🕷️ How to Set Up a Jumping Spider Enclosure

A jumping spider needs one of the smallest, cheapest habitats in the pet world — but it has one famous design rule that trips up every new keeper. Here's the right way to build a tiny home for a tiny hunter.

Small, tall, and front-opening

Jumpers are arboreal explorers that live vertically, so choose a small, tall enclosure — around 4x4x8 inches is plenty for an adult. Now the famous rule: jumping spiders build their silk sleep-sack at the very top of their home. A top-opening lid tears through their bedroom every time you open it, so buy or build a front- or side-opening enclosure. Your spider (and your relationship with it) will thank you.

Ventilation and warmth

Good cross-ventilation — vents on more than one side — keeps air fresh and prevents dangerous stuffy humidity. Normal room temperature (roughly 70–80°F) is ideal, with no heat lamp needed for common species. Place the enclosure in a bright room where the spider can watch the world, but never in direct sunlight, which can overheat a tiny box in minutes.

Decorating the hunting ground

Furnish with things to climb and perch on: fake or live plants, twigs, and cork bark, with open space left for jumps. A thin layer of paper towel or coco fiber on the floor makes cleanup easy. Leave the top third fairly open — that's prime real estate for the sleep-sack, and you'll get to watch it being built.

Water and food

Misting is how jumpers drink: mist lightly most days so droplets bead on the walls and plants. Some keepers also add a bottle-cap-sized dish with a pebble in it so the spider can't fall in — that's down to preference, but never a deep, open dish. Feed a small live insect every day or two: flightless fruit flies for young spiders, then small crickets, house flies, or a mealworm for adults. Prey should be about the spider's body size or smaller; remove anything uneaten. Soft feeding tongs make serving dinner easy.

Molting: do not disturb

Every so often your spider will seal itself into its silk sack and stay hidden for days — up to a couple of weeks. That's a molt, not a problem. Don't open the sack, don't offer food, don't "check on it" with a poke. A freshly molted jumper is soft and fragile; it will come out, bigger and often brighter, when it's ready.

Quick setup checklist

• Small, tall enclosure (about 4x4x8"), front- or side-opening
• Cross-ventilation; room temperature; no direct sun
• Plants, twigs, and cork to climb, with the top third left open
• Light misting most days for drinking droplets — at most a bottle-cap dish with a pebble in it
• One small live insect every 1–2 days; remove leftovers
• Total peace during molts

Curious how a jumper compares to a tarantula? Read our jumping spider vs. tarantula comparison, browse the tarantula guide, or take the pet quiz.

🛒 Recommended supplies

Hand-picked gear for this guide. Affiliate links — we may earn a commission. The $/$$/$$$ badges are a rough budget guide, not live prices.

🧽 Cleaning & maintenance

Keep it simple and gentle. Remove uneaten food, dead feeders, and obvious waste every few days so mold and mites cannot take hold, and pull out any moldy substrate right away. Wipe the walls and rinse the water dish as needed, and do a full substrate change every few months (more often for humid setups). Skip chemical cleaners inside the enclosure — invertebrates are very sensitive to residues — and use just hot water, with a little vinegar for the glass. For humid species, good airflow and prompt waste removal are your best defense against mold.

Cleaning supplies for this habitat. Affiliate links — we may earn a commission. The $/$$/$$$ badges are a rough budget guide, not live prices.

⚠️ Common jumping spider setup mistakes

Already have one and something feels off? Start here. These catch almost everybody — none of them mean you have done badly, and every one of them is fixable.

Can two jumping spiders live in the same enclosure?

The mistake: Housing two jumping spiders together.

Jumpers are hunters first and neighbors never. They're territorial whether or not they're well fed, so two in one box means one gets cornered and eaten — and you usually find out when there's only one left.

Try this: One spider per enclosure, and stand the enclosures where they can't see each other. Spare enclosures are among the cheapest in the hobby, and a clean deli cup with air holes works for a night or two in a pinch.

Should I clean the webs out of my jumping spider's enclosure?

The mistake: Stripping out the silk when you clean.

That untidy silk is your spider's bedroom, its safety line and its hunting anchor all at once. Pulling it out means days of rebuilding instead of eating, and a jumper without a proper sleep-sack rests badly and molts badly.

Try this: Spot-clean only: lift out dead prey, shed skins and droppings with tweezers and leave the silk where it is. Save a full strip-down for once or twice a year, and only when your spider is out and active — never while it's sealed in its sack.

Why won't my baby jumping spider eat?

The mistake: Putting a tiny spiderling in a big enclosure.

A spiderling hunts by spotting prey a short distance away. In an adult-sized box the fruit flies simply never wander into view, and a sling that misses meals for a week or two quietly starves.

Try this: Keep slings in something small — a vial or a pot two or three inches across — and move up a size at each molt. If it's sitting sealed in a silk sack instead, that's a molt, not hunger: leave it alone and it'll come out hungry.

Can I feed my jumping spider bugs I catch outside?

The mistake: Feeding insects caught in the garden.

Lawns, parks and windowsills carry pesticide residue, and an amount that barely slows a fly can kill the spider that eats it. Wild ants, bees and beetles also fight back, and a bitten jumper can lose a leg or worse.

Try this: Buy captive-bred feeders — flightless fruit flies for young spiders, then blue-bottle flies or small crickets. A fruit fly culture costs a few dollars and keeps producing for weeks.

Is it safe to let my jumping spider out to explore?

The mistake: Letting it roam outside the enclosure.

Jumpers are the friendliest spider to hold and the easiest to lose. One startled jump and it's somewhere in the carpet, and a drop onto a hard floor is a far bigger risk to a spider this soft than a bite is to you.

Try this: If you want time together, sit on a bed or over a folded towel, door shut, pets out, no fan running. Let it walk onto your hand rather than picking it up, and put it back after a few minutes.

❓ Common questions

📚 Where this comes from

We check our care advice against vets, animal charities, and government health guidance. Here is what this page is built on.

Vets, charities & official guidance

• Jumping spiders — Utah State University Extension
• Regal jumping spider — University of Florida IFAS Extension

Keeper & species-community guides

• Regal jumping spider care sheet — The Tarantula Collective
• Regal jumping spider caresheet — The Bio Dude

Checked August 2026. These are other people’s websites, and none of it replaces your own vet — if a pet seems unwell, call one.