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VFT Food Selections

Sorry guys, I have to ask. What kind of bugs to feed my VFTs. I know enough not to feed them hotdogs at least...

I fed my typical rosette a small beetle that was crawling around and also tried a small cut piece of earthworm in another trap on the same plant. We'll see what happens.
I wanted to try out different stuff on my regular old VFT before I move on to feeding my Red Pirannha (which is smaller and has less traps).
My plants are kept on the patio when weather allows so I know they will hunt on their own, but I wanted to give them a little something to "jumpstart" them for the newly hot weather and the growing season.
I'm not worried about my sundew as he catches plenty on his own, and my S. Minor isn't developed enough to take food.

My food options for my VFT are as follows:

Earthworms (cut wriggling pieces)
Waxworms
Crickets (if I can find small enough ones)
Fly Maggots (called "spikes" at the bait shop, available only seasonally)
Mealworms
Pill bugs
Carpenter ants (all over the place right now, but kind of a pain to feed)

Any advice on any or all of these?

Thanks
 
Pillbugs, earwigs, meal worms (larval beetles) are all quite good; even the plant will like them . . .
 
i think you need to leave the plant out 24/7....outside is the best for flytraps, full sun, and water....even if its cloudy, the plants will likely do better than what you can provide indoors, take it from someone who lives in a state where its cloudy about 70% of the time xD
 
Currently I leave them out from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed. When the temps stay above 70 at night I'm going to leave them out all night until temps dictate a return to the windowsill at bedtime in the fall.

We're having an unusually hot spring blast here (temps in the high 80's during the day), but temps are dropping into the 60s at night still. I want to keep them above 70 to keep their growth rate up. Temps range between 70 and 75 in my apartment.

I figure I'll leave them out 24/7 in the fall until the snow starts to fall, then I'll put them up next to the north facing window of my closet with the door shut. Temps should at least stay in the 60s in there in the winter, hopefully colder by the window. Leave 'em there till march or so and then stick them in the south-facing windowsill again and (hopefully) bring them out of dormancy, and start the process over again. That's the tentative plan in the current apartment I'm in anyway.

When I move I might have to devise a different plan. I figure it's about the best I can do here in MI without owning a greenhouse. We'll see what happens :).
 
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60s will not hurt these plants in any way shape or form, regularly my plants out of dormancy experiance it down to about 40 at night, sometimes even colder in the beginning of spring when they are fresh out of dormancy....these plants are not tropical lowland plants like you might be thinking...
 
I see your point.

I just don't want to shock them with colder temps than they're used to. I'm sort of trying to acclimate them to the temps/full sun around here. It won't be too long before I let them get a full days sun (I've been leaving them out when I go to work at 3:00 pm till nightfall). Once the temps rise a little at night I'll leave them out all the time till winter.

I'm sure it won't hurt them to leave them out all the time now, I'm just new to the hobby and probably being overly cautious :blush:.

I'm noticing my little green guy getting some brown traps (a couple were turning black- I trimmed those off). I worry about baking them out too much. I think it's probably either from some stress from shipping or just some small traps dying off from it coming out of dormancy. There's some nice green trap sprouts coming out of the top. They're getting plenty of sun and sitting in distilled water trays.

The traps are snapping shut FAST in my couple of feeding attempts, so I'm guessing that's a good sign. My red pirranha snagged something the night before last that was flying around the house and is munching away on it. Death to all intruders! :).
 
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Just put the plant outside, and let it do its job. Nobody feeds them in the wild. They are just plants, treat 'em like you would an orchid.
 
Just put the plant outside, and let it do its job. Nobody feeds them in the wild. They are just plants, treat 'em like you would an orchid.



dont treat them like you would an orchid, where did you get that comparison timmy, flytraps are nothing like orchids, in any way shape or form other than they are both plants.
time and time again you chime in and give incorrect advice or create posts proving ignorance yet you act like a knowitall in the field of CPs, get off your high horse, the only thing you said correct in that statement was put them outside and let them do their thing
i grew orchids from the time i was 8 till i was 14 and moved out of florida, not very long compared to many people in the orchid hobby, but i can tell the difference between growing a temperate flytrap and growing a tropical or temperate orchid, the only orchid you could treat similarly would be a bog orchid from a similar set of conditions in a similar environment.
 
Most people above 1 month would know what I meant. What I am saying is Don't feed the plant insects. It can do it by itself. People don't stick food in your mouth, or give you showers. All it needs is water and sunlight. That's practically taking advantage of what this plant can do.
 
  • #10
Just put the plant outside, and let it do its job. Nobody feeds them in the wild. They are just plants, treat 'em like you would an orchid.

I keep my Phals indoors - so you're saying I should keep the flytrap indoors year round, allow it to bloom whenever it wishes, and water it with tap water? How about the media? Can I use orchid bark as the main component? Can I grow it on a shady windowsill?

that was one of the most mind-boggling posts you've made in a while... :poke:
 
  • #11
I meant about feeding an orchid insects, it like impossible so dont feed the Dionaea. why does everyone hate me??????
 
  • #12
I meant about feeding an orchid insects, it like impossible so dont feed the Dionaea. why does everyone hate me??????

Just saying, some orchid fertilizers are made from bits of insects. Not sure about my fertilizer. Not everyone hates you.
 
  • #13
feeding and digesting. im ant not the antagonist!!!!!!!!!!
 
  • #14
  • #15
Is it just me, or did SK's and N101's posts just disappear? :p
 
  • #16
yep :) its fine though, the mods are doing some "cleaning house" and i agree that removing my statement there was probably a good idea.
 
  • #17
lol amusing. Am I the only one who read Timmy's statement in context? His statement simply came across to me as you don't need to feed a VFT bugs just like you wouldn't for an orchid. He could have said oak tree, or tomato and it would've had the same meaning.
 
  • #18
lol amusing. Am I the only one who read Timmy's statement in context? His statement simply came across to me as you don't need to feed a VFT bugs just like you wouldn't for an orchid. He could have said oak tree, or tomato and it would've had the same meaning.

This is what I thought.
 
  • #19
From what I've read handfeeding VFTs is fine and won't "bother" them at all, and will promote more vigorous growth, provided it's done in moderation. For me it's one of the fun things about owning them.

Of course they will hunt on their own, which is also cool to observe. My question was are the afore mentioned insects OK to feed and which do you guys prefer....
 
  • #20
In my experience, anything live that is small enough to fit is good prey, although I would choose smaller pill bugs since they tend to push their way out or bulge out from the inside due to their shape. Hard exoskeleton too.

If I had a choice, though, it would be flies--houseflies, green and blue bottles, etc...for obvious reasons. Ants, lacewings, and spiders are good menu items as well. Earthworms leave no traces as they lack a skeleton. I used to have a small roach infestation and would feed mine baby roaches I found in my apartment.

Or you can be like Barry Rice and feed them dead pieces of your toe skin.

Good lighting, water, soil, humidity, etc >>>> feeding.
 
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