P Audax about to be a mom!

[Trouble's Matriarch]

Well, I should have seen this coming, but I was just hoping our little wild-caught Stranger was a male! I found her in a classroom at my daycare, and took her home to raise as a pet since our current apartment doesn't allow furry friends. Over the last two weeks or more, she has stopped feeding and busied herself building a double-layered nest. She's also not lost any weight from her abdomen, and her last meal was about 3 weeks ago (not for lack of trying, my local pet store thinks I'm bonkers for buying single pinhead crickets every few days!). I'll add photos as soon as I can, and hopefully she isn't too shy to come out and show her cute face!

Also, a quick question; I've seen all kinds of information about keeping substrate out of sling containers, but if she does end up laying and hatching eggs, should I be concerned about the substrate and decorations in the mother's cage? Would it stress her out to remove what I can now? She started this nest immediately after I had to scrap her first enclosure (mushroom growing out of the soil), and I want to keep her as safe and happy as possible.

(Found the right forum, whoops!)

 

[Trouble's Matriarch]

Not the best, but you can kind of see the layering. And most definitely the thickness of the webs, her last one was clear enough to make out her pattern when she was inside!

 

[JumpingSpiderLover21]

Congrats! My female P audax is going to be gravid in a few weeks, so I'm catching her favorite prey items before she stops eating: Grasshoppers, smaller spiders, young wolf spiders (I don't like wolfs so I send her after em), Mayflies, Leafhoppers, and Lacewings. :3

 

[Enn49]

I'd leave her alone. In my experience the young ones will stay in the web for some time after hatching and will be easy to catch as they start moving out.

 

[Lawrence b]

I had substrate in the bottom in mine soil and some leaves but added springtails to it .My Phidippus regius had her brood in there no problem and gathered the youngster as they left the nest .