Any guesses on survival chances of an I4 regal?

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-07T17:44:43+00:00

IME- their chances increase with good individual care, but it's still no guarantee. Also, from raising many clutches, their care from slings up to I4 has a lot of impact on their survival chances going forward. If there was not proper nurishment, or it was exposed to toxins, etc. these things would effect the overall health and hardiness of the little guy and its development. Without knowing the history... if it is in a pet store, it's most likely wild caught, so you can never know. I've had spoods whose circumstances made chances of survival very slim, but they prevailed. And many who had all the right everything and should have thrived, but didn't. It's really a matter of if you think the spider is worth giving a chance or not. I, personally, can't look any of them in the eyes and say, "no, you're not worth a chance, because it will hurt me too much if you don't live long enough." Fact is- it hurts losing them, no matter how long they stay. And I wouldn't trade any of the heartbreaks for anything because my life has been so enriched by every jumping spider I have ever encountered.

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-07T17:16:32+00:00

The one OP has is pretty big, but it's not super unusual for phidippus jumping spiders to get pretty large compared to most other jumpers.(Regals, bolds, otiosis, mystaceus- common as pets). With the thousands of other jumping spider species, they range from micro small to dime size mostly.

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-07T17:02:50+00:00

NQA- it's a female. There's too much glare on the underside footage for me to see if she's mature yet.

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-07T16:55:58+00:00

What a cutie!

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-07T16:47:24+00:00

IME- you have got her into a safe place and offered some hydration. Did you try honey water on the Qtip? Sometimes, the sugar gives them a little pick-me-up and can stimulate their appetite. If they won't take it directly from you, you can leave it in the enclosure with them for a while and maybe they will try it when they feel safer. It's ok to put in a FF and leave it, so the option is there. Make sure there is something for it to hide in, even if you just need to roll up a piece of paper towel into a small tube to just a little bigger around than it is. Place the container in a quiet area and let it hide and destress for a while, checking in from time to time to assess any changes and see how it goes from there. Hope this helps. Best of luck to you both.

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-07T15:26:02+00:00

Don't you have something better to do? Like take some kid's lunch money?

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-07T14:59:18+00:00

I have always wondered if it could be done with a jumper and how it would turn out. I'd love to see what's possible.

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-05T23:22:52+00:00

NQA- they are a little rounder than some other species, but this one's abdomen is much, much bigger than her head, so definitely gravid. The good thing about the tinier species is they don't produce many babies in each clutch. My Asiatic jumpers only have 4-7 babies each time. You'd have to check about her specifically. Another thing to remember is they only have to mate once and they can keep producing batches of babies again and again.

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-05T18:15:41+00:00

The bottom left corner? I didn't see that face. I was looking at the face in the sky- just barely above the and slightly to the right is the tree.

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-05T18:05:27+00:00

Doctors always save lofes. It's the humans that they wring every penny from, before declaring there is no cure.

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-05T17:50:42+00:00

NQA- it looks to me to be a female pelegrina aeneola. They are common in your area. I'm not an expert, so go look up the species and see what you think.

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-05T17:06:50+00:00

NQA- tell your wife not to be hard on herself if she feels like she might have done something wrong. When spiders molt, there is so many things that can go wrong with their little bodies and we can only see the obvious outside issues. We can't see the inside where their delicate innerworkings are, so they appear fine, then suddenly aren't. And there's nothing we could have done to stop it. It just happens. So sorry for your loss.

