The starter kits I ordered arrived today, it’s very exciting.

Jumping spider starter kit and a small arboreal keeper enclosure

I spent some time setting them up. First, the small arboreal keeper was really simple, it was just two parts. It’s a bit bare but hopefully the sling (spiderling) shouldn’t be in there for too long before I can move it to the larger enclosure.

Next, the larger enclosure.

The starter kit unpacked

This includes the medium arboreal acrylic enclosure, some substrate, decorations and a spray bottle. The enclosure itself wasn’t too hard to set up. There’s a QR code for setup instructions on the box but it’s a dead link. Luckily I could just watch the video on the product page at thespidershop.co.uk.

It fits together really easily and it uses small elastic bands around the connection points to hold it together. This makes it easy to take it apart if you make a mistake while building it (I managed to get put the part labelled “front” at the back, whoops). The hardest part was peeling the protective coating off the panels.

Both enclosures built

Once it’s built it feels fairly sturdy. It doesn’t feel like there are major gaps where they connect but it may not be quite watertight so we’ll see if it leaks over time. Some of the holes may be a bit big so I won’t be able to put a spider in there while it’s too small. The top section has the option to be either a plastic sheet with holes in it or a mesh net. I’ve used the plastic sheet for now but if the holes feel too big maybe I’ll switch it over to the mesh netting.

The decorations feel nice, I like the fake leaves a lot. There was a little water bowl but I’ve read that jumping spiders can drown in them if they fall in so I’m going to leave that out. Also I’m a bit torn on the little magnetic hidey-hole at the top. A lot of the videos I’ve seen have had the spiders built their nest on the roof of the enclosure and I thought that looked really nice. I’ll leave it in there for now and see how the spood feels about it.

I think there could be one or two more little things in there so I’ve ordered some magnetic mushrooms from amazon that look nice. I also ordered a thermometer / hydrometer so maybe I’ll add that in there too.

Next up, I need to find a breeder and order a spood.