Having some plants in your home or a garden outside your home serve the purpose of being both practical and aesthetic. While some common plants fall under the categories of succulents or flowering plants, such as roses, lilacs, and sunflowers, Venus flytraps are also good plants to keep and tend for.
In order to raise a healthy Venus flytrap, I would recommend feeding the plant once every other week. In addition to this time frame, it is also important to know what to feed your Venus flytrap and how to avoid other common feeding issues.
You are probably still wondering if this time frame is appropriate for your Venus flytrap to keep the plant healthy and thriving. Don’t worry. The rest of this article will explain how to go about ensuring your Venus flytrap is well-fed as well as other practices to ensure the plant lives a long time.
How Often Should You Feed Your Venus Flytrap?
Much like people and animals, plants can also be overfed or underfed. In the case of most plants, this has to do with their exposure to water and sunlight. On the other hand, Venus flytraps can also eat food in the form of bugs and insects.
While it may be fun to watch your plant trap its prey, it is essential to note that it does take energy for your plant to trap the prey, similar to how it takes energy to eat and process the foods we eat. When the flytrap is lying dormant, there is no need to feed them.
The optimal number of feedings for a Venus flytrap is once every other week. This is enough for the plant to receive the appropriate amount of nutrients in order to keep the plant alive. If you keep your plant outside, there is a different requirement for feeding the plant.
If You Keep the Venus Flytrap Outside
When the Venus flytrap is kept outside, you do not need to feed the plant yourself. The flytrap will catch its own food outside, so there is no need for you to provide for the plant. A Venus flytrap that grows outside is capable of capturing its own food; therefore, there is no need to actively work to feed the plant.
How to Feed a Venus Flytrap During the Winter
In the winter, you may feel the urge to go about feeding the Venus flytrap as if it were a pet, but you do not need to aim to feed the plant more in the winter. Due to the change in weather and decrease in the number of bugs outside during the winter months, many Venus flytraps have evolved to stop wasting their energy looking for food that is not likely to be there.
In this case, many flytraps will turn to be like other plants and rely more on water and photosynthesis to obtain the energy needed to survive. During the winter, the Venus flytrap will drop the larger leaves, which it would normally use to trap insects, and the traps it would often use will become unresponsive.
Can I Overfeed a Venus Flytrap?
No. A Venus flytrap cannot be overfed. If you provide the correct types of food for the flytrap, it is impossible to cause overfeeding of the plant. While you cannot overfeed the plant, I advise only to feed one of the traps at a time. Feeding more then one trap means the plants is using unnecessary energy to trap and digest the extra food.
What to Feed a Venus Flytrap
Unlike other plants that only require sunlight and water, Venus flytraps can eat food, such as bugs. However, it is appropriate to understand what is acceptable to feed a Venus flytrap and what is not acceptable.
Acceptable Food for A Venus Flytrap
When in the wild, a Venus flytrap will capture its food. This food tends to be insects and bugs that will fly around and land on the plant. Although insects are the common food for a Venus flytrap, it is never okay to give the plant meat, like you would a dog or cat.
Live prey is commonly fed to Venus flytraps. It can consist of:
- Slugs
- Caterpillars
- Spiders
- Crickets
- Flies
- Mealworms
- Bloodworms
Any food given to a Venus flytrap should be no larger than 1/3 the size of the plant’s trap. Larger bugs are more difficult for the plant to eat and may cause for the plant to rot and die.
Unacceptable Food for A Venus Flytrap
As previously stated, a Venus flytrap should never be fed meat or insects that are larger than 1/3 the size of the plant. You should also note that you do not need to fertilize your Venus flytrap.
While they are insects and tend to be smaller than 1/3 the size of a Venus flytrap, it is not wise to feed ants to a Venus flytrap. Caterpillars can also be tricky to feed a Venus flytrap as the caterpillar can eat its way out of the trap.
Also, it is pretty obvious but it is unacceptable to give normal human food to a Venus flytrap. The Venus flytrap does not have the same digestive system human do; therefore, the food you would feed yourself could cause harm or death to the plant.
How to Care for A Venus Flytrap
Since we have discussed the proper diet for a Venus flytrap, it is vital to understand the living conditions that allow the plant to thrive.
The Venus flytrap is native to the east coast of the United States. The plants are found in the wild in both North and South Carolina, but they are rarely found in the wild in any other place. For a Venus flytrap to grow well, you should duplicate the habitat where it grows naturally as accurately as possible.
In order for the Venus flytrap to grow, the area in which the plant is placed should be humid and sunlit. The plant does not thrive in cold temperatures. Much like other plants, you will need to water the Venus flytrap, but do not let the plant sit in water. This can cause an overwatering of the plant.
If you want to ensure that your plant receives an adequate amount of sunlight and is kept at an appropriate temperature, you can keep your Venus flytrap in a terrarium if you choose to keep the plant indoors. You can find many different terrariums on Amazon, and here is a perfect one for a Venus flytrap.
Once you notice the leaves and traps of your plant are turning black, it is important to remove these, so your plant can grow healthier ones and continue to live a healthy life.
Final Thoughts
Venus flytraps are great plants to keep around your house. If you choose to keep your Venus flytrap outside, you do not need to worry about feeding the plant as it will trap insects on its own. If you decide to keep your Venus flytrap inside, it is best to try to simulate the natural habitat of the Venus flytrap keeping it at warm temperatures and allowing for a lot of bright sunlight.
You must also remember that the Venus flytrap would only need to be fed once a week or so in order to stay healthy, but there is little risk in overfeeding the Venus flytrap as it tends to close its traps to digest its food.
