How to Feed a Pet Insect

Your pet insect's diet will vary widely by species, but some generalizations can be made and more specific instructions can be offered based on classification (herbivores and insectivores). The following steps will help you in feeding these unusual pets.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Avoid feeding your pet any plants or leaves that have been sprayed with insecticide and never spray insecticides in the same room as an insect. Keep your pet insect elsewhere for a few days if your house will be sprayed by a pest controller.
   
   

2. Provide water regularly for most insects. Fill a small container such as a jar lid with cotton wool or a sponge and keep it wet so that your pet insects can drink from it without drowning.
   

3. Use the correct foliage for herbivorous insects to eat. Your care sheet will have specific information if you purchased it or you can use vegetation native to the area in which you caught the insect. Provide a variety of plants to find out which ones your insect prefers.
   

4. Feed your insectivorous insect live prey. Use your care sheet as your starting guide and experiment with a variety until you find your pet's individual preferences. Make sure the prey you feed the insect is smaller than your pet. Remember that most predatory insects only need to eat 1 to 2 times a week so it can be easy to overfeed them.
   

5. Crickets are the most common prey used as food and are commercially available. Roaches are also used and can be easily bred in captivity. Make sure you put a ring of petroleum jelly around the inside of the tank so they can't crawl out.

[smacquart]

on 7/22/2007 I love this article! I am starting a small, tabloid-sized paper concerning pets of all sorts (and plants and other creatures). Please let me know how I can use this article. I will not copy and use it as my own...I want to do things right! Thanks.