Thread for the rest of my S. heros questions

[Pulk]

in which direction will humidity and feeding affect the tergites?

does my schedule sound reasonable for 100% sand? (spray 0-1x per week, overflow 1-2x, always full dish)

and you don't know of any danger of impaction or anything? (i know it's potentially a problem with at least some reptiles)

thanks, cacoseraph

and happy 4000th post

 

[cacoseraph]

in which direction will humidity and feeding affect the tergites?

does my schedule sound reasonable for 100% sand? (spray 0-1x per week, overflow 1-2x, always full dish)

and you don't know of any danger of impaction or anything? (i know it's potentially a problem with at least some reptiles)

thanks, cacoseraph

and happy 4000th post

man, 4000 really sneaks up on you!

that amount of watering should be fine, i think

i don't know about impaction. i suspect that the chance is relatively small as a centipede's mouth is TINY compared to any reptiles... and the centipedes live on sandy substrate in nature a lot of the time..... but i sure don't know facts on it.

 

[Pulk]

well, the thing is this sand is advertised as being too small to cause a problem for reptiles. but i think it'll be ok.

 

[cacoseraph]

well, the thing is this sand is advertised as being too small to cause a problem for reptiles. but i think it'll be ok.

pretty much ignore everything you read on packaging. the package designers are looking to sell a product, not tell the truth.

i mean, cedar and walnut shells are still sold as totally AOK for reptiles and i am almost certain they are not. walnut is poisonous to everything and cedar is definitely bad for inverts

 

[cacoseraph]

in which direction will humidity and feeding affect the tergites?

i would expect that in most cases increasing feeding and humidity would allow for smoother tergites

but in your case i wouldn't go messing with settings yet. you sound like you have a pretty good setup.


also, i don't think many, if any, of my cents are totally smooth all the time. i am guessing what phase of intermolt the pede is in affects smoothness, too

 

[Pulk]

thanks... it'll be a few weeks or so before i change the substrate.

this morning, for 1-2 seconds, its back third or so was dragging (don't remember if it was walking or running.) It seems totally fine now, but I've read the leg-dragging threads and thought it would be good to make sure that one instance isn't as bad?

 

[cacoseraph]

without actually seeing it i can't really say

i mean, technically you haven't had it long enough to know what is weird and what is normal, so that is part of what this like, process is...

ok, look at it this way... for almost everythign that could be wrong with a centipede the only "treatment" is to provide it with optimal living conditions... which you seem to have done... so there is no real point in worrying about like, specifics that you can't really do anything about... plus, odds are the centipede doesn't have anything wrong with it =P

 

[Pulk]

alright... i didn't want it to die of something i could have prevented by asking someone about earlier.


story time, kids

anyway, now i understand (somewhat) why they're called escape artists. he or she was climbing around on the underside of the lid (about 7.5" from the highest point on the ground to the lid for a 7" pede).
so i had the bright idea to move the lid back a little bit a put a book in there, angled, for it to climb down. this created a tiny, tiny hole, at the other side, where it was, and proceeded to wave its antennae interestedly around there. i gently blew on it to go to the other side but instead of climbing back down on the book, it managed to climb up and onto the top of the lid through a crack only a few millimeters wide. i was lucky enough to get it to crawl off the lid back into the cage.
when it was on the roof and gnawing at the screen mesh, it sounded like it could do serious damage over time.

the book i used, by the way, is an excellent novel i read recently called "In the Night Kitchen," by Maurice Sendak.

edit: is it a good idea to put vaseline or oil or something up and down the corners in the cage?

edit edit: found my first mite or mite-type thing today, one little white thing crawling on the pede. is this something important to fix right away?

 

[nissan480]

No,dont put anything on the side's of the cage...Remove some of the substrate so he cant reach the top..what ever you put in the cage will wind up on your pede.NO VASOLINE,thats shite is no good

Look at this happy feller....http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f169/jason4201/centipedes/?action=view&current=IMG_1043.jpg



They do make some stuff called "insect-a-slip",ive never seen it for sale,or searched for it,but its made to stop the climbing....I'd bet some ky-jelly would work well,its a good lube,its non toxic and its water saluable


Personally,just remove some substrate and enjoy your pede.

 

[Pulk]

if it happens again i'll try to find some good stuff to put on the sides. Removing substrate wouldn't help very much otherwise.

and yeah, that's -exactly- what it looked like.

 

[Pulk]

Yesterday and today it's been trying to get out a lot. How much is to be expected?

 

[cacoseraph]

Yesterday and today it's been trying to get out a lot. How much is to be expected?

until i gave mine a chance to burrow i had some that would pretty much constantly try to escape.

they would climb up up up the side, then sort of tip over and slam into the substrate. to do damage control i added more substrate and left it loose to pillow the impact... but it ended up fixing the problem in a dif way... the centipedes started burrowing. heh.

 

[Pulk]

just to have a complete set of data... the slightly crinkly tergites became perfectly smooth tergites within a few days... a little bit weird.
and he/she seems to have stopped trying to get out for the time being.

just another case to add to the centipede files

in the myriapod section this thread has the most replies

 

[Pulk]

can pedes burrow in potting soil, or anything with a similar texture and appearance?

if so, do you have any recommendations/advice about dark dirt?

 

[Pulk]

It was cleaning itself last night and, when it was at the butt, a grey lump/blob thing was protruding between/under the... coxopleural process parts (thanks, steven!). and the pede did its mouthpart stuff with that the same way as with the terminals, etc. It's not visible now.
It wasn't an obviously foreign object, like a totally different texture or color than the pede.
Sorry I can't describe it very well, I only saw it for a short time, without my contacts on.
Does anyone know what this could be? Is it a normal pede thing?

can pedes burrow in potting soil, or anything with a similar texture and appearance?

if so, do you have any recommendations/advice about dark dirt?