feeding canned insects?

[JungleGuts]

Im talking about the canned insects by like zoomed and exo-terra, i use them for some of my pets and was woundering if a vft would be ok with them? there not the freeze dried kind, there the jucy nasty ones in the cans. They have crickets, pillers, and all sorts of insects.

 

[jimscott]

VFT's will close around a non-moving critter when the sensory hairs are triggered but unless there is movement / struggle, it may not be stimulated enough to induce the digestion process. What you could do is buy baby crickets and put one in the fridge for a few minutes, just to knock it out. Then place it on a trap. When the cricket recovers it will struggle and that will cause the trap to secrete the "digestive juices".

 

[JMurphy97]

Yeah you need live food otherwise it's just like poking it with your finger which you also should not do.

 

[JungleGuts]

k thanks for the info, does anyone use Phoenix Worms?

 

[quogue]

Never tried em, but I do use those dried-bloodworms from the petstore. Sundews drool over em! Flytraps I try to feed live food as much as possible, catch their own a lot.
But the can-o-crickets are too big, fat and juicy for all but the largest of Flytraps.
Jimscotts advice on the fridge trick with baby crickets works great for flytraps, neps and strong dews like Regia's!

 

[droseraguy]

You can feed the non-living bugs to them but you need to stimulate the trigger hairs a couple of times after the initial closing. Sticking a toothpick inside the traps and gently rocking back and forth or "gently" massaging the trap from the outside works for me.

 

[Fryster]

What you could do is buy baby crickets and put one in the fridge for a few minutes, just to knock it out. Then place it on a trap. When the cricket recovers it will struggle and that will cause the trap to secrete the "digestive juices".

Well I just discovered today in fact, that live baby crickets won't survive 30 minutes in a FREEZER. I meant to give them about 3 minutes and then the phone rang....

Cricket Murder.

So the VFT goes hungry and instead, the Sarrs get the corpse....

Kinda weird how they go belly-up...

 

[jimscott]

You put them in the freezer?! You're supposed to put them in the refrigerator, just to slow their metabolism down.

 

[quogue]

You can feed the non-living bugs to them but you need to stimulate the trigger hairs a couple of times after the initial closing. Sticking a toothpick inside the traps and gently rocking back and forth or "gently" massaging the trap from the outside works for me.

I never found that to be neccessary... and you risk damaging the plant

 

[ChronoKiento]

You put them in the freezer?! You're supposed to put them in the refrigerator, just to slow their metabolism down.

LOL! That sounds like something I would do!

I actually thought they were supposed to be put in the freezer as well... good thing I didn't try that! XD

 

[BigCarnivourKid]

Well I just discovered today in fact, that live baby crickets won't survive 30 minutes in a FREEZER. I meant to give them about 3 minutes and then the phone rang....

Cricket Murder.

So the VFT goes hungry and instead, the Sarrs get the corpse....

Kinda weird how they go belly-up...

Fryster, I set the timer on the microwave for 1 or 2 minutes, depending on the container. Otherwise, I'd space them too.