Questions about Phidippus Audax

[Nomad177six]

Hello to whoever sees this. I'm new to this site and i hope i am posting in the right place. I just wanted to share some pics of my new friend Jumpin Jack and his enclosure and see what i can maybe learn from people who may know a lot more than me.

Jack is a wild caught spider and i am assuming that he is an adult based on his size but i have read in one place that because he has orange spots on his abdomen rather than white that he is a younger spider. I have no idea if this is true. Maybe someone here knows better.

Anyways I'm curious to know what people think of his enclosure and if there are things i need to add or change to make his life better. Okay so here goes. This is gonna be long. The container that i chose for his home is a big plastic jar from Walmart that was full of cheese puffs and is big enough to fit 2 of the biggest enclosures i am used to seeing people use for this type of spider. But i like that and i think he does too.

Here's how i set it up for him. I added ventilation holes all the way around about 2 inches from the bottom and an inch apart and did the same around the top and then added a BUNCH of them in the lid. I bought some fake flowers from the dollar store that i put in all at different heights and then also added a couple sticks. I also added a layer of rocks on the bottom.

But after seeing him fall a couple times i removed the rocks because i felt terrible about him landing on them and it also made feeding difficult because when i added a mealworm it would get down inside the rocks where he couldn't get to it. I will try to include pictures of before and after and all the changes I've had to make. I also added a tiny coffee mug at the very top that i hoped he would use for his hideout but he never goes inside and prefers to sit on top of it. I should have named him Snoopy.

Anyways i have noticed that almost all enclosures are square or rectangle shaped and jumping spiders always build their hammocks under the lid inside of the L shaped edge. My spider seems to have trouble climbing the sides to even get to the lid and my container is round. So i hoped he would build his hammock in the small coffee mug or elsewhere but he hasn't built ANYTHING and he usually just sleeps down inside one of the flowers.

Well because I'm unsure exactly if he is an adult and is done molting, i worried about him not having a place to build his hammock for molting. So today i added a piece of cardboard that he seems to climb without any trouble and i put a bend in it at the top to create the same L shape that most enclosures have and i added a couple platforms to it along the way.

As far as watering goes. I don't have a spray bottle yet for misting but the fake leaves and flowers are made of a fabric that seems to hold water pretty well without any puddling to cause a risk of drowning him. So every day i just dip my fingers in a cup and sprinkle water in on the flowers and leaves. As far as lighting goes, i just keep his home directly next to a small table lamp.

I am very inexperienced but have tried to do all of what i see the more professional or experienced spider keepers doing in videos. Well to the best of my ability with what i have available anyways. So i guess the reason for me writing all of this is so that if im doing something wrong or if there are some things I'm missing, hopefully someone can let me know and i can learn some more tricks to give Jack a better life.

So if you read this far then myself and Jack would both like to thank you for your time and any info you might provide to help me help my little critter. Now lets see if i can figure out how to add pics on here. Ahhh, attach files. Alright then here goes nothing.

 

[paumotu]

If he molts he will emerge to feed on his own

 

[Nomad177six]

I have had my spider for about 12 days and he has not built a hammock anywhere in his enclosure. Is this normal and if he is not an adult and still needs to molt again, can he do it without a hammock or is he likely to build one quickly just before molting?

My next question is about feeding. He hasn't eaten for 5 days, is this normal? All i have for him are mealworms but he shows no interest in them. He doesn't seem stressed or sick or anything to me. He is very active and does plenty of climbing around and exploring in his enclosure.

I know this is not popular in the hobby but when i first caught Jack i didn't have anything to feed him yet and i caught a false widow under my kitchen cupboard and he made very quick work of it and ate it right away. The second time i fed him was a couple days later and he ate one mealworm. Then 2 or 3 days later i had another smaller species of jumping spider that i caught in my house and i hope I don't get too much hate for this but i gave him to Jack also. After the one mealworm that he ate, he didn't want anything to do with hem again.

But the small jumping spider stupidly ran right up to him and he immediately snatched him right up and made him lunch. So my question is, are jumpers known for being picky eaters and will he eventually eat another mealworm or do they prefer more challenging food or maybe just prefer other spiders in general? I know that in the wild they eat lots of other spiders and Jack is wild caught so could that be why he doesn't like the worms?

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

I have had my spider for about 12 days and he has not built a hammock anywhere in his enclosure. Is this normal and if he is not an adult and still needs to molt again, can he do it without a hammock or is he likely to build one quickly just before molting?

My next question is about feeding. He hasn't eaten for 5 days, is this normal? All i have for him are mealworms but he shows no interest in them. He doesn't seem stressed or sick or anything to me. He is very active and does plenty of climbing around and exploring in his enclosure.

I know this is not popular in the hobby but when i first caught Jack i didn't have anything to feed him yet and i caught a false widow under my kitchen cupboard and he made very quick work of it and ate it right away. The second time i fed him was a couple days later and he ate one mealworm. Then 2 or 3 days later i had another smaller species of jumping spider that i caught in my house and i hope I don't get too much hate for this but i gave him to Jack also. After the one mealworm that he ate, he didn't want anything to do with hem again.

But the small jumping spider stupidly ran right up to him and he immediately snatched him right up and made him lunch. So my question is, are jumpers known for being picky eaters and will he eventually eat another mealworm or do they prefer more challenging food or maybe just prefer other spiders in general? I know that in the wild they eat lots of other spiders and Jack is wild caught so could that be why he doesn't like the worms?

Crickets or small roaches are probably a better choice , I’m not sure if they can catch mealworms. Jumpers are usually big eaters for their size . The wc ones I caught in the past , ages ago .