In the wild, various species of spiders will take on a great variety of prey of different sizes. When capturing prey, there is always a risk that the prey animal could injure the spider while defending itself by biting, stinging or kicking. In captivity, most people use crickets or ‘Woodie’ cockroaches as food for spiders. This insects have hard mandibles and depending on size, are capable of injuring pet spiders. To minimise risk, we recommend that food insects be 1/3 the body size of the spider.