I place them in dry and they quickly re-hydrate in the pitcher solution.
Ya know, JLAP uses a diluted fish emulsion in the pitchers of his Neps; I wonder if he does this for his Cephs as well? Seems like it would work...
Yes. Half strength twice a month. Well, I did but I have since sent off my Cephalotus for someone to take care of while I'm at college. Ditto for Heliamphora. Feeding insects is so old school. It's inefficient. Each time you feed an insect, you're also filling the pitcher with useless chitin and other nasty crap. This limits the amount you can feed in small pitchers, unless you want to clean it out periodically to make room for more bugs and that's just silly. You can also not control exactly what your plants get if you don't fertilize. You may want to tweak the N, P, K, levels and you just can't do that with crickets. Fertilizer, on the other hand, can be added over and over and over again. After two weeks, when it's time to fertilize again, the water level in the pitcher is back down low to where it should be. Just top it off with more half strength fertilizer. I don't know if feeding once a week with 1/4th strength is better, worse, or the same. I'd say probably worse (but still good) because there's more water in the pitcher at any given time. When I say fill, by the way, I mean FILL! Fill them up until it reaches the top.
I've never done any experiments, and it could be entirely psychosomatic, but I'm CONVINCED that all my pitchers last far, far longer with fertilizer versus feeding insects. They seem to last forever. If you're plant can catch bugs, I can't recommend fertilizing it via the pitchers. You don't want to mess up the equilibrium inside the pitcher. You can REALLY fertilize anything (except, IME, D. adelae. At least not at conventional levels.) if you know what you're doing and how to do it. For example, fertilizing the media for something like Nepenthes or Heliamphora is good, but not good at all for something like Sarracenia. Instead, you can spray foliarly or (my preference) just squirt about 20 CC's of your solution directly into the pitcher. Don't do this if the plant catches a lot of bugs. This is like using milk (which many people do) but it will not curdle like milk (gross!). For some reason, people are fine with using milk but get all paranoid when you use fertilizer in the same manner. Spray above your Drosera and let the mist fall and collect on the lamina. Or spray your Utricularia to jump-start it. If you're going to do this, flush the media very well. If you feel uncomfortable because the myth that fertilizer is bad has been too firmly pounded into your head, then start by foliar feeding your Nepenthes/Heliamphora/Cephalotus. It doesn't do too much because of the waxy cuticle on many plants, but it will build your confidence.
Don't add too much to Sarracenia pitchers. They'll fall over if you do. You really don't have to fertilize Sarracenia, I'm just saying you can and that it's safe. If, somehow you screw up, use the wrong fertilizer, go crazy with it, etc., then that's your problem and I'm not responsible for it.