? Q. Kvod Harav. I wonder in recent questions (3982 – 85) you mentioned the Biblical obligation to feed your pets cats, dogs, fish etc. before you eat. Does that apply also to pet insects such as if the children have an Ant Farm or crickets and grasshoppers as pets?
A. Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is that there is no prohibition of Tza’ar Ba’al Chaim regarding giving unnecessary pain to insects, that is indeed prohibited in more developed animals. (See question 1427 regarding a dying fly), so there is no need to give the insects to eat first.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller and Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu Shlit’a.