Care tips/advice for Jumping Spider sling?

[Mcskillz]

Hello everyone, my location is Los Angeles, CA. I am a 10 year caretaker to my friend Athena the Rose Hair tarantula. That being said, I have recently wanted to care for a Daring Jumping Spider. However I have had trouble looking for them in my backyard. A few days ago, I came across a tan stripe jumping spider(not sure their scientific name) chilling in the sun on my car. Since it's rare for me to spot jumping spiders, I decided to keep it.

Here's the problem, it's not fully grown. As a matter of fact, it's possibly a sling, possibly a juvenile or somewhere growing in-between. It's around the size of a small black ant. it's a tiny incredibly curious little guy or gal. Anyway, I have him in one of those little mini deli cups with a little coco fiber and small speckling of water droplets. I have made pin holes all around the deli cup and on top of the deli cup.

As of today, he is moving around exploring the "territory" so to speak.

I guess my question is, what exactly do I feed a spider of this extremely small size? A leg of a cricket? Do I add specks of water droplets each day to make sure he/she has moisture or do jumping spiders generally favor dryer substrate? Is it possible to raise a tiny jumping spider or is it generally unsuccessful for humans to raise jumping slings?

 

[chanda]

Yes, it is possible to raise jumping spiders. I have several Phidippus sp. - possibly P. audax - that I've raised basically from the egg. (My female jumping spiders laid eggs and - while the mothers have now passed on - several of their offspring are now nearing adulthood themselves. The remaining offspring were either eaten by their siblings or released into my yard.) I feed them fruit flies, though I have heard that spiders can scavenge dead prey. I've never tried it with mine. They've only ever had live prey - but we also raise our own fruit flies as feeders for various small inverts, so getting them is not an issue.

I also have a couple of other jumpers - Phidippus nikites and Phidippus johnsoni - that I found/collected as juveniles that have grown up just fine in captivity, also eating fruit flies and tiny crickets.

 

[Esherman81]

You can order the wingless fruit flies or you can catch them outside for free ether way good luck ..I have one jumping spider tight now .. ..my other two passed on ..

 

[Draketeeth]

I fed my little jumpers fruit flies when available, and if unavailable, I beat the grass for leaf hoppers (very popular prey item. My slings chow em right down, but catching them is 90% of the battle, the other 90% was getting them into the enclosure). I have seen adults investigate prey leftover in their enclosures from previous meals when extremely hungry, but have never actually tried them on a pre-killed item. Jumpers are so visual and intent on movement, I don't know how pre-kill or body parts rank in their interest.