What are the best and worst foods for a centipede?

[k0ella]

I've heard people say that the chitin exoskeleton of mealworms make them hard to digest and are therefore nutritionally poor. I've also seen posts floating around the internet about the benefits of feeding slivers of raw chicken to centipedes, but some owners seem to be vehemently against it.

What are the best and worst foods for a centipede in your experience?

 

[Quetzalcoatl Nyarlathotep]

Wax worms are great because they're mostly protein with a low fat content. Centipedes have a harder time digesting fat than they do protein. Raw chicken breast and raw salmon are also pretty good for them. I avoid anything with hair since the fibers can get caught in the digestive track and cause impactions. For adults, green anoles and other small lizards are really good prey items. Black crickets are also great too. Also try giving them small pieces of peach or grapes. They like fruit sometimes but only on occasion since they need a varied diet for optimal health.

 

[Edwardk674]

Chitin digestion studies are typically done with respect to vertebrate nutrition and better studies are showing that the digestibility of chitin is typically underestimated. Some studies show better growth in reptiles on mealworms than crickets see for example GAUTHIER, CHRISTOPHER, and DAVID LESBARRÈRES. "GROWTH RATE VARIATION IN CAPTIVE SPECIES: THE CASE OF LEOPARD GECKOS, EUBLEPHARIS MACULARIUS." Herpetological Conservation and Biology 5.3: 449-455.

Ed

 

[Quetzalcoatl Nyarlathotep]

Chitin digestion studies are typically done with respect to vertebrate nutrition and better studies are showing that the digestibility of chitin is typically underestimated. Some studies show better growth in reptiles on mealworms than crickets see for example GAUTHIER, CHRISTOPHER, and DAVID LESBARRÈRES. "GROWTH RATE VARIATION IN CAPTIVE SPECIES: THE CASE OF LEOPARD GECKOS, EUBLEPHARIS MACULARIUS." Herpetological Conservation and Biology 5.3: 449-455.

Ed

That's reptiles... Invertebrates have different nutritional requirements and different enzymes in their digestive system

 

[Edwardk674]

Yes, which I made pretty clear based on my use of the words "vertebrate nutrition" in the first sentence...
Do you have any studies demonstrating analysis of mealworms and chitin in specific for centipede nutrition? Any nutritional analysis for other invertebrates??

Some comments

Ed

 

[Edwardk674]

Do you have a specific study demonstrating poor fat digestion and/or absorption in centipedes??

Ed

 

[DaveM]

I don't know about the best foods, but I'll take a stab at the worst.
Plenty of substances would kill a centipede immediately, but I'm going to go with stellar plasma.
Despite being the most abundant form of ordinary matter in the universe, stellar plasma would be extremely difficult and expensive to acquire. The sun is your closest natural source, about 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers away.
Even if you could travel there and back in a spaceship without burning up (which you can't), how would you contain the plasma and maintain it in plasma phase? You would need something like a tokamak to confine the plasma within a powerful magnetic field, and a hydrogen/helium fuel feed with the ability to perpetuate a controlled thermonuclear fusion reaction. The logistics are daunting to say the least. Then, of course, your centipede would perish immediately when brought into proximity with the plasma, before even getting close enough to sink its forcipules into a sizzling hunk of of that radiant plasma.
SO, stellar plasma would be a terrible food choice, at least one of the worst.
Let's try crickets instead

 

[Quetzalcoatl Nyarlathotep]

Do you have a specific study demonstrating poor fat digestion and/or absorption in centipedes??

Ed

I've got experience, and others have done studies including this fellow here who is a good friend of mine.

Since I can't edit the original post anymore, here it is again completed, hopefully a moderator can merge this with the original post:

All information is based collaborated care information gathered from those who have been in the hobby a very, very long time and have had successful breeding/keeping for long periods of time(over 10 years). A number of old timers on here that are no longer active but we still speak also collaborated with me to make this list possible, so for you new guys worried that I have no experience you can rest assured that this list is a compilation of over 15 years worth of centipede keeping experience, so let's begin:



×××Dont's×××

Substrate:
Now this is a big one, many people keep centipedes in, and recommend cocofiber/"jungle mix"/plantation soil, these all are products that are made of coconut husk. This alone isn't toxic to the centipedes (that I'm aware of) however it is often still deadly or at best makes the animal sick from digestive issues as many, many Centipedes during meals end up ingesting the core bits and the fibers of these type of substrate, which if they eat a whole strand it can easily end in impaction which ultimately leads to death. It also is a great substrate for mold and fungal growth, mycosis is extremely prevalent with keepers who use Coco based substrates.
So with all that mentioned, avoid cocofiber or any similar product, they are seriously overpriced for what you get and getting ripped off and your centipede getting sick/dying isn't worth it.

