# millipedes vs. centipedes



## Professor T (Apr 12, 2003)

Which do you like best? Millipedes or centipedes?

I had an 8 inch centipede that ate mice. It was a beast! It was wild caught in a pasture in Kansas 23 years ago. I actually caught two the same size and put them in a pillow case. To my horror when I got back to the lab, there was only 1 1/2 centipedes left. Thats when I realized what I was dealing with.

I currently have two AGB millipedes, and what they lack in voraciousness, they make up for in many other ways. After you figure out your pet centipede can eat an African Bull Elephant, there isn't much challenge in keeping it, other than keeping it away from your fingers. 

Millipedes on the other hand are a work in progress. You can experiment with wet and dry food to see which ones they like best. You can hold them; letting them crawl on you with all those legs gripping you is too cool!  

Millipedes have a dual comical and tranquil effect on me when I watch them crawling. Also, their rounded full bodies are more appealing to me than the dorsoventrally flattened bodies of a centipede on a level that I really can't explain other than they seem more evolved. They might be Myriopods just like centipedes, but in my opinion they couldn't be any further on opposite ends of the spectrum. 

When my AGBs go into defense mode they either roll up or squirt hydrogen cyanide. While the hydrogen cyanide can turn your fingers red if you don't wash it off, a centipede can turn carpets red if it gets your finger. Advantage millipede, if you have kids around the house.

Both are extremely interesting because they are poorly studied from a taxonomic standpoint. You get species in the hobby that are previously undescribed which is very cool. 

I like millipedes better. 
Current score: millipedes 1 centipedes 0

Which do you prefer and why?


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## Valael (Apr 13, 2003)

I'd have to vote Centipede, although I've never owned one, only milipedes.



I just don't like having to chop up veggies for them when I have all sorts of crickets laying around ready to meet the jaws of doom.


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## XOskeletonRED (Apr 13, 2003)

Well, I keep both...

 Professor T, I agree on standpoints of being able to hold the milli. Coloration of both can be equally as nice and I agree with Valael on standpoints that it is amusing to watch the centi eat their prey.

But, because the ability to eat nearly any type of fruit and vegetable when you are out of crickets because the Bearded Dragons ate them all, I have to give the little bit of the edge to the milli. And kids can love them and handle them too because harmless is key with these guys.  It was almost a tie!

adios,
edw.


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## Professor T (Apr 13, 2003)

While you chop those veggies for the millipedes, the dragons will eat veggies too, as they are omnivores.

I have a bearded dragon too. A big mature male. He eats crickets right out of my hand by stretching his tongue...and he eats green beans and pieces of romaine letture from my hand the same way. I don't do it often, but he eats small pinky and fuzzy mice as soon as they hit the floor. I have him in a 55 gallon, he's set up royally! Bearded Dragons are THE BEST pet lizard! Bearded Dragons are dual cool in ways both the centipedes and millipedes are cool. However, for ease of care nothing is easier than tarantulas, scorpions, snakes, and centipedes.

Which brings up a good point. Centipedes ARE lower maintainance than millipedes.



> _Originally posted by XOskeletonRED _
> *Well, I keep both...
> 
> Professor T, I agree on standpoints of being able to hold the milli. Coloration of both can be equally as nice and I agree with Valael on standpoints that it is amusing to watch the centi eat their prey.
> ...


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## Professor T (Apr 13, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Valael _
> *I'd have to vote Centipede, although I've never owned one, only milipedes.
> 
> 
> ...


Very true, its higher maintenance to feed the millipedes, and cleaning the uneatten food out of the dish when it liquifies...yuk!


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## XOskeletonRED (Apr 13, 2003)

Exactly, which is why I choose to rarely feed my Beardeds fruit and veggies! *lol* The heating system tears them up. They do get them occasionally though. Just for the sake of a good, varying diet. I find the two pede types to be of equal ease of maintenance though. I never let any fruit stay in the tanks long enough to liquify. That's just not a good thing to have to clean up after.


adios,
edw.


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## Professor T (Apr 13, 2003)

Somebody told me not to be too in a hurry to clean out the wet food bowl because millipedes will eat the veggies after they're not looking fit for human consumption. I find this to be true, but after 48 hours, I can't leave it...too messy!



> _Originally posted by XOskeletonRED _
> *Exactly, which is why I choose to rarely feed my Beardeds fruit and veggies! *lol* The heating system tears them up. They do get them occasionally though. Just for the sake of a good, varying diet. I find the two pede types to be of equal ease of maintenance though. I never let any fruit stay in the tanks long enough to liquify. That's just not a good thing to have to clean up after.
> 
> 
> ...


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## sunnymarcie (Apr 14, 2003)

*TIE! Both are cool *

I have millies, 6 of them
Cents are next on the list, still not sure what I want though:?


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## Professor T (Apr 14, 2003)

*Re: TIE! Both are cool *



> _Originally posted by sunnymarcie _
> *I have millies, 6 of them
> Cents are next on the list, still not sure what I want though:? *



Sunnymarcie,
Ya know, your husband is right...ya hafta be a little crazy to own a centipede...that's half the fun!


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## XOskeletonRED (Apr 16, 2003)

Anyway, considering some millipedes secrete a poisonus substance (at least it is poisonus to arachnids and insects), they can both be very entertaining. I watched a milli kill a few moths that came into it's enclosure last night by nothing more than secretion of enzymes and that stinch! Yes, it killed them in much faster time than I have ever seen a centi do so in.


adios,
edw.


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