How often do you feed your jumpers?

[JumpingSimon]

I read a lot of different advice on how often to feed jumping spiders and I‘m a little confused. What is best?
At the moment I have an adult female sitting on eggs. I offered her food every day while she was making her sack and while she was making her nest on top of the sack since that would require a lot of energy
She is pretty much done with the nest now and is mainly just chilling on the eggs. Yesterday she wasn‘t too interested in food, but ended up taking it anyway so I guess I‘m giving her a break from eating today

In general:
How often do you feed jumpers and how much prey do you offer on feeding days?

I have heard people saying anything from once a week and others saying that they feed as often as the spider will take prey (which could be every day in my case).

I know I can look at her abdomen to see if she is hungry but at the moment it is difficult since she spend all of the time in her nest with her eggs

 

[Lucky123]

I read a lot of different advice on how often to feed jumping spiders and I‘m a little confused. What is best?
At the moment I have an adult female sitting on eggs. I offered her food every day while she was making her sack and while she was making her nest on top of the sack since that would require a lot of energy
She is pretty much done with the nest now and is mainly just chilling on the eggs. Yesterday she wasn‘t too interested in food, but ended up taking it anyway so I guess I‘m giving her a break from eating today

In general:
How often do you feed jumpers and how much prey do you offer on feeding days?

I have heard people saying anything from once a week and others saying that they feed as often as the spider will take prey (which could be every day in my case).

I know I can look at her abdomen to see if she is hungry but at the moment it is difficult since she spend all of the time in her nest with her eggs

dont feed her unless she comes out of the nest and wanders around. In general you want to feed them every 3-5 days or whenever they start looking skinny, if they are fat or if they stay in their nest dont feed them. hope this helps let me know if you have anymore questions. also jumpers can eat prey bigger than themselves but try to keep the prey about 2/3-3/4 the size of the jumper.

 

[Nicole C G]

Honestly there are no hard-and-fast rules about feeding your jumper. Just feed it whenever it starts to look thinner then usual, and stop when it looks fatter than usual. In between is what size they should be. For my juvenile I feed it every other day.


Two different platycryptus undatus females. On the left, very hungry. On the right, very full.

however, if yours is in an egg sack, you can try to feed her every once and a while. if she takes it, great. If not, that’s ok too.

 

[JumpingSimon]

dont feed her unless she comes out of the nest and wanders around. In general you want to feed them every 3-5 days or whenever they start looking skinny, if they are fat or if they stay in their nest dont feed them. hope this helps let me know if you have anymore questions. also jumpers can eat prey bigger than themselves but try to keep the prey about 2/3-3/4 the size of the jumper.

Honestly there are no hard-and-fast rules about feeding your jumper. Just feed it whenever it starts to look thinner then usual, and stop when it looks fatter than usual. In between is what size they should be. For my juvenile I feed it every other day.

View attachment 397212
Two different platycryptus undatus females. On the left, very hungry. On the right, very full.

however, if yours is in an egg sack, you can try to feed her every once and a while. if she takes it, great. If not, that’s ok too.

How much food do you give them on a feeding day? One single prey or more than that? If my jumper had a house fly in the morning, she is often still interested if I offer another one in the afternoon. I’m not sure if she really needs the second one or if she is just taking it because she isn’t extremely full.

 

[Nicole C G]

How much food do you give them on a feeding day? One single prey or more than that? If my jumper had a house fly in the morning, she is often still interested if I offer another one in the afternoon. I’m not sure if she really needs the second one or if she is just taking it because she isn’t extremely full.

Most jumpers will eat whenever fed, like cats. Which can lead to becoming fat….like cats XD
Usually just feed them one or two prey per feeding depending on the size of the prey. If the prey is 1/3 their size you can feed two. If it is 2/3 or 3/3 their size feed just one. I feed extra after they molt, to get them back to normal because they are usually super skinny.

 

[chibicricket]

I feed my slings every day, but wingless fruit flies, and I'll just throw a couple in their enclosures and just monitor how many they've actually eaten. My subadults only eat every other day. And my one adult only will eat outside of her enclosure, so it's maybe every 2-3 days when she's wandering around, I'll let her out and feed her with tongs. Depending on what the food is too. Superworms seem to be good for a couple days, crickets, she'll eat 2 or 3 and then spend the next couple days in her nest. I don't do dubia roaches as a compromise with my husband, but I would think those would be pretty filling too.

If the spider is about to molt though, I would hold off on offering any food. As a rule of thumb for me, if they are in their nest during the day, leave them alone, if they are out and about, offer some food.