First timer with sling care and enclosure questions, i3 P. Regius

[Slaymepond]

I just ordered this i3 regal jumper from an online breeder. I made an enclosure with lots of ventilation (holes along all 4 sides at the bottom, and a curtain grommet with fabric covering it on the top). I moved my little guy into the 4x4x3” enclosure after it spent a couple hours acclimating to my apartment's temperature.

I’ve seen this spider twice since it moved in. Otherwise, it appeared to vanish into thin air. I genuinely thought it had escaped, then I realized there was a 2ich mm gap along the outside edge of the curtain grommet that I hadn’t managed to squeeze fully together.

I’ve been putting fruit flies into the enclosure and misting whenever it dries out completely. I also have a damp paper towel that I change out regularly. I find the occasional fruit fly carcass, seemingly sucked dry, so it seems like it’s eating. But I basically never see it.

I know they can take time to adjust, and they can take time to go through the molting process. I’m just concerned (probably unreasonably) that if it molts in the little gap it’s found that it could get trapped, or it could mismolt and/or die in there, and I’d have no way to know. But I can’t check for fear of causing excess stress or a mismolt in the process!

I have an alternative, smaller enclosure I can move it into, but I have no idea how to attempt this. I’d have to either have really lucky timing, or I’d have to lure it out somehow.

I could use some tips or advice, thanks!

 

[Andrew Clayton]

Can you post a picture of the full setup?

 

[Slaymepond]

Since I took this photo, I removed the house (to make sure the spider wasn’t somehow hiding in or behind it) and the wood discs (ultimately a safety hazard since the magnets I hot glued to them came unstuck with the moisture). I have put in a swirled pipe cleaner, and the tree is still there.
The little dude explored for 10 minutes or so when I moved it in, then disappeared. It took me 3-4 days to find its hidey hole!

 

[Slaymepond]

Can you post a picture of the full setup?

Posted

 

[Ratmosphere]

I keep all of my jumpers in tall enclosures. I'd remove the paper towel and add a water bottle cap as a water dish. Lightly spraying one side of the enclosure every couple of days will work as well.

 

[Wolfram1]

i don't direct this comment at you, but i know from a friend who has bred quite a few species that only about 10% of the people who get them as small slings, even ones he has coached himself, manage to raise them properly without big losses and that includes people who do have lots of experience with other exotic pets

you seem to be doing fine so far.
the problem for the most part is that people in general often don't manage to be consistent.

your problem, in my opinion, is providing way too large an enclosure for such a small spiderling, which if conditions are right is fine and can work, but it also makes it much harder to monitor and feed your spiderling, in essence you are not really in control of the situation

one of the proper ways to be in control of its wellbeeing is incredibly simple, but also much less glamorous

all you need is a smaller clear plastic container turned on its head, emthy, not too big, you can start smaller, but even for an adult 2x2x2" should be enough, a condiment/sauce cup or some such, a few ventilation holes very mininmal. it will shortly create a hammock on the top and stay in there 99% of the time.

feed regularly, as much as it will eat, pick prey thats small enough so they dont spook.

you'd be surprised what they will take down, work your way up to figure out the limits without spooking them from the get go.

spray the faintest whiff of water, once a week.
letting the edge of a fine mist, sprayed from an arms length away hit the enclosure i described does it. just a few microscopic droplets.

in terms of prey they are visual hunters that look for movement, smaller containers are better as they are closer to the prey which will help them find the food and feel confident to take them down cause they don't have to venture far from home


that's really all there is to it

you will need to be consistent if you choose this method, but if you do it right you will have almost 0% losses.

once it is adult you can provide it with a show enclosure, if you want, but the above is really all they need. if they have a hammok and are full, they spend most of their time in there.

if they are not in premolt you can poke them out of the hammok and handle them if you really need to, ... not my thing, but hey

this guy makes it a little more complicated than it needs to be, soil... not really needed, space or anchor points... the same, but he still gives good advice that may be easier to follow and allow for less precision:

whether you choose the method your breeder provided you with, the one i described, the one @Ratmosphere uses or the one in the video, or even your own blend... remember

the moisture you provide stands in a direct relation to the ventilation provided, hence with the big ventilation grille you have, there is the need for the damp paper towel or some such

getting this balance right is the key to not killing them, you seem to manage that fine.
getting them to feed well is the trick that will let you raise them to maturity, you can probably improove on that front.

