Spider food
Slater spider
Spiders are predatory, carnivorous arthropods, mainly feeding on other invertebrates.
- Food is live prey only.
- Digestion starts outside the mouth:
- they secrete digestive juices over the prey and turn it into a liquid;
- they suck the liquified prey inside using their strong sucking stomach.
- Spiders often increase their body weight by 50% with a good meal.
- Spiders can eat their own weight in one meal (what weight of food would that be if it were you?)
- Spiders can go for long periods without food, the longest record being for 1 year (however, they do need moist conditions to prevent dehydration).
