Wild caught jumping spider problems

ThatSquareChick

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 27, 2021
Messages
21
Short version is this: I’ve got zebra jumping spider babies and a dead mama who might have left me with about 15 babies I know that most spiders don’t necessarily feed their babies or anything so I’m not worried about them surviving without her since they’re not reliant on her for food. I’m just curious as to what they need from me at first.
How long can I cohabitate them before they start to eat each other? Should I be gut-loading my prey items and is it normal for a mama spood to pass over if she was old enough when she laid the sac? She was wild so I have no idea how old she could have been.

Long version for those who like reading:

Early this last July, I captured my first jumping spider, a large female zebra spider. She laid an egg sac the week I got her but nothing came of it and she abandoned it fairly quickly.
She did end up making a hammock in this twirly twig. It wasn’t growing any mold, it was protected so I let her have it. She then retired to the hammock and I barely saw her over the last two weeks.
I put flies in there and kept a few water droplets on the branch of twirly twig and just hoped she was molting.
Well, day before yesterday I decided to shine a light through the hammock to see what she was up to.
There were little blobbies with little teeny legs moving around in there!! Oh god there are babies!!
I’ve heard that smaller species don’t have many babies and also that spiderlings are incredibly fragile so I can expect, even with good care, to lose most of them before they reach a stage where they can be released or adopted.
They. Just. Keep. Coming!
At first, I counted 5 moving blobs. Then, mama emerged looking absolutely horrid. Her abdomen was wrinkly and shriveled and she had turned a pale brown. I quickly offered her some sugar water on a q-tip and she grabbed it and seemed to get a bit of strength back and climbed her pipe cleaner ladder up to where the light shines brightest.
She then suddenly had a seizure, lost her grip and fell to the floor of the enclosure in a death curl. I tried to offer her the q-tip again but she just spasmed a few more times and passed away. The first jumping spider I ever had and she Charlotte’s Web-ed me. As soon as I was able to remove her body, some of the babies started coming out of the nest.
First, it was just 3, then a few hours later 2 more. Then one more before bed. Nothing in the morning and then, this evening, 5 more came out with MORE still moving inside the web!

I’m tempted to just get a large enclosure and keep them together for a week or so while I get the things I need together to help keep these little guys alive. I have deli cups but they need to be ventilated and equipped with a hide and something to jump on. I have flies so now I just need to make a little fly mash to keep the colony going as long as the offspring crawl, eat, and breed they can be inbred AF, they still feed good.

Zebras are also tiny. Like, need a jewelers loupe tiny. About the size of a grain of pepper. I don’t think they’ll have trouble with the wingless flies, they’re known to be particularly ostentatious when choosing prey and the wingless flies are so much easier to work with.

I just want them all to survive and I know some won’t :(
 

Nicole C G

Arachnoangel
Joined
Jun 23, 2021
Messages
883
All you can do is cover the ventilation with fabric or mesh, to keep them in there. If you put them in a single enclosure, they will cannibalize. If you’re okay with that, you could just let them eat each other until you can take care of them, but I personally couldn’t even imagine doing that. Otherwise, if you want, you can put the enclosure outside and leave it open to let them free.
 

SilentWidowMaker

KingWidow
Active Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2021
Messages
110
I have around 9 Phidippus Audax babies from my female spider. She also has egg sac for around a month. I let them stay together at first in a medium size pill bottle and put prekilled prey such as flies and tiny crickets that I breed. They grew and ate and got a little bit bigger I've moved them to a smaller size deli cup together and have been putting in flightless fruit flies with them once they are able to get a little bigger from that point on I can individualize them and so far I haven't had a problem with them eating each other because I have provided food for them. While they're little and babies they don't need a whole lot of air because they're so small the air that's inside of the cups are plenty other than maybe three or four times a day I'll open the lid and let some fresh oxygen in they don't need a whole lot of holes in the beginning.
 
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