actually attacking. The other crickets happily ate the dead cricket so I couldn't see if it was a spider kill.
I took her outside today in a little container, she sat in the sun for a few minutes then hid under a leaf. I brought her back in the house and she wandered around the cage as usual. About three hours ago I noticed her sort of hanging on the side of her cage as normal but was less " fixed" on the webbing as I normally see, so I scooped her out and she was extremely sluggish, not even trying to right herself when at an angle.
Then she stopped trying at all, and wasn't moving. I thought she was dead. She was laying there sort of limp looking, not moving when I brushed her little hairs ( normally doesn't like that at all) so I thought she was definitely dead.
But then about 20 minutes later when I breathed on her, she raised her arms slightly and held them up, she still reacts slightly and raises her abdomen and forelegs a bit quickly...but then just lays.
Is she dead? Or is her body just twitching or something?
I've had this female Phidippus Audax for about two months but I never saw her eat. She always had crickets and water available. I offered her moths, ants, flies, caterpillars, etc but none seemed to interest her. In the time I've had her though, her abdomen has never looked shrunk and I saw some dead crickets in the cage, so I assumed she had fed at least once or twice but never saw her actually attacking. The other crickets happily ate the dead cricket so I couldn't see if it was a spider kill.
I took her outside today in a little container, she sat in the sun for a few minutes then hid under a leaf. I brought her back in the house and she wandered around the cage as usual. About three hours ago I noticed her sort of hanging on the side of her cage as normal but was less " fixed" on the webbing as I normally see, so I scooped her out and she was extremely sluggish, not even trying to right herself when at an angle.
Then she stopped trying at all, and wasn't moving. I thought she was dead. She was laying there sort of limp looking, not moving when I brushed her little hairs ( normally doesn't like that at all) so I thought she was definitely dead.
But then about 20 minutes later when I breathed on her, she raised her arms slightly and held them up, she still reacts slightly and raises her abdomen and forelegs a bit quickly...but then just lays.
Is she dead? Or is her body just twitching or something?
