Mealworms?

:bluehelp: Advice

Hi there, I posted a couple months ago about a zebra jumper I caught*.* Kamaji is doing quite well! She turned out to be pregnant and so I'm caring for her slings as well until they get big enough to let go lol. It's been a journey for a first time spider keeper but she's taught me quite a bit.

Since I managed to separate her from the babies she's been in a new enclosure. She's much smaller than a bold or regal so I've only been feeding her fruit flies and the occasional housefly I've managed to catch. However, I remembered seeing in guides that they should have a varied diet so I bought some dubias and mealworms. The problem is, I think even small dubias are too large for her (and they scuttled away when I offered them to her so they're somewhere in the substrate now...) and I spent a good while trying to get her to kill a mealworm, but I think her fangs couldn't penetrate even a very small one. I watched her strike a couple times, even held it up to her with tongs and she couldn't get a grip on it.

So my question is this: Have you had success killing a mealworm and offering it to your jumper? When offering a live one to her last night I crushed it slightly to subdue it so it wouldn't also crawl away and burrow, and while she wasn't interested in the worm once it stopped moving, now I wonder if there were exposed guts she might try to go for it? But I don't want to make a mess for nothing. Any advice would be really appreciated.

Posted Jul 26, 2026, 11:40 PM UTC

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