>>>I'm not saying you can't keep them on cocofiber, simply suggesting that it can and has caused death from impaction, it also is a great area for fungal growth, 2 very solid reasons to avoid it, it's definitely not worth the risk of my animals life in my opinion<<<

Enclosure:
Another huge one that leads to serious health complications in centipedes, the enclosure they live in (not just how you set it up) is extremely vital for a healthy, happy centipede. Some people use jars, as I once did and recommend them too. These work, don't get me wrong I had successful breeding and keeping of a number of species in them, HOWEVER I also had a lot of issues that I had no idea for a long time where linked to a lack of cross ventilation. Without cross ventilation a number of not so pleasant things can occur. First you create the ideal mold growth environment, still air and better humidity trapping conditions. This lack of airflow near the bottom of the jar can also lead to a change in the ambient air chemistry, meaning there can be an unwanted buildup of harmful gases released from various sources including but not limited to:

-decaying food bits

-dead/decaying cage cleaners

-the substrate it's self due to bacterial build up from the moisture not evaporating

-Excrement from the centipede or food items

-decaying wood

And likely many more, so avoid jars, small cups or anything in general that lacks proper cross ventilation.

>>>You can use jars, but they have to be big and you need a way to add cross ventilation, if you can't safely drill holes in the glass, just avoid the glass jars<<<

Food:
Fat from steak, chicken and other stuff seems to have a somewhat negative impact on their digestive abilities. Some seem to eat and digest it ok, though it takes longer then normal, and other can actually get impacted, which as we know most often leads to death. I've seen some impacted specimens finally pass a opaque clear-ish chunk, this must be how the fat ends up in them, not fully digested suggesting that this is why it causes impaction; Their body's can't fully brake it down into a easily passable form.
Still on the topic of food Dont's, we move on to food variety. Many, many keepers rely souly on 1 type of food item, say just crickets or just dubias or in some cases cat food. Any of these single item diets are very poor and not ideal I've found. It seems to inhibit size, especially canned cat and dog foods. Though it makes them fat and big looking, I've seen an average of 3cm-7cm loss in total adult length when fed only 1 food item, or when raised on canned cat foods. I did a rather long feeding experiment years back with my captive bred Ethmostigmus trigonopodus batch, and I did it with a CB dehaani batch as well, results where all the same in both trials, the full Pet store bought cricket diet only being the worst, canned cat food being a very close second. Both of these resulted in inconsistently healthy animals, slow growth, and as mentioned above loss in max adult size.

>>>Canned cat foods or single item diets can keep centipedes alive, but it doesn't seem to allow for max size potential. These results happened over a 2 generation experiment with CB babies of 2 very different species, the results where all extremely conclusive, suggesting a diet with variety is the best for growth and health of the animal<<<

Temperature:
Many people keep centipede of all sorts hot, in the 75-90°f range, this is fine for most tropical or desert species, obviously heat speeds up growth and allows for safe power feeding, and keeping them cooler will make them live longer and eat less. Unfortunately, not all species can be kept like this, most notably the Malaysian Jewel. I will add a short list below of specimens that need to be kept cooler and the range that should be provided>

Scolopendra Sp. "Malaysian Jewel" - 20°c-20.5°c

Scolopendra alcyona - 21°c-23°c

Scolopendra dehaani "Yunnan tri-color" - 21°c - 22°

Still on temperature; some species don't do well if it drops below 65°f, it can slow growth past the healthy point and begin to slowly degrade their health, resulting in darkens side skin like very old or dying specimens get. I've seen Cherry reds not do so good in the low 60s, same with spinossisima and gigantea, so above 68°f for most is gonna be where you wanna be.

