Spiders feed when prey is available. The exact timing depends on the species, habitat, and the spider’s life stage.
Some spiders wait for insects to land in a web. Others hunt at night, stalk by day, or strike when a meal comes close enough.
A spider’s diet usually includes insects and other small animals. Spiders are predators that feed almost entirely on arthropods, especially insects.
Their feeding behavior changes between web-building spiders, active hunters, and ambush predators. The best time for a spider to feed depends on how it catches food.
Typical Feeding Times and Hunting Patterns
Spider feeding times often match prey movement instead of the clock. Insects are active at different hours, so hunting style, habitat, and season shape when a spider eats.
How Day, Night, and Opportunity Affect Meals
Many spiders feed at night if their prey is most active then. Web-building spiders can catch prey any time.
Active hunters may wait for hours when their favorite insects move around. If a suitable insect walks by, lands in a web, or crawls under a spider’s hideout, the spider may feed right away.
Why Hunting Style Changes the Feeding Window
Web-building spiders feed when prey hits the web, so their schedule depends on insect traffic. Wolf spiders and jumping spiders hunt when visibility helps them spot movement.
Ambush predators stay still until prey comes close. Fishing spiders feed near water edges where insects and small aquatic animals pass through.
Cellar spiders wait in place, using silk and venom to subdue small prey with little wasted energy.
How Habitat and Season Shift Activity
A spider in a rich habitat with many insects feeds more often than one in a dry or quiet area. Warm months bring more prey, while cold or low-activity periods can slow feeding.
Humidity, plant cover, and shelter affect how much food moves through a space. The same species may seem active in one season and quiet in another.
How Feeding Changes Across Life Stages
Young spiders need small, frequent meals. Adults usually eat larger prey and can wait longer between feedings.
Growth, molting, and body size shape feeding frequency, especially in species kept as pets.
What Spiderlings Need Early On
Spiderlings need tiny prey such as mites, springtails, or very small flies. Their early diet has to match their size, since they can only handle prey they can overpower and liquify.
The jumping spider diet often starts with flightless fruit flies or similarly small feeders. Species like Phidippus audax, Hyllus diardi, and Hasarius adansoni need prey that fits their body size and hunting ability.
Juvenile and Adult Feeding Frequency
Feeding frequency slows as spiders grow. Small juveniles may eat every few days, while mature spiders feed less often if they get larger meals.
A jumping spider care guide recommends feeding spiderlings every 1 to 3 days and adults every 5 to 10 days, depending on size and appetite. A swollen abdomen often means the spider does not need food yet.
Pre-Molt Fasting and Post-Molt Recovery
Many spiders stop eating before a molt. This pause, called pre-molt fasting, helps them stay safe while their body prepares to shed the old exoskeleton.
After molting, spiders usually resume feeding once their new body hardens. At that point, small prey is the safest choice since the spider is still recovering.
What to Offer in Captivity
In captivity, live feeders that match the spider’s size and species work best. Small, active insects are ideal, and the right choice changes from tiny spiderlings to larger adults.
Best Feeders by Size and Species
Small spiders do well with Drosophila melanogaster and Collembola, since both are tiny and easy to catch. As the spider grows, you can move to pinhead crickets, small crickets, bottle fly spikes, bottle flies, mealworms, flies, moths, mosquitoes, beetles, grasshoppers, worms, and crickets.
Some keepers use springtails and mites for tiny spiders. A feeder insects comparison can help match prey to your spider’s size and hunting style.
Prey Size, Gut-Loading, and Safety
A simple prey-size matrix is easy to follow. Prey should be about the spider’s body length or smaller for many species.
Bigger prey can injure a spider, especially if it is stressed, freshly molted, or still young. Gut-loading feeder insects with healthy food before feeding improves their value.
Avoid wild-caught insects when possible, since they may carry pesticides or parasites.
When a Spider Refuses Food
A spider may refuse food if it is full, about to molt, stressed, or in a poor environment. Temperature, hydration, and enclosure setup affect appetite.
If a spider ignores prey for more than a short period, remove the feeder insect so it does not bother the spider. Try a smaller feeder next time, since a jumping spider diet often works best when prey size stays modest.
Exceptions, Cannibalism, and Unusual Food Choices
Most spiders stick to insects, but a few species and situations break that pattern. Some spiders eat each other, and a few unusual species add rare foods like plant material or even vertebrate prey.
Why Some Spiders Eat Other Spiders
Spiders eat other spiders when prey is scarce, territory is crowded, or a larger spider catches a smaller one. Cannibalism can also happen during mating in some species, especially when one spider is much larger or more aggressive.
This behavior is risky, but it can be a useful food source when other prey is hard to find.
Rare Cases of Larger Vertebrate Prey
A few larger spiders catch lizards, fish, or other small vertebrates. These cases are unusual and usually involve larger hunting spiders instead of typical web-builders.
The prey is still small compared with the spider’s hunting range, but it is far outside the usual insect-based diet.
The Plant-Leaning Exception Of Bagheera kiplingi
Bagheera kiplingi is a rare exception because it feeds mostly on Beltian bodies from ant-acacia plants.
It also takes some nectar.
Most spiders do not eat plants.
This species stands out as a true oddity.
It may also eat caterpillars or other small prey when the chance appears.
