S. scenicus can't climb?!

[saltyscissors]

one of my Zebra spiders has lost its ability to climb up the wall of his container. He was fine yesterday, but he can't seem to get up now. is this pre-moult??:?

[ZergFront]

I really hope it's premolt.. mine do that when that time is close or when their time is up. :(

[saltyscissors]

ah... well it seems to have crawled back into its silk cell, so i don't think there's anything wrong with it now. but last time, i once kept an immature zebra jumper and it died. it started walking weirdly, stopped eating, and eventually i found it in a death-curl. AND it couldnt climb. i also have an adult female who previously laid a sac, and is still alive after 2 months, but can't climb.

[Motzo]

I've actually had this problem with a P. audax. I later learned that this wasn't pre-molt behavior; the claws on its feet were actually becoming bigger and bigger after each molt, so it required bigger/deeper imperfections to get a foothold.
Thankfully, my spider solved this problem herself simply by covering the entire area in a sheet of easy-to-grab web.

I wonder if you could find such behavior from a S. scenicus. Are the ones that y'all have raised on a fairly balanced diet with plenty of water? Maybe they require a variety to stay healthy..

[saltyscissors]

I've actually had this problem with a P. audax. I later learned that this wasn't pre-molt behavior; the claws on its feet were actually becoming bigger and bigger after each molt, so it required bigger/deeper imperfections to get a foothold.
Thankfully, my spider solved this problem herself simply by covering the entire area in a sheet of easy-to-grab web.

I wonder if you could find such behavior from a S. scenicus. Are the ones that y'all have raised on a fairly balanced diet with plenty of water? Maybe they require a variety to stay healthy..

I give my jumpers a wide variety of insects to dine on; leafhoppers, fruit-flies, small crickets, the occasional collembola. Their habitats are usually on rocks, walls, fenceposts and trees, on a sunny day where it is dry. Since spiders liquify their prey, I think all their moisture comes from their food. Where I find them there is never a direct water source.

[Motzo]

Hmm, I'm unsure then. If a spider stops eating, I'd try flicking water around it to see if it is dehydrated.
At any rate, it might be useful to make small scratches on a wall of the enclosure that your spider could grab on. I never personally tried this -mine always just spun web on smooth surfaces for footholds- but try scrubbing it with steel wool or something rough.