Caring for Kukulcania Hibernalis Spiderlings

A few dozen Kukulcania hibernalis spiderlings emerged from the egg sac a few days ago. This is my first experience with spiderlings, so I have a few questions:

1. What kind of prey is appropriate for them? (I've been feeding them "wild-caught" roaches and other insects.)
2. How often do they need to be fed and watered? (I'm spraying my spiders' webs with distilled water.)
3. Right now, the babies are living communally with the mother in a 24-ounce jar. When will they be ready to move out, and how will I know?
4. If I decide to release the spiderlings, what is the best way to do that without losing the mother?

Thanks for any advice that you can offer!

If you observe closely, the babies will feed when the mother feeds, and often she will actually regurg food for them and you will see them cluster around her mouth/chelicerae. They will eat that, the same food items you feed her. I generally either leave them together and let the stronger 'slings "weed out" the weaker ones over time, or I rehouse the mother, since it's easier to coax her out than to try to coax out all those babies! When she stops showing interest in them, usually after about the fifth or sixth instar, and no longer seems to care when you mess with them, you can remove her. If you don't want to keep them, just remove her and place the jar near a good location and they will eventually disperse if you leave it open.

pitbulllady

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1) fruitflies, pinhead crix. squished adult cricks when nothing else is available.

2) feed once every week or two. i personally do not mist mine very often and when i do, it is a light misting.

3) let them molt a time or two before removing from mother. separate into deli cups or just turn them loose. i keep the brood w/ the mother for months at a time and have never had issues w/ cannibalism. keep them well-fed and they seem to do fine together until u decide to separate them out.
4) you shouldn't loose the mother in the process of releasing spiderlings. they are not very fast spiders imo.

loxoscelesfear said:

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1) fruitflies, pinhead crix. squished adult cricks when nothing else is available.

2) feed once every week or two. i personally do not mist mine very often and when i do, it is a light misting.

3) let them molt a time or two before removing from mother. separate into deli cups or just turn them loose. i keep the brood w/ the mother for months at a time and have never had issues w/ cannibalism. keep them well-fed and they seem to do fine together until u decide to separate them out.
4) you shouldn't loose the mother in the process of releasing spiderlings. they are not very fast spiders imo.

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I agree, fruit flies for slings work great. I am also very careful about how I water slings. They can easily get trapped in a drop of water and die.

Hobo sling munching on fruit fly

Thanks! It looks like I won't have to alter my feeding/watering routine too much, but when it comes time to separate them, I will definitely try removing just the mother instead of trying to remove dozens of spiderlings.