How to Feed Carnivorous Plants with Fish Food

If you grow your carnivorous plants indoors, they will need to be fed to sustain healthy, rapid growth. Betta fish food pellets are a high protein, micronutrient fortified food that is great for carnivorous plants. Use this for sundews (Drosera), dewy pines (Drosophyllum) and more.

To feed, apply the dry fish food powder gently to the sticky tentacles of the sundew. I typically use a slightly moistened toothpick which can pick up small amounts of the fish food powder and then stick it to the dewy tentacles. It is best to only feed dewy leaves and avoid large chunks of food.

General Info:

• For very large plants, it might be easier to create a soupy mix of fish food powder and distilled water. This can be applied with a pipette, but care must be taken to avoid overfeeding. Dry food is safest.

• Only feed leaves that are dewy, otherwise they may struggle to digest the food.

• Feed around 25% of leaves every 2-4 weeks. I like to feed the older leaves so the newer leaves stay fresh and beautiful.

• Overfeeding can cause leaf burn, but the plant will be fine and should still absorb the nutrients.

How much to use?

Try to only apply small flecks of powder to the dewy tentacles. Large chunks of food can be too large for the leaf to handle (fish food is more concentrated in nutrients than flies). Start with smaller amounts and slowly increase after observing how your plant responds. Overfeeding is not problematic for the plants, but may cause that individual leaf to die off early.

Above: Bits of fish food are placed on the dewy tentacles and within 1-2 minutes the tentacles will curl inward to secure the prey and begin digestion. The digestive process will take roughly 1 week and digestive fluids can be seen secreted by the leaf.