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Alternative food sources

Hi everyone,
I was wondering what foods besides insect etc. can be used to feed CP's. I've already tried small pieces of egg white on my droseras and pings. The droseras engulfed the egg white and within days the egg white was gone.
On the other hand, small pieces of egg white made holes in the leaves of my mexican pings after feeding it to them. Are there any other foods that work effectively without causing damage to the leaves? Feel free to share your experience.
 
Hey CP2k(02)
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I have heard that you can dilute out some superthrive ( ask RamPuppy about this).

He does it with his VFT's. I am sure that you can do it with the butterworts and sundews.

I know that you have to have it REALLY WEAK though...too much will hurt the plant. (overdose -not a pretty site)

I think some other people in here have played with superthrive too.
 
I have used one drop of superthrive per gallon of distilled water on every plant I own, including flytraps, nepenthes, sundews, you name it, even cephalotous...


I have not met a plant that does not respond well to superthrive!


As far as egg white, my experiences have been mixed, one time, I might have over fed, but I dont think so, it rotted out some gorgoeous pitchers, another time it got moldy without much happening... but over all, I have had mild success with it, though I never hand feed my flytraps, just to much trouble, and they generally mis-fire on me any how... they do fine on their own. everything else though, except the ceph, cause it's to hard to feed, I do suppliment.

I have had great success with dried blood worms, in Sarracenia, In Nepenthes, they go right down, though in highly humid conditions, if you don't get it ALL in the fluid bath, it will mold, and destroy the pitcher in a few days flat! I have had limited success with blood worms on sundews, never done it to butter worts...

That is pretty much it...

I have been thinking about experimenting with some iso-pure protien samples I have, it is absolutely pure protien, taken from Whey (Cow milk) it is used in protien shakes that body builders and athletes use to substitute their diets.
 
Blood worms are excellent. Most Nepenthes can stomach them, butterworts will usually digest them if you only use a couple, the plant is very healthy in the first place(never feed a weak and sickly plant), and you dip the blood worm in water first. Drosera capensis seems to positively adore blood worms(for me at least). You can simply dump them onto the leaves and they'll be fully digested within a week. You can feed tiny bloodworm bits to VFTs if you moisten them first and make sure the trap seals.
That protein sounds interesting. But protein is not the only reason plants would eat insects. Insects contain a bunch of other nutrients that I don't remember because I'm...too...tired.
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But it might make you end up with a buff Drosera capensis...ha...ha...
get bloodworms at pet stores for few dollars for plants and fish and
Chris
 
Thanks everyone for the fast posts. I'll go get some bloodworm from the local aquarium store.
 
Isopure protien would be really easy for the plant to break down I think, taking to amino acid levels within days... I will grant you though, it's not a squirming little insect, so IMHO< it is not ideal.
 
The problem with so meny of the non insect foods is the lack of micronutrients, all the trace stuff that everything need to survive, which caused me to think of a practice from my reptile days, has anyone tried gut loading their bugs before feeding them to the plants? For those unfamiliar with the term, gut loading means feeding the bug in question a highly nutritious last meal with the understanding that the creature ( plant in this case) being fed will recieve much more nutrition from the prey. In the reptile hobby it is recognized that most of the store bought prey insects have very little food value when you recieve them. Wild caught insects do not have this problem as they have been feeding on a variety of stuff that will usualy contain the needed nutrients.
 
I just got some blood worm and dipped them in water with diluted half or fourth strength of 'Epiphytes Delight'. I'll post some results on plants fed this way and plants that aren't fed in a month.

CP2K-Michael
 
  • #10
For that, I think the main hurdle to overcome is fungus. Generally, if you have a plant growing in a terrarium with condensation on the walls(only lowland neps seem to enjoy this), the humidity is too high and mold will almost certainly appear on the bloodworm. Dabbing the mold with 70% isropopyl(hmmm am I spelling that correctly?
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) alcohol will kill it, but it also damages your plants. So, watch out for fungus and don't feed bloodworms to plants in an extremely high humidity environment.
Chris
 
  • #11
I have never had problems with fungus, mold etc. with butterworts, only drosera. It seems that once the insect etc. is broken down on the leaves of the butterwort the remains don't become covered with mold or fungus even if the humidity is very high, while the opposite happens with my drosera. I think that the secretions of pings contain some sort of fungicide etc.
 
  • #12
I read the same thing. I've also never had fungal nightmares with pings. But Drosera are another story entirely...I just need to remember to increase ventilation in terraria if I notice condensation and find the sense to buy a CPU fan.
Chris
 
  • #13
I take care of my fungus problems with drosera by removing the insect carcass after the leaf uncurls.
 
  • #15
Yes...I just noticed that the blood worm dissolves to "blood" and a whole mess of goo. I just hope it won't mar the leaves.
 
  • #17
NG yucko!

Blood worms don't seem to damage leaves, but they may leave a crinkly sort of residue if you apply too many.
 
  • #18
Maybe i'll try and raise a drosophila(fruit fly) culture. I've seen some of these cultures at the local pet store.
That should supply more than enough insects for the CP's.
 
  • #19
I think fruit flies would be perfect. They're tiny, so they'd be appropriate even for pings. But wouldn't you just need some rotten banana in an enclosed container near the trash? That could work. What would a fruit fly culture consist of? eg lots of tiny buildings, parks, art hahaha :biggrin:
Chris
 
  • #20
If I put a rotten banana outside I'll get a lot more critters than fruit flies! I've read somewhere that fruit flies can be cultured in containers with sterilized mashed potato, water and sugar and yeast. Fruit flies live off the yeast growing on the medium. I just might try this.
 
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