What Is The Future For My Jumper?

[kamakiri]

I attended the Reptile Expo yesterday and happily ran into Amanda, one of the owners of Tarantula Canada. Along with the usual chit-chat, I asked her what she thought might be the future for my lone "found spider," a jumper that I actually found on a side table in the living room of my 8th floor condo here in downtown Montreal, in July of this year, whose type is entirely unknown to me (Audax? Regal? Common or Garden?) and who had surprised me by seemingly giving spontaneous birth to half a dozen babies in September or so.

Then it was Amanda's turn to surprise when she told me that my jumper might give birth again! Assuming my jumper, Charlotte, is not a hermaphrodite, how can she give birth months after she gave birth before, with no male spider in sight?

Not knowing the life cycle of monger jumping spiders, I assume Charlotte was herself born sometime in the middle of summer, in the warm weather, so how long does she have? A year? Six months?

If I feed her a fruit fly every day, or every other day, is this all she needs to sustain her? How will I know if she is about to give birth?

She's now in a plastic container with a 1/2 inch of common potting soil at the bottom. I was planning to move her to a more attractive container. Should I put potting soil at the bottom of that, or does she care? (And when she had babies they were impossible to see in the potting soil).

Will she ever be any bigger than she is now, about the size of this :Ü: ?

So many questions for such a little animal!

 

[pannaking22]

Most spiders can store extra sperm.

If she matured this year she probably has another year ahead of her.

I feed my jumpers weekly, but I know others will feed them every couple days. If she decides to give birth again she will retreat into her hide, seal it up, and stay there for several weeks.

Substrate is optional. I don't keep any with mine, but I know some do for aesthetics.

 

[Quetzalcoatl Nyarlathotep]

Almost certainly not fully grown, especially if she has orange dots where they would normally be white. Just going by what you've told us, it's hard to give you a definitive answer. Perhaps comment with a couple of good resolution photos? Other than that, jumpers can be a little picky on what they eat, so experiment with various smaller insects than the spider, 50% smaller being preferable for them. I like to give mine heavily sheltered hides so they can feel safe when they want to escape my fingers. Flies work pretty good for food among most true spiders, including jumpers. Good ventilation seems to be pretty optional for them, excluding slings. lots of climbing stuff is preferable, but I've kept many in basic substrate filled tubs with marginal success. They definitely appreciate an eye for design, so be creative! If you were a spider, what would you like to hide in? Maybe in a curled up leaf, or a hole in a piece of drift wood?

 

[WildSpider]

If I feed her a fruit fly every day, or every other day, is this all she needs to sustain her?

It's hard for me to answer this one. The way I go is to feed my jumpers larger meals less often. I would say though that the best thing to do is to pay attention to the size of her abdomen. As long as it looks plump, you should be giving her enough food. If you notice it getting smaller, I would feed her more often. Every so often, I also give my jumpers one drop of water with an eyedropper.

Should I put potting soil at the bottom of that, or does she care?

It doesn't really matter as far as I can tell. All my jumpers are housed without substrate.

 

[pandabacon]

Sub adult jumpers love to make houses in curled up leaves. I almost guarantee that if you provide some nice curled leaves the spider will most likely make a house in one. All the sub adults i've kept preferred small curled up leaves over anything else.