>>>These are general safe ranges that they are known not to die in, no one much has any of the listed ones anyway but it's good info so if you do buy one at a reptile show, you won't kill it. I recommend wine coolers or temperature control units for all these. I'll add more species as I know, we all learn new stuff every day<<<

Habitat:
Many enclosures I see consist of simply 1 type of substrate, a rock or bark piece and maybe some fake plants. This can work to an extent, however I feel some sort of composite in combination with the use of a dry sand or gravel section, leaf litter, bark and flat rocks all together are much more ideal and seem to keep the animals health better over all. This also seems to make them much more active, instead of staying hidden so often.

>>>Simple setups can work, I kept my setups plain for over 6 years, it wasn't till around 2016 that I begun seeing if they behaved more actively in setups consisting of more detailed environments, and from my years doing it like I do now, I can clearly see a difference in behavior amongst all my animals. More stuff scattered around the enclose allows them to feel more secure as they can hide easily if needed<<<

Humidity:
One thing I see a lot of is overly humid conditions, there seems to be a mass misunderstanding a lot of new keepers get, thinking that all centipedes need it wet to survive and thrive, this couldn't be further from the truth. Just as with many invertebrates, even those in tropical areas, some species actually prefer it rather dry and do much better in dry conditions. Take for instance Pseudoglomeris magnifica, a tropical species but if you keep them too humid or even just say half the enclosure constantly humid you may end up very upset because you will have some rather expensive dead specimens. This is the same for species like S. heros, S. heros are extremely susceptible to fungal sicknesses and mycosis but many "experts" will sell you a heros, tell you to keep it humid on the cocofiber they suggested and in a number of months your back at them buying another heros because the one they sold you turned black all over it's joints and eventually died. S. heros don't need it humid, I keep mine bone dry and have for over 6 years now, and it's been in those last 6 years that they have thrived.
S. heros need constant access to water, they don't need high humidity. This same principle goes for most aired desert/dry forest species including but not limited to-

-S. heros (most variants that I'm aware of)

-Scolopendra Sp. Peru "White leg"

-any desert dwelling ethmostigmus sp.

-S. polymorpha (small *3.5"-4.5"* common fat terminal ones and bigger *5.5"-7"* long terminal ones that may or may not be polymorpha)

-Most southwest US Hemiscolopendra sp.

-Scolopendra aztecorum north orange head and south black heads alike

On the other side of the humidity range, some keepers keep tropical species like S. spinossisima way too dry, resulting in seized molts and death, or even just simple dehydration. Tropical species often need amdisnt humidity in the enclosed, but still need plenty of ventilation so this can be tricky. Just be diligent, check enclosures twice daily and mist as needed. Remember there should never, ever be standing water even near the bottom layer of substrate if you dig down, this creates a stagnant pool that allows for some nasty bacterial growth, and it stinks after about a week.

>>>You may have success keeping white legs in a jungle environment, you may also have success with heros in a jungle environment, however I heavily suggest against it or your animal will pay with its health. With tropical species, they can be kept dyer as long as they have access to water, but it's not good for species who need humid ambient air above 45% constant to live in dryer environments, it seems to have negative effects on their spiricels, darkening them over time, not sure what is happening when this happens but the Centipedes don't live long after it happens<<<

Cleanliness:
Do you leave cricket/roach bits in your enclosure after you feed your centipedes? Do you have plain substrate with no cage cleaners? Do you feed store/internet bought dubias or there roaches to your centipedes? Do you not have any predatory mites? Well then you have the perfect setup to make an extremely sick centipede!
Centipedes enjoy extremely clean conditions, they are naturally rather clean animals grooming themselves entirely several times a day, so they need to be provided with such. Leaving food item bits, even tiny ones is a big mistake and can easily lead to a build up of unwanted bacteria and mold growth, or worse attract a mite infestation, especially if you are buying your food and not breeding it yourself. It is extremely common for bought roaches to carry mites, so obviously if their food has it they are going to get it. Now this may have you thinking "how is my centipede not going to get mites if the food they eat has them?" Well don't worry, there is an extremely simple solution, predatory mites, dwarf whites and spring tails which I'll explain in the "Do's"

>>>You can keep some centipedes dirtier then others, but why would you do that to any animal?<<<