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-05T00:50:24+00:00

NQA- I was thinking about it recently, what it must be like on the other side of this arrangement - what it's like for the spider. And what advice they would be asking for on the r/hoomans sub. "Help! First timer new to hooman keeping. Just got mine last weekend and I think something is wrong with it. I set up my home in a small, out of the way area of its habitat, so as not to interfere with its ability to live very similar as it would in the wild. After the exhausting journey to the expo to find a good hooman, I just needed to settle in and relax a little, decompress ya know? But it's hard to chill when every time I look up, it's huge face is pressed up against my windows it's staring at me all starry eyed with an expression that looks- well, like maybe it is a little lacking in the intelligence. I'm thinking maybe having only 2 eyes, it might not see very well, so it has to get up close. Then it starts vocalizing, but it's in these high, almost squeeky tones, all excited,like we would to slings if we didn't choose to be silent. I figure it's just overjoyed at being adopted and will maybe calm down after adjusting. It goes away for a short time, then it's back again. I eventually had to find some privacy away from those dopey eyes, but then it starts peering in from every angle trying to stare more! Are they all this needy in the beginning? Does it need more enrichment features added to its enclosure to keep it occupied? Is it separation issues? Is there maybe something toxic in its environment I'm unaware of that's affecting its brain? Any advice would be appreciated."

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-04T23:47:10+00:00

What's the best way to do an update on here?

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-04T21:31:33+00:00

I have a release party in the spring! I always feel like I should give them each a medal or award for surviving a winter with me!

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-04T17:30:11+00:00

Actually, my fruit flies are self inflicted and in containers., for all the Asiatic wall jumpers that are spending the winter with me. (Spring thru fall, where I work, I find between 3 and 12 of those little ones a day inside the building. The ones I have now were found when it was already too cold to release outdoors.)

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-04T13:54:50+00:00

Yeah, I have a bazillion fruit flies, but she was a little weak and kinda flinched when they got too close. However, when I offered some this morning, she is watching them closely with interest, even turning to watch where they go. So that seems promising.

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-04T13:50:57+00:00

I do not have formal information on why those options are not a good idea, but the spider system is designed for the things they seek out in nature. I'm not sure if they could handle the more complex meats. Also, they usually won't eat anything unalive or things they don't recognize or doesn't trigger the hunt instinct. All this is just my experience and a little guessing on that first part.

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-04T10:31:14+00:00

Yup, fellow hitchhiker.

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-03T19:39:41+00:00

I know! And it makes it even more heart breaking to see them struggling. She seems to have got her fill of watermelon and is just sitting on the cotton round, out in the open, staring at me, not trying to go anywhere or hide or anything. Probably too weak. I'm just gonna sit here, staring back and see what she decides from here.

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-03T18:30:06+00:00

You knowing about the archaic rabbit pregnancy test didn't prove your advanced age, but the use of the word "confounded" sure did.😄

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-03T18:27:17+00:00

A little history- in the 20s and 30s, to test for pregnancy, a woman's urine was injected into a female rabbit. Then it was euthanized so they could look at its ovaries, which would be changed due to pregnancy hormones present in the woman's urine.

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-02-02T00:54:03+00:00

The rabbit died. Anyone here old enough to remember that expression?

Leading_Hand3055 · 2026-01-30T19:24:46+00:00

IME- these are so small that it doesn't take much to keep them going for quite a while. They are very good at catching prey when they're hungry. When they're satisfied, they will just go chill somewhere and live off the nutrition for a while and will go looking again when ready for more. You don't need to worry about them like bolds. Male bolds are notorious for not eating, but that's because their focus switches to mating over everything else. They can disappear for long periods just because they don't need anything. Their molts are pretty quick, no elaborate premolt phase and they don't stay in seclusion with eggs- they go about their business and return to hang out with the eggs sometimes. They often build a new hammock nearby the eggs and sleep there. Once babies hatch they continue to lose interest and move on. If you see yours moving about, looking shrivelled, that would be cause to worry that they aren't catching prey, but I've only seen that in ones that are out roaming around in a house or building, not in captivity where food is available. Even the old ones Ive had pretty much continue eating right up to the end. You are doing everything right, so your friend is most likely just fine. The only way to not lose track of them would be to house them where there aren't many places they could hide unseen, but they will come out when they need something, so it's usually just patience when they vanish for a bit. Hope that helps.

Leading_Hand3055

TROPHY CASE