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Hi singaporean Cpers,
I was just wondering what do you all feed your plants (carnivorous of course) around here. Because I just got a new flytrap and was thinking that I should begin feeding my neps, as I have heard from many people that feeding will have positive effects on the plants. So, I interested in knowing what you Cpers get for your plants around here? I'm talking the whole cp range (sundews, nepenthes, pings, VFTs, Utrics...) Can anyone recommend some soluble fish food brand for neps, a cricket alternative for VFTs, and any prey for sundews (besides ants and fruitflies, I want bigger prey
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Pings or Utrics? I thought I would post this in the singapore forums because the results or effects people get in other parts of the world cannot really relate to what we get here in singapore, because singapore is sort of like a small community on its own, with its own aspects. (like different brands of fish food, insecticide and of course, growing conditions, because most of the time when people refer to a product or growing condition halfway across the world, I have absolutely no idea what they're parroting on about. Same for you?)
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Thanks,
Jason
 
I collect fruitflies that are found dead in my freezer and feed them to my sundews. Don't ask me why there are fruitflies in my freezer
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. They are of a suitable size for my dews, but too big for my pygmies. Sometimes, I dig up ant colonies to find the embryoes to feed them to the dews. I have found that if I feed my D. burmannii when they are flowering with the ant embryoes, the plants do not die after flowering, which is usually the case. My second D. burmannii is actually sending out two flower stalks and the plant still looks vigorous.

However, feeding ants to CPs should be approached with some care. I have caught rather large ones to feed to my dew and found that the formic acid that the ants spew out kills the leaves.

Crickets are easy to buy because of the high number of people buying them for their arrowanas, oscars and hill mynahs and other ornamental birds. However, they are too big for the dews and VFT. So, I am trying to breed them crickets in my apartment. Very smelly. Not a good idea.

You could also try to get mealworms from the aquarium shops or bird shops. They are the larvae of some kind of beetle. You can feed the mealworms to the CPs or let the worm metamorphose into beetles and than feed them to the plants. The meal worms can be easily kept alive by feed them oats.
 
Crickets? Where can I get cans of dead, preserved crickets? I seem only to be able to find lives one lah and it's going to be quite messy killing them, etc...
 
I feed the crickets live to zee plants!
 
I have tried the following:

Mealworms = can be cultivated in a flat non transparent container with oat, barn and leafy vegetable (for water content), keep the whole set-up dry. Adult beetles will reproduce very quickly, life cycle in the tropic is about 2~3 months. However, it is not recommended for growing in-house …smell awful.

Fruit flies = ultra ripe banana attract lot of them, set a trap by placing the banana in to a transparent container, place a funnel onto and cover the opening of container, fruit flies will find it way into the container through the funnel but is not able to find the way out. After that freeze the whole thing and harvest.

Alternatively, a ¼ cut off plastic bottle with top and narrow bottle neck can be reintroduced inverted into the lower ¾.

Ants = use an ant trap, a transparent container with white sugar as lure, drill small holes for ants to enter and .. of course to escape, just make sure you remove the container when lot of ants are traped and place it into a seal plastic bag to harvest you catch.

Rice Weevil = try finding it the rice container.

I used to freeze fast moving insect for 20 minute in the freezer before feeding.
 
For VFTs (used to): German cockroaches. The ones that are amber-brown in colour and at most 1 - 2 cm long. Now they are extinct...in my flat at least...heh heh

For Neps: Mealworms

For Sundews: The dead insects lying around near the florescent lights. And bloodworms.

For Butterworts: The dead insects lying around near the florescent lights. And bloodworms.
 
VFT: houseflies are the best, ( ideal size, and full of nutritious juices
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) What I do is I dangle a slice of dried meat(bagua) with a string above the VFT pots. This attracts lot of houseflies which will settle on the traps once a while. From there, the VFT will do its job.

Neps: ants are the best, I tried mealworms b4 and the pitcher turned black after a while. What I do is I catch queen ants(those with the wings) and place them near my neps enclosure, so that they form colonies near my neps and provide an endless supply of worker ants.
 
You don't have to be messy with killing crickets.
You can just put them in the freezer, and they will slow down, and then die.
 
At work I have been successful at catching flies alive, putting them in a 50 ml sample tube, and putting them into the fridge. In a few minutes they go to sleep. When it's time to feed I take them out and place them into my VFT. When they warm up - they wake up and struggle enough to give the VFT the signal that it has a live one, thus sending out its digestive juices. Gotta love it!
 
  • #10
Hi everybody, haven't logged on for quite a while.
My nepenthes catch lots of ants naturally but I would recommend koi carp pellets for the nepenthes also. No need for all this fuss about catching fruit flies/breeding mealworms etc. My neighbours probably think I'm mad if they watch me but who cares. After I have fed my fish and turtles I then walk around and feed my plants. 1 pellet once a week seems to help them alot.
Happy growing , neil.
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  • #11
Does anyone here feed their neps milk? (not bottle feed, just drops
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) I have heard that milk can help encourage growth in neps, and besides, feeding milk takes away all the gross aspects of other methods of feeding, say, stuffing crikets into pitchers?
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Could anyone recommend a fat free and preferably high protein content milk brand? (or a soluble fish food brand, or any type of food high in protein that is suitable to feed nepenthes with)

Thanks,
Jason
 
  • #12
Those who feed their neps mealworms and crickets, could you please pm me a good shop to buy them from and how often you feed your plants? Thanks...
 
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