Sealing complications

[Benj]

I am very new to carnivorous plants, I’ve had this VFT for about 2-3 weeks now. I got this plant from Walmart, not a good start, but I transplanted and it seems to be doing much better now. My issue with it involves its feeding. I usually hear from many keepers that if you keep these plants outside there won’t be any feeding issues as their nectar attracts the insects quite well. My plant doesn’t seem to attract much of anything. But my major issue comes when it tries to feed. I placed a fly in one trap, it was a live one, and the plant began to try to seal or so it seemed after a couple hours. Then it just semi opened the next day as shown in the images. I’m very new to this so I may very well be doing something incorrectly. Please let me know what could be causing the plant to fail to seal after catching its prey.

 

[adnedarn]

Welcome! It's hard to tell, but it seems the fly may be a bit too big for the trap. Usually aim for not bigger than 1/3 the size of the trap so it has room to close and seal. That said, it looks like your plant has plenty of food. Feeding is a benefit and not required, most of the traps I grow have no food in them. I've seen traps that catch even a live bug seem to decide to let it go for whatever reason too. Definitely don't stress over trying to feed it, especially being new to you and freshly transplanted. Give it some time to acclimate and get into the swing of things and then maybe toss a bug in every now and then if you'd like to and it's growing well with some nice traps.

 

[Benj]

Welcome! It's hard to tell, but it seems the fly may be a bit too big for the trap. Usually aim for not bigger than 1/3 the size of the trap so it has room to close and seal. That said, it looks like your plant has plenty of food. Feeding is a benefit and not required, most of the traps I grow have no food in them. I've seen traps that catch even a live bug seem to decide to let it go for whatever reason too. Definitely don't stress over trying to feed it, especially being new to you and freshly transplanted. Give it some time to acclimate and get into the swing of things and then maybe toss a bug in every now and then if you'd like to and it's growing well with some nice traps.

Yeah it just confused me because I only fed the new traps and not the older ones present during its stay at Walmart. But I guess 2-3 weeks is a very short acclimation period. I’ve pretty much decided to stop messing with it for now until it grows stronger. Thank you for your advice.