Feeding Nepenthes

[arvin555]

Hmm, freeze dried krill, that is seafood, maybe better not to try, its a bit out of the normal stuff that Neps will find in their pitchers Then again so does seaweed based fertilizers.

I have found a big Roach in my Truncata pitcher once, when it was still quite new (the plant), I left it alone, the pitcher is still okay, but can't say if it helped or not. Then again mind you that the Truncata pitchers are quite thick and we know they can even take small mamals without problems. Wait, I guess we can generalize or conclude that what you feed depends on the species of Nep, some neps have more delicate pitchers than others.

Cindy, maybe you can post a photo of your technique of using wishing words on your Pings That sounds interesting and artistic.

I have never fed my neps bloodworms, I have fed my VFTs some big tubifex worms (the are fish food mainly) and they like it, no growth spurt noticed of course. My only comment with Bloodworms is that they can potentially really be found naturally in pitchers just like mosquito larvaes, so maybe they are okay as food. I do have quite a lot of bloodworms living in my water trays, can surely try to feed them to my pitchers.

TTFN
Arvin

[Cindy]

1. mealworms
2. bloodworms
3. crickets

All will work.

The famous photo people talks about...

[David]

Originally Posted by bactrus

Hey I use cricket for neps and bloodworms for droseras. Contrary to what David finding, my N. gracilis did show a spurt of growth after feeding. Maybe also because I pop a tablet or two of control release fertiliser and a pellet or two of organic fertiliser into the media. Cricket is pulpy big and juicy.

Ban Aik,

My findings are the same as yours. It is the use of mealworms that does not give me that good results. Crickets for my Neps are great! I did not say feeding crickets to my Neps does not show a spurt of growth.

[bactrus]

Apologies David, skimping over things always ends up in a bad way.

[Ghan3sh]

Doesn't calcium augment the pH-level? So i figured that feeding the neps calcium rich food would make the pitcher fluid less acidic and makes it harder to "digest" the mealworm. In the same way i think that ants, which produce formic acid, could lower the pH and augment the acidity of the fluid and thus be easier to "digest".

[arvin555]

really cute way of feeding your CPs Cindy! Thanks for sharing. Too bad I don't have a Ping to do the same, wife might like it, though she might turn up her nose if she realizes that the hearts are made out of worms

TTFN
Arvin

[Marigoldsfail21]

Wow, that's so artistic!

[CristenH]

Hello! I'm new to nepenthes.

I bought my nep at a large local nursery a week ago. The employee I questioned about caring for the plant advised me to fill the pitchers about 1/3 full of distilled water every so often. In my internet searching I have read that this is not recommended, however, during the trip home most of the fluid from inside the pitchers spilled out and now those pitchers are shriveling (just cut off 7 smaller dead pitchers). I understand that the fluid inside a healthy pitcher is not exactly "water" but might it be at all advisable to add some water to the remaining emptied pitchers?

There is one pitcher which opened a day or two ago. When I gently shake this pitcher I can hear fluid. Feeding time!

From what I've read crickets are a choice food for newly opened pitchers. I've never dealt much with crickets and the thought of live crickets escaping my feeding attempts and thereby let loose into my apartment seems... sucky. Can I feed my nepenthes frozen or otherwise inert crickets?