feeding

stu

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 16, 2003
Messages
263
Hello all, just a quick couple of questions-

Can you overfeed small centipedes? (2 to 3 inch)

How often should you feed them at this size - as much as they will eat?

Will powerfeeding work to help them grow faster like it does with T's? Is this harmful to the pede?

cheers,

Stu.

by the way my pede is s.cingulata species I belive.
 

Mister Internet

Big Meanie Doo Doo Head :)
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Stu,

The general consensus is that yes, you can overfeed plings... generally, powerfeeding isn't the same in practice for pedes as it is for T's. Plings and juveniles seem to not quite know where the "line" is as far as when to stop eating. They will eat everything you throw at them until they look like they will literally burst in front of you.

A lot of pling deaths observed recently have seemed to be a sort of impaction in the middle of the body, which would lend itself to the theory that they can literally eat themselves to death...

Just my experiences from talking with other keepers... anyone else?
 

stu

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 16, 2003
Messages
263
cheers mister internet,

How much feeding would you class as overfeeding then. Like I said he is between 2 and 3 inch and I normally feed him maybe 1 or 2 crickets every 3 to 4 days,

Is this too little? or about right? could I feed him more than this?

sorry if these questions are a bit daft but I only have the one pede (my first) and its hard to find info on these little guys (though I learned a lot on this site :) ).

any advice or good links to centipede info would be most appreciated.

cheers,

Stu.
 

stu

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 16, 2003
Messages
263
oh yeah - should have posted this with this last post but...

He dosnt seem to eat live crickets, the only way I can get him to eat is by killing the cricket and leaving it under his hide (peice of cork) normally by the next day these have gone.

When i give him live crickets he kinda goes mad when they get near him and starts running (very fast) away from them

Is this normal? or is my centipede a wuss?

Im guessing that the way im feeding him at the moment is ok, but any ideas why he is scared of crickets?

cheers,

Stu
 

Mister Internet

Big Meanie Doo Doo Head :)
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
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Messages
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Stu,

Very good questions! Here is my PERSONAL (non-professoinal, non-scientific, experience and chat based) opinion on the topics:

How much?
Well, it depends on three things... the size of the pling, the species' full adult size, and the habitat (temperate, tropical, desert, etc). Tropical species (subspinipes, etc) tend to grow faster than desert species (S. heros, etc), so they are able to eat a bit more and metabolize the food quicker, I think. For a 2" S. heros pling, I would say one or two SMALL crickets (.25 inch) once a week is plenty. However, for a tropical pling of the same size, I would feed one or two small crickets twice a week, depending on species. If your pling is 2-3", and you are killing ADULT crickets, I would only give one a week... if the pede has overnight to eat off of the dead adult cricket, it is the equivalent meat to two smalle, IMO.

Why so scared?
I think this behavior is somewhat learned... I know, you would think that somewhere in the centipede's brain is a neuron that should make it just automatically jump at all moving prey, but I have found this is not the case. Plings that have been fed live crickets since they were very young seem to be MUCH more willing to continue to feed on live prey. However, I have some WC juveniles of S viridis and S. subspinipes "Hawaiian" that take live food either very reluctantly or not at all. I think that if the pling has fed mainly as a scavenger since birth, that the concept of "live prey" is a bit foreign to them. I have not had the chance to try this out with a batch of plings the same age from the same mother in controlled situations, so this is merely speculation.
 
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