What do you feed a pet spider?
Mia Morrison
Updated on May 19, 2026
If you are keeping a house spider as a pet, you can feed them a variety of foods:
- Crickets.
- Flightless Fruit Flies.
- Mealworms.
- Small Caterpillars.
- Roaches.
How often should you feed a pet spider?
In general, the size of the food should be smaller than the tarantula's body. Adults can get feedings roughly once a week while juveniles can eat every day or two. Simply drop in the prey close to where your spider is in the enclosure. Feedings are best done in the evening when the spider is more active.What can I feed a common house spider?
Most house spiders are carnivores and enjoy eating a variety of household insects like flies, cockroaches, earwigs, mosquitoes, fleas, moths, and ants.What do small spiders eat?
What Spiders Eat Spiders feed on common indoor pests, such as Roaches, Earwigs, Mosquitoes, Flies and Clothes Moths. If left alone, they will consume most of the insects in your home, providing effective home pest control.Do spiders eat human food?
Spider biologists have also generally found that spiders consume approximately 10 percent of their body weight in food per day. That's equivalent to a 200-pound man eating 20 pounds of meat each day. Conversely, it would take approximately 2,000 pounds of spiders to consume a 200-pound man in one day.Feeding my ADORABLE jumping spiders! Phidippus regius Update
Do spiders drink water?
Yes, spiders do drink water. In the wild, most will drink from any available source such as droplets on vegetation or the ground, and from early morning or evening dew that has condensed on their webs.Do spiders eat bread crumbs?
Spiders don't feed on crumbs like other pests, they feed on insects. If you have a large population of spiders in your home, it means you also have an insect population that is sustaining them.Can I feed a house spider?
A common question is what to feed a house spider. Although these spiders are very independent, if you've noticed that they haven't caught anything in weeks and you want to feed them, you can feed them insects.What can I feed a baby spider?
Baby spiders will eat anything that is approximately the same size as them, including tiny insects. Larger crickets and flies are two significant sources of food for baby spiders, who get a little bigger after eating several smaller insects.Do spiders eat fruit?
A spider actually covers its prey with digestive juices. It then chews the meat with its chelicerae and sucks the juices in. This eating style means that spiders can't just cut a piece of leaf or fruit and chow down. Some spiders feed on leaves by digesting them with enzymes prior to eating, much as they do with meat.How do you take care of a pet spider?
If you have room, give your spider a small bowl of water.
- Spiders will also drink the water off of damp webbing. But you need to make sure that your cage doesn't become damp. Spiders do not thrive in humidity.
- Refill your spider's water every couple of days, or more frequently, if you notice it is empty.