hi.....i have recently entered into the hobby of petting spiders. i caught a pantropical jumping spider (plexippus paykulli), mature male and kept it in a jar. i fed him a cricket and he ate it. it has been 3 days since then and he isnt eating anything. i put 2 crickets and a small cockroach (nymph) in his jar. but he seems to run away when they come near. they are roughly the same size as the spider. i put a few drops of water in his jar and have kept a twig for him for camouflage. can even help me on how to get him to eat. his belly size indicates he isnt starved and not full either. your suggestions are welcome
jumping spider fasting?
- Thread starter Kunal
- Start date
Curious jay
Arachnodemon
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2012
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- 730
Your over feeding it. Try feeding bi-weekly.
Ciphor
Arachnoprince
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2011
- Messages
- 1,640
Curious Jay is right, your offering it way to much food.
If you fed it a meal that was the size of the spider (think about eating a meal the size of yourself) you should give it 2-3 weeks before another feeding. Try and feed it meals 1/4 the size of the spider or smaller, and then feed it every other week. This will keep it alive the longest. You can feed it more often if you wish, but know that it absolutely will impact the spiders life span for the worse.
Slings are easier actually. Just give them lots of fruit flies. I feed slings twice a week, but really, they will eat till they molt and eat till they molt. It's only once they mature you should start being more careful.
thanks mate. i wasnt aware that overfeeding would reduce their lifespan. i will try to feed him after a week now. he has now webbed himself a burrow in his enclosure
Yeah you really shouldn't worry about 3 days, spiders aren't like humans and they're built to last months without food if that's what it takes, it's what helps them survive in the wild. Never kept a jumping spider so I don't have the best advice on them, I know for any spider though 3 days especially if they're being fed fat juicy crickets is way too much. These other members already got you on that though.
Since you live in India which is a warm climate, for your sling getting food it's size should be easy. Simply eat an apple or some type of fruit, set the core that's left over inside of something like maybe a plastic water bottle, poke a small hole in the top just big enough for a fruit fly to get inside, and maybe a few more holes in the sides with a thumbtac to help get the fruit scent out and set it somewhere out of the sun and in the shade and hopefully high where ants won't find it too soon, soon enough you'll have plenty of fruit flies that are also well fed by a fresh apple or something of the sort.
Once you've caught some in your fruit fly trap all you have to do to contain them and send them where you want them is wrap a plastic bag around the top of the closed bottle, and when you move the bottle around or they see your hands around the bottle they'll fly around and come out, then on one side of the bag in one of the corners simply cut a small hole in a corner for them to fly out and into the enclosure of your jumping spider, assuming you have the sling inside of something closed and without holes large enough for the fruit fly to get out.
Just be sure to use fresh traps when you're going to feed your sling so no extra bacteria that can come from an old overdated trap can be fed to your sling
Since you live in India which is a warm climate, for your sling getting food it's size should be easy. Simply eat an apple or some type of fruit, set the core that's left over inside of something like maybe a plastic water bottle, poke a small hole in the top just big enough for a fruit fly to get inside, and maybe a few more holes in the sides with a thumbtac to help get the fruit scent out and set it somewhere out of the sun and in the shade and hopefully high where ants won't find it too soon, soon enough you'll have plenty of fruit flies that are also well fed by a fresh apple or something of the sort.
Once you've caught some in your fruit fly trap all you have to do to contain them and send them where you want them is wrap a plastic bag around the top of the closed bottle, and when you move the bottle around or they see your hands around the bottle they'll fly around and come out, then on one side of the bag in one of the corners simply cut a small hole in a corner for them to fly out and into the enclosure of your jumping spider, assuming you have the sling inside of something closed and without holes large enough for the fruit fly to get out.
Just be sure to use fresh traps when you're going to feed your sling so no extra bacteria that can come from an old overdated trap can be fed to your sling