 

[CRX]

i don't direct this comment at you, but i know from a friend who has bred quite a few species that only about 10% of the people who get them as small slings, even ones he has coached himself, manage to raise them properly without big losses and that includes people who do have lots of experience with other exotic pets

you seem to be doing fine so far.
the problem for the most part is that people in general often don't manage to be consistent.

your problem, in my opinion, is providing way too large an enclosure for such a small spiderling, which if conditions are right is fine and can work, but it also makes it much harder to monitor and feed your spiderling, in essence you are not really in control of the situation

one of the proper ways to be in control of its wellbeeing is incredibly simple, but also much less glamorous

all you need is a smaller clear plastic container turned on its head, emthy, not too big, you can start smaller, but even for an adult 2x2x2" should be enough, a condiment/sauce cup or some such, a few ventilation holes very mininmal. it will shortly create a hammock on the top and stay in there 99% of the time.

feed regularly, as much as it will eat, pick prey thats small enough so they dont spook.

you'd be surprised what they will take down, work your way up to figure out the limits without spooking them from the get go.

spray the faintest whiff of water, once a week.
letting the edge of a fine mist, sprayed from an arms length away hit the enclosure i described does it. just a few microscopic droplets.

in terms of prey they are visual hunters that look for movement, smaller containers are better as they are closer to the prey which will help them find the food and feel confident to take them down cause they don't have to venture far from home


that's really all there is to it

you will need to be consistent if you choose this method, but if you do it right you will have almost 0% losses.

once it is adult you can provide it with a show enclosure, if you want, but the above is really all they need. if they have a hammok and are full, they spend most of their time in there.

if they are not in premolt you can poke them out of the hammok and handle them if you really need to, ... not my thing, but hey

this guy makes it a little more complicated than it needs to be, soil... not really needed, space or anchor points... the same, but he still gives good advice that may be easier to follow and allow for less precision:

whether you choose the method your breeder provided you with, the one i described, the one @Ratmosphere uses or the one in the video, or even your own blend... remember

the moisture you provide stands in a direct relation to the ventilation provided, hence with the big ventilation grille you have, there is the need for the damp paper towel or some such

getting this balance right is the key to not killing them, you seem to manage that fine.
getting them to feed well is the trick that will let you raise them to maturity, you can probably improove on that front.

Before reading your whole post, I just wanna say reddit specifically r/jumpingspiders is INFURIATING with what you mention. People with no background in bugs or spiders see a funny video, and decide to buy a jumping spider. The most egregious I saw the other day, this lady let their 7 year old daughter "play with" the spider, and it died because she kept breaking it out of the cocoon it was weaving to try to molt.

I don't have any sympathy for these idiots. If you decide to be responsible for a living being, its up to you to defend it from your idiot braindead children. "She kept weaving a cocoon and my daughter kept kept breaking it to try and find Lucy" I WANT TO EXPLODE IN RAGE. These people don't deserve to have any animals or be around any animals because they are ignorant psychopaths.

 

[CRX]

Before reading your whole post, I just wanna say reddit specifically r/jumpingspiders is INFURIATING with what you mention. People with no background in bugs or spiders see a funny video, and decide to buy a jumping spider. The most egregious I saw the other day, this lady let their 7 year old daughter "play with" the spider, and it died because she kept breaking it out of the cocoon it was weaving to try to molt.

I don't have any sympathy for these idiots. If you decide to be responsible for a living being, its up to you to defend it from your idiot braindead children. "She kept weaving a cocoon and my daughter kept kept breaking it to try and find Lucy" I WANT TO EXPLODE IN RAGE. These people don't deserve to have any animals or be around any animals because they are ignorant psychopaths.

This is what I was talking about specifically. They even put all that sharp pointy BS in for the spider to impale itself on.

 

[Slaymepond]

Before reading your whole post, I just wanna say reddit specifically r/jumpingspiders is INFURIATING with what you mention. People with no background in bugs or spiders see a funny video, and decide to buy a jumping spider. The most egregious I saw the other day, this lady let their 7 year old daughter "play with" the spider, and it died because she kept breaking it out of the cocoon it was weaving to try to molt.

I don't have any sympathy for these idiots. If you decide to be responsible for a living being, its up to you to defend it from your idiot braindead children. "She kept weaving a cocoon and my daughter kept kept breaking it to try and find Lucy" I WANT TO EXPLODE IN RAGE. These people don't deserve to have any animals or be around any animals because they are ignorant psychopaths.

I saw this post too, and it broke my heart. I didn't do days and weeks and months or research - in truth, I didn't do enough, as evidenced by me purchasing a baby - but I did enough to try and understand the fundamentals of care. I make a lot of impulsive decisions, but when it comes to pets, my first concern is whether I can give them appropriate care within my own limits. And I make.sure to teach my 7 year old as well. He would be crushed if he accidentally killed it.

