# What Can Centipedes Eat and Not Eat?



## REAL

I was eating dinner awhile ago, salmon mainly, and I had my centipede nearby so I was like "hrm, oh what the heck!"

I took off a small tiny piece and gave it to him, little did I expected, he grabbed it and gobbled it down and seemed to enjoy it greatly. I've also tried other stuff before as well like boiled pork, canned fish, cat food (dry and wet), and boiled chicken.

I feed them very sparingly, once a week or two, and so far I haven't seen any side effects whatsoever and its been months. However, I've stopped for awhile because I heard somewhere that it was best to feed them insects cause of fat related issues? Shrug.

So basically the question is, what is okay to feed them and what isn't?

I'm still fairly new to keeping centipedes as well, I started about a few months ago.

Nathan


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## cacoseraph

i would stick to feeding feeders but i have seen and supplemented myself with a fairly amusing variety of food

chorizo
apples
bananas
ground beef


basically any advice about what is good or bad for bugs to eat is going to be fairly groundless. i mean, broadstrokes yeah... we basically know what is good and bad for *any* animal... but centipede specifics (just like tara and scorp specifics) we know NOTHING about

it could as easily turn out that salmon is the magic food that turns them into breeding machines as it gives them a 90 day fuse and then they die of some random omega-fatty-acidosis (i just made that up. sounds good though, eh?)


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## beetleman

years back a buddy of mine had many centies,he fed them wet/dry catfood almost all of the time(no bugs) they got huge/fat from that food they looked awesome and lived long too,but still w/the fat intake i don't know:? i told him that and he said....."maybe, but look at them........they are FREAKIN HUGE!!" and again they did excellent.even had eggs from some of them.


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## cacoseraph

beetleman said:


> years back a buddy of mine had many centies,he fed them wet/dry catfood almost all of the time(no bugs) they got huge/fat from that food they looked awesome and lived long too,but still w/the fat intake i don't know:? i told him that and he said....."maybe, but look at them........they are FREAKIN HUGE!!" and again they did excellent.even had eggs from some of them.


this seems to be a common like, misperception.  fat, in and of itself, is not a bad thing in most animal worlds. *humans* think fat is so bad for them because we (i'm speaking especially from the USAmerican perspective) have such perverted calorie dense diets and virtually no physical activity.

in plenty of places in the animal world, if an animal can't consume enough fat it quite simply does not live to the next year

in mammals the harsher the environment the higher the fat and protein content of the species' milk.  humans suck... we have under 10% of each.  something like a leopard seal or minke whale (i believe those both spend a fair amount of time in the arctifc) approach 50% of each.


once again we are left with the fact that we know virtually nothing about the dietary requirements of our beloved pets... and until a lot of people start doing some pretty hardcore experimenting that is right about where our knowledge level will stay


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## beetleman

cacoseraph said:


> this seems to be a common like, misperception.  fat, in and of itself, is not a bad thing in most animal worlds. *humans* think fat is so bad for them because we (i'm speaking especially from the USAmerican perspective) have such perverted calorie dense diets and virtually no physical activity.
> 
> in plenty of places in the animal world, if an animal can't consume enough fat it quite simply does not live to the next year
> 
> in mammals the harsher the environment the higher the fat and protein content of the species' milk.  humans suck... we have under 10% of each.  something like a leopard seal or minke whale (i believe those both spend a fair amount of time in the arctifc) approach 50% of each.
> 
> 
> once again we are left with the fact that we know virtually nothing about the dietary requirements of our beloved pets... and until a lot of people start doing some pretty hardcore experimenting that is right about where our knowledge level will stay


that is true:clap:


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## 324r350

cacoseraph said:


> and until a lot of people start doing some pretty hardcore experimenting that is right about where our knowledge level will stay


Im sure its not so hard to do. To test the ideal protein/ fat ratio, one could simply split a group of babies into 3, one fed the protein diet, another a fatty diet, and the last a good mix. The measured variables would be perceived health and activity and growth rate.

And centipedes are like Americans as you described them in their exercise and calorie burning habits. But protein contains almost as many calories per gram as fat? But then the fact that centipedes need nutrition to supplement continuous growth adds another factor. Human nutrition is confusing enough.


