# What do you feed your centipedes?



## Draiman (May 25, 2008)

I've been feeding my 11cm-long _Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans_ only small frogs and the occasional house gecko. I'm sure this diet is far from varied, so what do you guys feed your centipedes? Most of you will wonder why crickets don't feature in my centipede's diet. That's because I had 3 other _Sc. subspinipes mutilans_ which died identical deaths after I fed them crickets. Yeah so let's hear some suggestions. Fruit? Meat?

Also, a secondary question - can female _Scolopendra_ store sperm in their bodies? I'm asking because the above mentioned centipede (my one and only) has been getting real fat so I suspect "she" could be gravid. "She" was kept in a communal tank with other males and females before I bought her.


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## SAn (May 25, 2008)

about the food question.
I feed mine blaptica dubia cockroaches and can crickets so i am sure they are clean. Thats their main diet.
on occasion i drop in a pinky or some fruit


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## Galapoheros (May 25, 2008)

I feed mine home-grown Hissers (roaches) and homegrown B. dubia roaches.  Also things I found around my house but I try to stay away from the wild black crickets.  I put up a blacklight if the season is right and catch moths to feed them too.  I try not to buy and feed them crickets straight from the store too, they seem a little unhealthy from most of the stores to me and die fast.  But I've raised healthy generations of crickets before and that was great food for them.  I just don't want to mess with raising crickets right now but I really like them as feeders.  Yeah they can store sperm for several months.  I guess it depends on the species as to how many months.


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## Draiman (May 25, 2008)

The crickets I bought must have been either very unhealthy or tainted with something toxic to centipedes. Lol I'm terrified of cockroaches (except the wingless ones) so I don't use them.

By the way, how long do _Scolopendra_ species live on average?


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## HKronos (May 25, 2008)

Store bought crickets mostly and occasional wild caught vermin like grasshoppers, carpenter bees, etc.


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## Draiman (May 25, 2008)

A varied diet isn't exactly essential, is it? What I'm saying is, if I feed my centipede a fixed diet composed of exclusively frogs and nothing else, it's not going to die a premature death, right?

And can someone answer my question on centipede longevity?


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## SAn (May 25, 2008)

Phark said:


> A varied diet isn't exactly essential, is it? What I'm saying is, if I feed my centipede a fixed diet composed of exclusively frogs and nothing else, it's not going to die a premature death, right?
> 
> And can someone answer my question on centipede longevity?


A varied diet is essential. Centipedes dont eat only frogs in nature..
I think i read in an article that fixed diet reduces the life of inverts


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## nissan480 (May 25, 2008)

Mine have been on a strictly dubia diet for years and Ive had no problems from it..But,I might go buy some super worms or something if the consensus is for a vaired diet.

I also dont like store bought anything .Half the worms I almost bought at petsmart were dead..

As far as lifespan,Im thinking somewhere from 7 to 10 years.


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## ahas (May 25, 2008)

Blatta Lateralis


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## Only Exotics (May 25, 2008)

Lobster roaches, crickets & the occasional anole or house gecko etc..


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## 8+) (May 25, 2008)

Scolopendra do purportedly store sperm even across one or more molts!

I've read that they can live in excess of six years.


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## Draiman (May 26, 2008)

Thanks guys!


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## JMoran1097 (May 26, 2008)

pinky mice and crickets


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## RottweilExpress (May 26, 2008)

Dubia and tartara. The occational pinkie.


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## Draiman (May 26, 2008)

Yeah ok, ok, enough suggestions since most of you guys feed your pedes mainly the same things. So here's what I need to know now - is a varied diet essential for a centipede to live a normal life?


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## HKronos (May 26, 2008)

Phark said:


> Yeah ok, ok, enough suggestions since most of you guys feed your pedes mainly the same things. So here's what I need to know now - is a varied diet essential for a centipede to live a normal life?


That's a tough question, here's what wiki says about centipede diets,

Centipedes are an exclusively predatory taxa.  They are known as generalist predators which means that they have adapted to eat a variety of different available prey items.  Centipedes are also known to be nocturnal.  Studies on centipede activity rhythms confirm this, although there are a few observations of centipedes active during the day and one species ''Strigamia chinophila'' that is diurnal.  What centipedes actually eat is not well known because of their cryptic lifestyle and thorough mastication of food.  Laboratory feeding trials support that they will feed as generalists, taking most anything that is soft-bodied and in a reasonable size range.  It has been suggested that earthworms provide the bulk of diets for Geophilomorphs, since geophilomorphs burrow through the soil and earthworm bodies would be easily pierced by their poison claws.  Observations suggest that Geophilomorphs cannot subdue earthworms larger than themselves, and so smaller earthworms may be a substantial proportion of their diet Weil, E. 1958. Biologie der einheimischen Geophiliden. Z. angew. Ent., 42: 173-209.  Scolopendromorphs, given their size, are able to feed on vertebrates as well as invertebrates.  They have been observed eating reptiles, amphibians, small mammals, bats and birds.  Collembola may provide a large proportion of Lithiobiomorph diet.  Little is known about Scutigeromorph or Craterostigmomorph diets.  All centipedes are potential intraguild predators.  Centipedes and spiders may frequently prey on one another ref Lewis, J.G.E. 1981. The biology of centipedes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 

A video of a giant centipede preying exclusively on bats

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8313878609430213933

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