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Pre-trip feeding: The Jumpers

This is the last of the feeding posts, as I have fed all of the critters who would take food.

The jumpers are a little awkward to feed at the moment. They are a lot fussier with food than my others, who will eat anything so long as it's sized appropriately. The jumpers....well, they only really like green bottles.
Unfortunately, I don't have any green bottles in stock at the moment. I have ordered some, but they take several days to arrive and then another week or so to emerge from their pupal stage. With me being about to head off for a few days, it's just not going to happen. But spiders still have to eat, and the regals are currently looking pretty hungry!
With the flies I tend to just drop the pupae into the enclosure, then it hatches when it hatches and the spoods can hunt properly. As I don't have flies, I have to work with what I have, and what I have is meal worms. I can't release mealworms into the enclosures becuase the spiders like to be high up - they all hang out in little hammocks by the roof of their enclosures - while the first thing the mealworms will do is bury deep into the substrate on the bottom. The two will never meet. So what I have to do is use a paintbrush to gently guide the spiders into a much smaller feeding tub - I use a plastic container intended for yoghurt - and drop a meal worm in there. There is no substrate for the worm to hide in, and the spiders are much closer to the ground, so they are much more likely to actually eat the mealworms, even if it's not their favourite food.
As can be seen in the photos, both Fred and Wilma - the Regal jumpers - thoroughly enjoyed their mealworm meals, but Ladybug (a Widow jumper), was not at all interested. She did still come out for a quick photograph though. I'm not at all worried about her not eating at this time, as she looks a lot more well fed than the regals do at this time. She'll probably eat next time.
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