If you have ever thought of getting a jumper as a pet, you have come to the right place!

Our extensive guide to keeping your very own jumper starts here.

Alright, let’s get started!

OK, what will I need?

Well, your new little friend will need a safe place to live.  So you will need an enclosure.  What should your enclosure look like?

–  It should be at least 8x8x8cm or bigger.
–  It should have some ventilation holes that is not too big for the spider to escape through.
–   It should preferably have a side opening door to prevent disturbing the spider’s sleeping web (hammock) when you open the door.
–   You should provide some substrate, some fake plants and perhaps a bark hide.
–   A water bowl is not recommended to ensure the spider does not accidentally drown.  Instead we recommend you lightly mist the one side of the enclosure once or twice a week.

And… then you will need food for your jumping spider in the form of appropriate sized crickets.

Sleeping Arrangements

The majority of jumping spiders will construct a sleeping web or hammock – usually at the top of the enclosure, or between two leaves, or behind a piece of bark.  They will spend the whole night and part of the day inside their hammock, for a bit of “me-time”.

It is very important that you do not disturb your spider for any reason whatsoever when he is in his hammock. The hammock provides protection for when your spider needs to moult by shedding it’s exoskeleton.  This process can take a couple of minutes to a couple of hours, but the spider will most likely spend a lot more time in the hammock during this process – sometimes staying in there for up to 3 weeks.

It is very tempting to poke and disturb the spider to see if he is still alive and well, but please do not.  Your spider needs time for his new exoskeleton to harden up before he will come out again looking for food.  When he is out and about again, you may go ahead and feed him.  If he has made his hammock on the lid and you cannot open it without breaking the web, then you’ll simply have to wait for the spider to emerge out of the web again before attemping to open the enclosure.  Do not disturn the spider under any circumstance when it is in a web.

Some jumping spiders do not make hammocks, but burrows in the substrate instead.  Our beach peacocks, beach pebble jumping spiders and some other species likes to build a little silk bubble under the sand in which they spend most of their time in.  It can be quite alarming if you think your spider has dissapeared from its enclosure just to realise that the little bugger is sleeping his head off in a silk bubble just under the surface of the sand!

Lighting and Heating

Your spider needs to see it’s prey in the day.  They depend on their excellent eye sight to catch their prey and therefor should never be kept in a dark room or a dark corner where they cannot see properly.  Their live depends on it.

Your spider does not need any heating.  If you have bought a jumper from a tropical area such as Far North QLD and you live in Melbourne, just make sure you keep the spider in a room where the temperature does not drop below 10 degrees celsius.  However, do not, and I repeat again, do not put the enclosure near any kind of heater or heatpad.  Also never directly in any sunlight. This will surely lead to your spider dying by overheating or drying out.

My jumper has laid an egg sack, what now?

If you are the proud owner of a wild caught adult female jumper there could be chance that your lady is indeed gravid.  Spiders can store sperm for a long time and only need to mate once to lay several eggsacks.

However, if you had your jumper since it was a juvenile or is one of our captive bred jumpers, then the egg sack is not fertile and you do not need to worry about being a brand new spider grandparent.  

You have three options on how to proceed from this point onwards.

1. If your jumper is found naturally in your area of residence, you can safely release the babies once they disperse into your garden and they will be able to hunt for their own food and with some good luck, grow up to a healthy adult.
2. You can decide to raise the babies yourself (more on this below)
3. If your jumper is not native to your area or you are not up to the task of raising it, please contact us and we can arrange to take the babies off your hands and raise them here at Bug Frenzy.

Ok, if you chose option 2, this is what you will need to do: 

The egg sack will usually be heavily protected inside a thick hammock and guarded by mum for 3-5 weeks.  You may be able to see the eggs and count them, giving you an idea of how many babies you will need to raise.

The little babies will hatch and stay in the hammock for at least another week or two.  This is called first instar and they are essentially eggs with legs.  Once they molt again, they will start to leave the nest when they are ready to eat and become self-sufficient.  This stage is called second instar. 

You will need to make sure you have ordered a culture of flightless fruit flies as soon as you see the babies hatching.  Once they emerge from the nest in about two weeks time, you will need to seperate them into deli cups and start feeding them a flightless fruit fly every day/every other day.

They do not need any ventilation holes at this stage as they will probably be small enough to escape through them.  A tiny water drop once a week will be sufficient for their hydration needs as they get what they need from their food.  

If the baby jumper makes a hammock and stays in there for an extended period of time it is most likely molting and you should not disturb it.  Disturbing it or poking the hammock can cause death.  The jumper will be at its most vulnerable during this stage and that is why it is important to leave it alone at all cost.  Once it emerges again you may continue the feeding routine.

Once the jumper reaches 5th instar it should be big enough to start eating crickets. You will need to introduce the crickets one at a time, making sure it is an appropriate size – about a third to half the size of the jumper.  Offering crickets bigger than the jumper may cause them harm, as crickets can be vicious. 

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at any time – always happy to help.