✓✓✓Do's✓✓✓

Substrate:
I and many other long time keepers have found there is a great alternative to soils and cocofiber based substrates, one that doesn't allow for mold growth, is naturally clean and best of all is extraordinarily cheap, Peat moss. You can get an absolutely massive bag of OMRI listed organic peat moss at Lowes for only $10.00!!! This 1 bag is enough to last most hobbyests over a year, for that same $10.00 you will likely only get 1-3 bricks of cocofiber, and this stuff is farrrrrrr safer to use for all the reasons previously listed.
One down fall of peat is on its own, it doesn't hold burrows well, that's where composites come in. I typically do a composite comprised only of sand and peat. Below is a list of suggested composites based on common species, this is just a general list to help give you an idea of how much to mix for certain species, mixture percentages can vary but try to use good judgment based off the environment your particular species comes out of.

Scolopendra heros - 90% sand / 10% peat some gravel mixed in is ideal

Scolopendra polymorpha - 75% sand / 25% peat leaf litter or gravel mixed in is ideal

Scolopendra dehaani - 15% sand / 85% peat leaf litter mixed in is ideal

Scolopendra galapagoensis - 30% sand / 70% peat gravel mixed in is ideal

Scolopendra gigantea - 25% sand / 75% peat leaf litter mixed in is ideal

Scolopendra Sp. Peruvian white leg - 85% sand / 15% peat gravel mixed in is ideal

Scolopendra Sp. Malaysian jewel 5% sand / 95% peat with leaf litter mixed in

Scolopendra alternans 50% sand / 50% peat leaf litter and gravel mixed in is ideal

>>>There is many more I can list but this should give you a general idea of what mixtures work for different environment styles<<<

Enclosure:
This one's super straight forward, the best enclosures I find must have these 3 things-

-high cross ventilation

-adequate space aka twice the animals stretched out length at least

-sealing lids because as we all know, centipedes are escape artists

>>>You can use other enclosures, but in all my years of experience if they have what's listed above they will work fantastic without issue<<<

Food:
I feel the saying "you are what you eat" is extremely true, and goes for animals too. So, with that being the case, if you feed your centipede only sick, pet store crickets, or meal worms with no nutrition it will likely live but what do you imagine that does for growth rates or max size? Or even overall health?
Crickets, meal worms and roaches alone can work but you need to gutload the feeders with good stuff such as veggies and meat like fish or chicken before you feed them to the centipedes, this ensures the animal gets more nutritional value out of it's pray items. Now if you wanna take it one more step, here is my suggested first that works for all centipedes I've kept and seems to allow for rapid, healthy growth:

Meats - uncooked fish such as salmon or trout, uncooked shrimp, uncooked chicken breast(remove all fat), uncooked turkey (remove all fat)

pray items to offer - small lizards like anoles or fence lizards, horn worms, gutloaded crickets/roaches/meal worms, mice, some species will even take gold fish out of dishes that are shallow enough for the top fin to be sticking out of the water

Fruit - base this one off what fruit is found in its range, I avoid citrus and other high acid fruits, they may be ok but I've never risked it. Also only offer fruit as a snack maybe once a month.
The ones I've used are Prickly pear for only S. polymorpha, S. cingulata, S. white leg and S. heros. Mango, watermelon, guava and a few forms of berry I've used for all species and they've all enjoyed it with no Ill effects.

>>>This is what I feed my animals, and what has showed the best growth/health results over a 6+ year period of using this diet structure, add and subtract stuff as you like but I will only attest to the results I've had with a variety of the items listed<<<

Temperature:
This one can be tricky, different people agree on different temperature ranges, so I won't go too in depth here. Basic safe ranges for most species, not all, is 21°c to 27°c, as mentioned before heat can speed up growth and cold can slow it.

>>>This one is going to require research on the keepers end, read about where your species comes from, the temperature ranges and seasonal changes, also try to find water temperature of near by bodies of water to their range, and then you can decide what temperature best suits your species<<<

Habitat:
It is, in my experienced opinion, better to keep an animal with more hides and natural obstical then just an enclosure with a single hide and some fake plants. This gives the animal much more stimulation and seems to allow them to be more active as they can more sneakily explore the enclosure. I use lots of bark, leaf litter and moss to act as stuff for them to climb trough wile still feeling hidden. Rock piles work for some species as well, just don't use to heavy of rocks or pile them in a Manor that could collapse on the centipede. Bark siding or stone slab siding along the walls works great to, I have some of this in my enclosure tutorials on YouTube channel "ThePureLife" so for ideas and to see what I mean check there.

