What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

What food is best for VFTs?

What food is best for VFTs?

What bugs do you use?

Can you feed them spiders? What about ants? Those would probably be easiest for me. Are crickets good food?
 
Any thing they can catch on there own is good, I feed mine flies, spiders, and sow bugs.
 
I've read sowbugs aren't good because they have too hard of a shell.
 
I stick mine outside and let them fend for themselves. They do a much better job at catching their own than I do catching it for them.
 
I never herd that, it never bothered my vfts. The under side is alot softer and the can't roll up to pretect that area.
 
What food is best for VFTs?

What bugs do you use?

Can you feed them spiders? What about ants? Those would probably be easiest for me. Are crickets good food?


You don't need to feed them, they get their own food outside. Basically anything that goes in the trap that is small enough to be trapped.

Tom
 
As has been said, it's best to place the plany outside and let nature take its course.

However, if you INSIST on feeding them yourself, there are a few rules of thumb to follow.

1: BUGS ONLY!!! No people or pet food whatsoever. Ground Beef is too rich and will cause the trap to die and rot.

2: Any bugs you do offer should only be about 1/2-1/3 the length of the trap it's going to be placed in. Any bigger and the trap will not be able to close completely on it, preventing it from forming a seal and causing rot due to bacterial growth. The same can be caused by bugs with long antennae, legs, etc.

3: ONLY feed Live Insects. The trap will close when any combination of 2 hairs is triggered, but the actual release of digestive enzymes and sealing of the trap is only triggered by continued stimulation by the insect struggling within. Yes, nature is cruel.

4: Don't manually feed too often. Each trap is capable of closing and reopening about 3 times before it dies. Tease Sparingly.
 
What food is best for VFTs?

Whatever it catches on its own as nature intended. :)
 
ARe there any foods that are available at pet stores (crickets, meal/wax worms, red worms, fruit flies, etc.) that are suitable for VFTs or nepenthes? The nepenthes will always be inside (as far as I know) and the VFT will be inside until probably June or so.
 
  • #10
You can feed neps crickets, mealworms, and skim milk. Anything that isn't too big, depending on the size of the trap. When I new trap opens on my neps, I usually give it a drop of skim milk and a very small bloodworm.

xvart.
 
  • #11
And the skim milk helps the next ones be bigger. Correct?
Can you feed it 2%?
 
  • #12
I would stick with skim since it has less fat but I have no evidence to back this up. When people feed vft's hamburger they die because of all the fat and grease in the meat. Skim milk has the nutrients that baby humans need, but less fat. Neps don't need the fat, anyways.

xvart.
 
  • #13
VFT's are partial to Ultimate Bacon Cheeseburgers, Curly fries, and a HUGE Chocolate Milkshake. Give them that, and they are done for the rest of the year. Maybe, for the rest of VFT eternity!
 
  • #14
you would be surprised what you will find in nep pitchers even if the plant is always inside..........i had an amp that was always full of house flies.............
 
  • #15
I've only seen fruit flies in there, and one of them was drinking the nectar off of an unopened, baby trap.
 
  • #16
Skim... Milk...? Jeesh. I gotta try that. Too bad I begged my mom to buy 1% instead of skim because skim is gross >.>. A drop of skim milk will get diluted a bit but still have nutrients along with the insect prey and the milk and insect nutrients will be re-absorbed huh? That's pretty clever. When my Nep. ventricosa feels like making pitchers with it's endless supply of leaves I'll have to try that.

For food, well, you just have to experiment. I found this 1 inch long weird thing crawling out of my D. spatulata soil so I stuck it in my Dionaea's new trap. 2 of it's wiry thin legs are sticking out... I hope it doesn't rot.
 
  • #17
Since I live in an apartment, I don't really have the option to keep my plants outside. Despite what people say about CPs grown indoors, mine don't really catch a lot of food on their own because there really isn't much to catch. (Except for the sundews, who periodically get to gorge themselves on roommate-generated fruit flies.)
I used to keep a jars in my bag to catch flies with to feed to my VFTs. However, the last time I was in Black Jungle, I bought a little tupperware of pheonix worms. The plants seem to like them, and I like not having to chase flies around while at work. One interesting thing about them is that since there's no hard exoskeleton, when the trap reopens there isn't much left of the grub.

Link:
http://www.blackjungle.com/Merchant...re_Code=BJTS&Product_Code=PW-S&Category_Code=
 
  • #18
Aren't those just waxworms? And why exactly is skim milk good for them and only in really small amounts?
 
  • #19
Just remember you can't feed a VFT dead bugs. While the trap will close, it won't seal without the "struggling" of a live bug. Otherwise the traps would seal and try to digest various stuff that might accidently land in a trap like a piece of bark or small leaf that blows in.
 
  • #20
VFT's are partial to Ultimate Bacon Cheeseburgers, Curly fries, and a HUGE Chocolate Milkshake. Give them that, and they are done for the rest of the year. Maybe, for the rest of VFT eternity!

.... and Barry Rice's moldy feet! :-D
 
Back
Top