Tarantula Feeding Guide
Tarantulas are opportunistic predators that take live prey. Appropriately sized feeder insects offer variety and encourage natural hunting behavior, and the right feeder depends on your tarantula's size, life stage, species and individual feeding response.
What tarantulas eat
Captive tarantulas can be offered a rotation of live feeder insects:
Crickets and roaches carry the diet. Hornworms are an occasional item rather than a staple.
Florida tarantula keepers: choosing legal feeder roaches
National feeding advice routinely recommends feeder roaches that Florida keepers cannot buy or keep under the same rules that apply elsewhere.
Discoid roaches (Blaberus discoidalis) are the practical alternative. They fill the same role for Florida arachnid and reptile keepers that other feeder roaches serve in other states, and they are available here in every size from pinhead to extra large.
Always verify current Florida regulations before acquiring or maintaining regulated arthropod species. See Florida-Legal Feeders.
Best feeder insects
Banded crickets
An excellent everyday feeder. Their movement readily triggers a tarantula's feeding response, and they are available across the full size range.
Choose a cricket sized for your spider rather than the largest it could overpower. Spiderlings take pinhead crickets (1/16") or small crickets (1/8"); juveniles move through 1/4" and 3/8"; adults take large crickets (1/2").
Staple feeder. Spiderlings through adults.
Discoid roaches
Excellent for medium and large tarantulas, and available small enough for spiderlings. Their body size makes them particularly useful for larger spiders.
Roaches may burrow into substrate, so supervise feeding and remove anything uneaten. Sizes run from pinhead (under 1/8") through extra large (1 1/4–2"+).
Staple or rotational feeder. Spiderlings through adults.
Hornworms
Soft-bodied and high in moisture, useful for a spider recovering from a molt or one that needs condition. They do not burrow, so an uneaten hornworm is easy to find and remove.
Hornworms grow quickly, so check the size of the individual worm before offering it. Small and medium suit most tarantulas.
Occasional variety feeder. Larger juveniles and adults.
Choosing the right feeder size
Prey should be sized for the individual tarantula. Bigger is not better — an appropriately sized feeder is easier to capture and reduces unnecessary risk from defensive prey.
Spiderlings require very small prey. Pinhead crickets and pinhead discoid roaches cover most spiderlings. For animals too small to safely tackle live prey, keepers commonly offer an appropriately sized portion of freshly killed prey instead.
Tarantulas generally take live prey; very small spiderlings may scavenge. As the spider grows, feeder size increases with it.
How often should you feed a tarantula?
There is no single schedule. Frequency varies with species, age, size, growth rate, body condition, temperature and time since the last molt.
Spiderlings and fast-growing juveniles generally eat more often than mature adults. Rather than relying on a calendar, watch body condition and feeding response.
How long can a tarantula go without eating?
Longer than most keepers expect, and a refused meal is not by itself a problem.
Healthy adults can fast for extended periods, particularly around a molt, and some individuals refuse food for far longer than others. Spiderlings are different — they have less reserve and shorter intervals between molts.
Judge by body condition, access to water, life stage and species rather than by a number of days. Never force a tarantula to eat.
Premolt and molting safety
Do not offer live prey to a tarantula that is in premolt or actively molting.
Tarantulas are extremely vulnerable during and immediately after a molt. Crickets, roaches and other live prey can injure a defenseless spider.
Wait until the new exoskeleton and fangs have hardened before resuming normal feeding. How long that takes varies with the size and species of the tarantula.
Remove uneaten feeders
Never use the enclosure as storage for spare feeder insects.
Remove uneaten live prey after a feeding attempt. This matters most when a tarantula is entering premolt, molting, or recovering. Feeder insects are prey, but some are capable of biting or disturbing a vulnerable spider.
Water
Tarantulas take moisture from their prey, but access to fresh water still matters. Provide a shallow water dish for species and life stages large enough to use one safely.
Hornworms add dietary moisture. They do not replace a water dish.
A simple feeder rotation
For a tarantula large enough to take all of these:
- Staples — banded crickets and appropriately sized discoid roaches
- Occasional variety — hornworms
You do not need to offer every feeder at every meal. Variety is built over time.
Never feed wild-caught insects
Do not collect insects from your yard or garden to feed your tarantula. Wild insects may carry pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, parasites or other contaminants.
Hornworms deserve a specific warning. Wild hornworms feed on tomato, tobacco and other nightshade-family plants, and compounds they take up from those plants can make them unsafe as feeders. Captive-raised feeder hornworms are reared on a controlled diet and are a different proposition entirely.
Keep feeder insects properly housed, hydrated and fed before offering them. See our Care & Storage guides.
Shop feeders for tarantulas
Feeders for Tarantulas · Banded crickets · Discoid roaches · Hornworms
Feeding & care note: Feeding needs vary among tarantula species and individual animals. This guide provides general feeding information and is not a substitute for species-specific husbandry guidance or veterinary care.