Does my P. Regius look healthy?

[Icey51115]

Hello all, I am a first time spider owner. I have a P. Regius named Bijou who I have had since Sept 28 2021, so about 3 months now. She arrived as a juvenille and has still not molted once, despite my waiting with bated breath.

She has eaten well since she got here, I feed her mealworms about once every 4-5 days as per the recommendation I read for juveniles. For a while though, I could not get her to eat for about 2 weeks. I thought she might be molting, but then I found out it was because the mealworms I was putting out were too big and intimidating for her (it was a different brand from a different pet store that didn't sell any smaller sizes). Switching back to her old small worms got her eating again.

My concern is - am I overfeeding her? I'm not sure if spiders really are capable of self-regulating on food. Her abdomen has grown A LOT since she first got here. Here's a pic from the day she first arrived:


Here she is today:


Is her abdomen too large for her cephalothorax? Should I be cutting down on her feeding?

I am also slightly curious about the fact that she has not molted this whole time. Is that normal? Unless she somehow has molted without my knowledge but I would think that I'd have found the empty exoskeleton. How often should a jumping spider molt?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Nicole C G]

Love the Otiosus-like colors! :3
I would say yes, cut back on her feeding. Normal is about what the female looks like here:

Phidippus regius - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Though a little bigger or a little smaller is ok. The main concern is you don’t want her to be too big or if she fell she could hurt her abdomen.

 

[Icey51115]

Love the Otiosus-like colors! :3
I would say yes, cut back on her feeding. Normal is about what the female looks like here:

Phidippus regius - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Though a little bigger or a little smaller is ok. The main concern is you don’t want her to be too big or if she fell she could hurt her abdomen.

Thanks SO much for your reply, I appreciate it! There were a couple thumbs on up my post, I wasn't sure if that was "thumbs up" she's healthy or "thumbs up" cut back, thanks for responding clearly!

Looks like my Bijou is a little chonky chonk in the badonkadonk.... less meals for her for now on, I'll keep an eye on her abdomen and make sure she's more in the average range.

Would you happen to know, by the way, if mealworms are too fatty? I've had a hard time find other meals to vary her diet. I bought fly pupae online... unfortunately I only ever got one to hatch. There are crickets and roaches at my local pet stores but I'm not sure if they are too big or dangerous for her (she's maybe like a centimeter and a half or 1.7 centimeters if I were to guess).

Thanks again for the response

 

[Nicole C G]

Thanks SO much for your reply, I appreciate it! There were a couple thumbs on up my post, I wasn't sure if that was "thumbs up" she's healthy or "thumbs up" cut back, thanks for responding clearly!

Looks like my Bijou is a little chonky chonk in the badonkadonk.... less meals for her for now on, I'll keep an eye on her abdomen and make sure she's more in the average range.

Would you happen to know, by the way, if mealworms are too fatty? I've had a hard time find other meals to vary her diet. I bought fly pupae online... unfortunately I only ever got one to hatch. There are crickets and roaches at my local pet stores but I'm not sure if they are too big or dangerous for her (she's maybe like a centimeter and a half or 1.7 centimeters if I were to guess).

Thanks again for the response

Pretty sure mealworms are perfectly fine and not too fatty. Wax worms are usually considered too fatty, but I’ve never heard anyone have trouble with normal mealworms.

 

[Thearachnidaddict]

Needs to go on a keto diet

 

[Nicole C G]

Needs to go on a keto diet

Funny enough my Jumper actually kinda is on a keto diet. XD
High in protein and fat!