>>>Plain enclosures have worked for many long term, but I believe a more detailed enclosure will make for a happier animal, that's just my belief though<<<

Humidity:

This one can be super tricky, it is drastically different from species to species but here is a simple way to ensure your enclosure stays at the humidity level it should.
Get yourself a soil hydrometer, they sell them at almost all garden stores or Home Depot style stores. As a rule for any species, if you dig to the bottom and you see any standing water, it's wayyyy too humid. Bottom substrate should never be saturated just moist, you shouldn't be able to squeeze water out of it. Humidity gauges are nice to have too but if you keep the substrate in the 40-60% range at the lowest layer, the cage will likely stay the humidity it needs to. Watching the substrate humidity in my opinion is the best method to control humidity correctly, the top substrate can be bone dry feeling while just an inch down it's nice and humid, so again a soil hydrometer will make your life easy here.

>>>Humidity is a pretty important factor in health, so pay attention to it. Some get sick with not enough others get sick with too much, research of the species you have is key here and make sure your information is up to date and accurate, check many sources before concluding what you'll need<<<

Cleanliness:
As mentioned before, centipede all like it very clean, so you must provide clean conditions for them to thrive. After feeding remove all visible left over parts, if you ever see mold remove that whole section of substrate and everything 2" around it. Another huge step in this is a bioactive setup. Bioactive setups simply mean you have cage cleaners living and breeding in the substrate. The 3 cage cleaners you'll want are:

-Springtails, they eat mold and other decaying matter

-Dwarf white isopods, they do a great job of cleaning the food bits you might have missed during clean up

Predatory mites, these are the unsung heros of the invertebrate world, they can eliminate nast mite infections that are killing centipedes in no time. They spread fast from enclosure to enclose and consume any bad mites that appear. I've had a mite free collection for over 7 years now thanks to my original culture of them that was given to me by Galapoheros, he taught me all about cage cleaners and bioactive setups, and actually most of what I know about keeping today.


>>>This is a very generalized care guide that hopefully will help many aspiring as well as existing hobbyests. When I first started keeping over a decade ago, there was no resource like this anywhere and the information there was was shotty at best, so I've always felt the need to help expand what's available as far as online information. Maybe, this write up can do that at least in a small way. I tried to include all the vital information that is needed for anyone to have success keeping, and hopefully it saves many centipedes lives and improves their living conditions. Thank you all for reading, give me any feed back/input you have or let me know to add things I may have missed. I appreciate all the years of support, and hope everyone has an absolutely wonderful day!<<<


Ps. I'll add pics via request, let me know what you wanna see and I'll add it.

 

[Quetzalcoatl Nyarlathotep]

"Fat from steak, chicken and other stuff seems to have a somewhat negative impact on their digestive abilities. Some seem to eat and digest it ok, though it takes longer then normal, and other can actually get impacted, which as we know most often leads to death. I've seen some impacted specimens finally pass a opaque clear-ish chunk, this must be how the fat ends up in them, not fully digested suggesting that this is why it causes impaction; Their body's can't fully brake it down into a easily passable form."

Specifically this segment here, which describes food don'ts in centipedes. Now, if we can avoid crossing over sciences where they aren't relevant/on subject, that'd be great.

 

[Venom100]

I've heard people say that the chitin exoskeleton of mealworms make them hard to digest and are therefore nutritionally poor. I've also seen posts floating around the internet about the benefits of feeding slivers of raw chicken to centipedes, but some owners seem to be vehemently against it.

What are the best and worst foods for a centipede in your experience?

I use a varied diet switching between •Crickets/red runners
•To Cat Food
•Fruits for moisture

 

[mantisfan101]

I use wet cat food, roaches, mango, apple, pear, and shrimp

 

[Kidscolo]

what about beetle larvae how often would you give them or too rich in fat ? Is it necessary to include them in the diet at all?

Another question is to consider the food plan for small Scolos, as I want to get a small one. I am grateful for any tips or experiences.