FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

So today I managed to feed my fly trap a small cricket, and in the process of closing the little sucker managed to get his torso/head out a bit after the trap shut. I felt horrible watching the cricket pushing its upper arms against the trap trying to pull its legs out of the trap I just couldn't help to but to feel very inhumane, I made my girlfriend put the cricket out of its suffering because I couldn't stand it, also, I just had to release the rest of the crickets I had purchased, I wouldn't have been able to feed another one.
Although, after the cricket was dead I found a very small spider and fed that to another mouth, the spider fit inside the mouth with no problem, no legs or anything sticking out, and I had no moral problems with it... just the cricket thing that really got me. I think I would have been fine with mealworms or flightless fruit flies also.
Anyone else have a similar experience?

No.....

I think I read somewhere that insects don't feel pain like we do. Either way, I don't care.
Only time I felt vaguely bad was having to cut an insect in half.

Anyway, if you think that's bad try walking around a greenhouse full of Sarracenia pitchers, whining from all the beating wings inside.

Daniel_G wrote:No.....

I think I read somewhere that insects don't feel pain like we do. Either way, I don't care.
Only time I felt vaguely bad was having to cut an insect in half.

Anyway, if you think that's bad try walking around a greenhouse full of Sarracenia pitchers, whining from all the beating wings inside.

I don't know, must have been the fact that a saw it struggling to get out of the plant, sort of gave it a human characteristic.

Can't say I ever have with a cricket. Though I feed them to my spider all the time so I'm used to it. I did find an empty praying mantis husk in a trap once and I felt bad because I particularly like praying mantids.

Now when I use to feed my snakes live mice(don't worry, I stopped that practice years ago) I did feel bad sometimes. The mice would stand up and look so furry and cute and have no idea that a snake was creeping up behind them.

Edit: Don't worry, you'll get over it. This is a cruel and cold hobby we're in.

Feeding live vertibrates in illegal in the UK....
I could never feed a mouse to a snake live. But the frozen ones... Fine....

Live foods is a bit of a grey area both morally and legally, you can feed them under certain circumstances eg. if the predator won't eat other foods. There is a fair bit on it in the animal welfare act, not that the act itself is worth the paper its written on, its as holey as a block of swiss cheese.

Daniel_G wrote:Feeding live vertibrates in illegal in the UK....
I could never feed a mouse to a snake live. But the frozen ones... Fine....

Yeah that's how I felt about the cricket, but same here with the mouse.

I don't feel empathy for little bugs I feed to flytraps.
The only time I feel vague empathy when my snake kills a mouse, and does not eat it.

I wonder what Matt's thoughts are on this topic

They say a picture is worth a thousand words... So I'll just put these words.

Sarracenia Minor's Stomach

Daniel, is that a column of ice? Sweet!

As for feeding live mice, I didn't stop for moral reasons but because of the risk of the mouse hurting the snake and because bulk frozen mice are much cheaper. Though personally I never got a thrill watching my snakes eat live food, I think if your snake will eat warmed frozen mice it's a much better solution.

That's really interesting that it's illegal, or at least a grey area, in the UK.

Yeah, ice

Frozen digestive juices and bugs. I was hoping to get the frozen wasp out, but it snapped....

nah, it doesnt really affect me.....i like watching the insects struggle because i know the plant will be activated and get a confirmed meal...what do you think happens in nature? sometimes stuff like this happens and besides you bought feeder crickets....what did they expect?

stitz25b wrote:nah, it doesnt really affect me.....i like watching the insects struggle because i know the plant will be activated and get a confirmed meal...what do you think happens in nature? sometimes stuff like this happens and besides you bought feeder crickets....what did they expect?

Clearly, I bought them not to watch them die, but to provide nutrients for the plant. Sure it happens in nature, but do I enjoy watching a helpless organism struggle for its life? No, I don't mind it if the insect is trapped inside wholly but the thing that bothered me is that it shut while it was getting out. I assume you have never thought of it as if you were in the insects position.

They're crickets. Nuff said.