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## PhilK

Working out ideal nutrition isn't easy at all. There's limiting nutrients and essential nutrients you have to work out, they ideal percentages for the desired result etc etc. It isn't as easy as having 3 pedelings on 3 different diets then combining them.

Not to mention metabolism and digestion of arhtropods is probably very different to vertebrates, and as far as I'm aware the invertebrate field of metabolism/nutrition/digestion is not well known at all.


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## Stylopidae

You know...I think if a centipede were big enough it would attempt to take down jets and tanks.

If it can be digested, a centi's probably gonna eat it.


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## REAL

324r350 said:


> Im sure its not so hard to do. To test the ideal protein/ fat ratio, one could simply split a group of babies into 3, one fed the protein diet, another a fatty diet, and the last a good mix. The measured variables would be perceived health and activity and growth rate.
> 
> And centipedes are like Americans as you described them in their exercise and calorie burning habits. But protein contains almost as many calories per gram as fat? But then the fact that centipedes need nutrition to supplement continuous growth adds another factor. Human nutrition is confusing enough.



Actually I think if such an experiment was made, much more specimens are required because you can't base your whole test results by using just a few as there are quite a lot of unknown variables and I'm sure it'll definately differ between one species and another.

Many companies that test stuff on animals use lots of animals to base their studies and results on and even that has flaws (I'm against this btw, lots of horrible images I've seen). Even biologists that try to test for certain behavioral traits in certain animals must make a study through hundreds if not thousands of those specimens before even considering their findings/sources dependable.

The experiment that you have in mind would at best give an idea or simple hypothesis at best, but can never be held down as something that can be called factual. Variables consist of temperature, habitat, species, location and even one specimen from another.

So if u wanna do a quick study that experiment is okay  but it wont give u a definate (if there is such a thing) result.


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## cacoseraph

cacoseraph said:


> this seems to be a common like, misperception.  fat, in and of itself, is not a bad thing in most animal worlds. *humans* think fat is so bad for them because we (i'm speaking especially from the USAmerican perspective) have such perverted calorie dense diets and virtually no physical activity.
> 
> in plenty of places in the animal world, if an animal can't consume enough fat it quite simply does not live to the next year
> 
> in mammals the harsher the environment the higher the fat and protein content of the species' milk.  humans suck... we have under 10% of each.  something like a leopard seal or minke whale (i believe those both spend a fair amount of time in the arctifc) approach 50% of each.
> 
> 
> once again we are left with the fact that we know virtually nothing about the dietary requirements of our beloved pets... and until a lot of people start doing some pretty hardcore experimenting that is right about where our knowledge level will stay


heh, a little substantiation. i was reading something totally unbug related (well, about animals...) and came across a cite (lol, sort of) for the whale milk thingy



> 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Whale Milk Not On Low-Fat Diets
> Nursing a newborn is no "small" feat for the whale, whose calf emerges, after 10 to 12 months in the womb, about a third the mother's length (that's a 30-foot baby for the Blue whale). The mother squirts milk into the newborn's mouth using muscles around the mammary gland while the baby holds tight to a nipple (yes, whales have them). At nearly 50 percent fat, whale milk has around 10 times the fat content of human milk, which helps calves achieve some serious growth spurtseas much as 200 pounds per day.


http://www.livescience.com/animals/top10_amazing_animals-1.html

the whale fact is #9


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## thedude

ive fed my pedes crickets,roaches, pinkies and live mice (hoppers) and it makes me think if it has animal matter in it a centipede will eat it


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## beetleman

yeah my gigantea just ate a whole frozen/thawed adult mouse,1 of my greentree pythons just wasn't hungry,so i didn't want to refreeze it(it was left in the tank ,just sittin on the branch overnight ,he's proberly going into shed) so the pede went nuts over it:drool: i only give her a small f/thawed hopper very rarely,but i figured what the heck,so yes they love animal matter:clap:


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## Galapoheros

Man, you've got to get babies!


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## REAL

Galapoheros said:


> Man, you've got to get babies!


Galapoheros...we need to team up and jump him, I bet I...I mean we...will enjoy it more than he will

Grrrr :evil:


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## beetleman

hee hee i know these things are in demand:drool: she did lay afew eggs last year,but i knew they wouldn't survive,because i got her when she was very small,so she wrapped around them for aweek,and then she !!@#$% ate them.


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## bengerno

Hi,

I tried trout a week ago, all 7 species I keep currently loved It.


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