• DOES MY JUMPING SPIDER NEED A HEAT MAT? 

A very common question in the hobby, and one to get right to start with. Jumping Spiders, mainly Phidippus Regius Locales, come from Florida and the surrounding areas. They have high humidity & warm temperatures. Most Jumpers are happy at around 24/25 degrees, some warmer, allowing it to cool over night. If you cannot keep a constant temperature for your jumping during the day, a heat mat (Habistat is a great one) along with a thermostat (Habistat again!) will make your Spood more comfortable. Signs they are too cold are lack of activity and lack of feeding. You can warm their area up by any means (radiator, central heating etc) but they do require warming conditions than us. My room sits around 25-27 degrees and none of mine have a heat mat. Many a spider has started eating again when they have been warmed up.

•  WHERE DO I PLACE A HEAT MAT? 

You place a heat mat BEHIND their enclosure, not touching but about 1cm away from their enclosure. They do not have the cognatic ability to move away from heat when it gets too warm, so best to keep it very close but not touching so they can travel over to the heat if they want too. 

• DO JUMPING SPIDERS NEED A LIGHT?

In short, yes, they do. They are eye sight hunters, unlike Tarantulas who are all but blind, Jumping Spiders actively seek out and hunt their prey, therefore light is a must. They do well with a 12 hour on, 12 hour off cycle. Most cheap Amazon LED lights are plentiful. 

• WHAT SORT OF ENCLOSURE DO THEY NEED? 

Jumping Spiders are arboreal spiders, meaning they make their webs and nests high up off the ground (think window sills/trees!) They require enclosures that are taller, rather than longer. They need room to explore and hunt and either a front or middle opening enclosure. Due to them webbing mostly at the tops of their enclosures, any top opening ones will repeatedly destroy their webs. Juvenile's need slightly smaller enclosures to help them up and then after a few moults they can upgrade to an adult enclosure. 

• WHAT DO THEY EAT ? 

Jumping Spiders do prefer flying prey. You can hatch our Green Bottle flies, Blue Bottle Flies, they will eat small locusts, wax worms (as a treat) and their morth, Wax Moths. Crickets and meal worms are best avoided as these can actually bite your spider and cause fatal injuries. If these are to be fed, if left uneaten please take back out, they can kill a Spood in premoult. A lot of people who feed mealworms and crickets recommend crushing the jaws of both and pulling the back legs off crickets! I find this totally barbaric and a unnecessary thing to need to do, how someone can claim to love one invert and cause that suffering to another I don't know however, with the array of other foods available its easier and kinder to just avoid them than do that. If you do find yourself short there are a lot of breeders who I am sure would send out flies short notice or if really stuck and crickets and mealworms are the only option, you can feed them without injuring them (I do and never had an issue), its just worthwhile to not feed them unsupervised. If they don't eat them, take them back out rather than leave them in unattended like flies for example. #savethecriketsandmealworms lol

Curly wings are another good food and slings do well on hatchling locusts and fruit flies (Depending on spiders age and size).

• DO THEY NEED A WATER BOWL? 

No, Jumping spiders don't require a water bowl, they can easily drown. Once a day all you need to do is mist the side of their enclosure and they will get the hydration from this and their prey. 

• DO THEY BITE ? 

I've never been bitten by one, they may warn you by showing off their celicerea if you annoy them, and then you don't carry on! I've known of people being bitten accidentally (had food on their hand) but only once or twice. They can bite, if provoked but as with most spiders they would rather run than hide. I've had these now nearly 4 years and never once been close to being biten. 

• CAN I HANDLE ONE? 

Yes, you can. Do spiders enjoy it? Debatable, I think some enjoy coming out and exploring new environments & do they enjoy human company ? Probably not. This isn't to say not to hold your spider, if they are happy to come out and you have somewhere safe it's always fun. You can get some lovely play gyms if you don't want to physically handle your spider as well. Equally, if you never want to get your spider out, they aren't going to think anything less of you either! As long as their basic needs are kept, they are more than happy. I dont handle mine too often, they are small and delicate and I get much more enjoyment watching them, thats not to say they wont climb all over me given the chance. babies and juviniles sometimes I dont have a choice and they are very quick and active and super fun to watch. 

• REAL/BIOACTIVE/FANTASY ENCLOSURES ? 

A big debate! Obliviously Bioactive enclosures are the most natural you can get to a spider in its natural environment (most the time!) But as long as everything is sealed, non toxic, you can keep humidity around 75% (moss helps & substrate) they will be fine in either / or. The issue comes with the fantasy enclosures and they are all plastic and you simply cannot keep humidity correct for them. It's up to us to keep their needs at the forefront of our mind, when this is the case, you can have loads of fun with their enclosures. I have kept and bred them successfully in both and will not shame someone for using one over the other as long as the basic needs are met. 

• HOW DO I GET MY SPIDER TO ME?

All my spiders are posted via Royal Mail Special Delivery, safely packed in a secure pot with padding. In the winter I will add a heat pack. Some go with snacks on route too! Spiders are sent to be signed for so someone must sign for them. 

• WHERE CAN I GET ENCLOSURES? 

Please feel free to go to my SHOP on here, there you will find ready made Enclosures in a bundle, all you have to do is put it together when you get it. Includes everything apart from a heat mat, thermostat & LED light. These are all available on Amazon & I can't get them any cheaper to offer, so easier to buy direct from them.

• CAN MORE THAN 1 JUMPING SPIDER TOGETHER?

Unfortunately not, no. They are cannibalistic and will hunt each other down. You can keep them together as slings but after a few moults they will predate on each other. 

• WHAT DOES I / INSTAR MEAN ? AND HOW LONG DO JUMPING SPIDERS LIVE? 

Youll see breeders advertising their slings as i4/i5/i6 etc - the I stands for instar which basically is the number of moults your spider has had so far. They can vary from 8-11 before mature. They can live up to two years, sometimes a little longer. Some say males don't tend to live as long as females and once mature tend to stop eating as much, I have found this to be mostly not true, i have yet to have a mature male that doesn't eat and have yet to find their lifespan mush different than females, Again this is personal experience. The males may not be as hungry as when they where younger but they will still eat,  This is normal however, in the wild once mature, all they want to do is find a female. 

• WHY IS MY SPIDER HIDING IN A HAMMOCK FOR DAYS ON END? 

As long as not mature, this is normally a sign of premoult - this means they are getting ready to moult off their exoskeleton. They can be in a cocoon for days/up to 2/3 weeks as they get older going through this process. Once their new skeleton hardens up they will come out looking for food. When in their hammock spray lightly near them every day so they don't have to go far for hydration. If female and mature, she could be sitting on an infertile egg sac. If she's been captive bred and not paired, these will be infertile and after a few days she will most likely eat the eggs and come back out again.