At this point, I realize I should have left it in it's shipping cup, at least for awhile. It had a hammock and some fruit flies. I moved it into a small enclosure based on the breeder's instructions, but didn't notice the gap I had left. So now I'm just trying to do my best with where I'm at and am open for constructive feedback.

 

[Slaymepond]

i don't direct this comment at you, but i know from a friend who has bred quite a few species that only about 10% of the people who get them as small slings, even ones he has coached himself, manage to raise them properly without big losses and that includes people who do have lots of experience with other exotic pets

you seem to be doing fine so far.
the problem for the most part is that people in general often don't manage to be consistent.

your problem, in my opinion, is providing way too large an enclosure for such a small spiderling, which if conditions are right is fine and can work, but it also makes it much harder to monitor and feed your spiderling, in essence you are not really in control of the situation

one of the proper ways to be in control of its wellbeeing is incredibly simple, but also much less glamorous

all you need is a smaller clear plastic container turned on its head, emthy, not too big, you can start smaller, but even for an adult 2x2x2" should be enough, a condiment/sauce cup or some such, a few ventilation holes very mininmal. it will shortly create a hammock on the top and stay in there 99% of the time.

feed regularly, as much as it will eat, pick prey thats small enough so they dont spook.

you'd be surprised what they will take down, work your way up to figure out the limits without spooking them from the get go.

spray the faintest whiff of water, once a week.
letting the edge of a fine mist, sprayed from an arms length away hit the enclosure i described does it. just a few microscopic droplets.

in terms of prey they are visual hunters that look for movement, smaller containers are better as they are closer to the prey which will help them find the food and feel confident to take them down cause they don't have to venture far from home


that's really all there is to it

you will need to be consistent if you choose this method, but if you do it right you will have almost 0% losses.

once it is adult you can provide it with a show enclosure, if you want, but the above is really all they need. if they have a hammok and are full, they spend most of their time in there.

if they are not in premolt you can poke them out of the hammok and handle them if you really need to, ... not my thing, but hey

this guy makes it a little more complicated than it needs to be, soil... not really needed, space or anchor points... the same, but he still gives good advice that may be easier to follow and allow for less precision:

whether you choose the method your breeder provided you with, the one i described, the one @Ratmosphere uses or the one in the video, or even your own blend... remember

the moisture you provide stands in a direct relation to the ventilation provided, hence with the big ventilation grille you have, there is the need for the damp paper towel or some such

getting this balance right is the key to not killing them, you seem to manage that fine.
getting them to feed well is the trick that will let you raise them to maturity, you can probably improove on that front.

Thanks for all your feedback! I have a smaller container ready for it if I ever manage to catch it outside it's hiding spot, but so far I've seen it twice. It hasn't been easily spooked, just sat there and looked at me, crawled around and made some webbing, then eventually hid away again when I wasn't looking.

It seems to be eating, and I'm making sure to mist it in the mornings when it dries out. I change out the paper towel every other day.

At this point, should I just keep up with what I'm doing and have faith that nature will do its thing? Patience is not a virtue I'm overly familiar with, but I manage when a tiny life is on the line.

 

[Wolfram1]

i would move them into something much smaller, like this:

except turned upside down and empty.

even smaller disposable measuring cups, like they use in hospitals, work great as well.

but honestly you will need to choose a method you feel confident you can manage and then stick to it, you will need to learn patience if you dont have it yet, constantly changing things will do it no good.

if it is really eating and the flies don't just drop dead on their own you may not need to change anything.

what did it come in? does it still have the little hammok, if it does and is suitable you may just be able to have it move right back in.

 

[Slaymepond]

I have a smaller container for it (about the size of a baseball), it's just a matter of getting it into it. I realized if I flip it's current enclosure upside down, that might encourage it to move out of the little gap it's in. The container it was in was super teeny, with a tight lid, so maintenance would be really tricky.

The top part of the smaller enclosure actually fits within the enclosure it's currently in, so I popped that over it's hiding place. Hopefully the little dude will move and make a new hammock on that. Then I can just pop it onto the appropriate base without needing to disturb anything too much.

I've managed to keep it alive for a week so far. Here's hoping I can keep it up!

And thanks for the video suggestion from before. I found Juice in my quest for more information, and that video informed a lot of my choices up to now.

 

[katamari]

Can't think of anything to add at the moment that other posters haven't already covered, but wanted to say your lil spood is adorable and good luck!