Giant Centipede Care, Feeding, Supplies...and Warnings!

[findiviglio]

Honestly, if you go into the situation mentally prepared to take a bite or thinking you will......I believe you are setting yourself up for failure. This may sound weird, but I never not once thought about what would happen if I got bit. I simply kept the thought out of my mind & focused on doing things intelligently. And its not like I kept furry pet rocks like Rose Hairs and Emperor Scorpions......I worked with everything from Giant Centipedes, to Israeli Deathstalker Scorpions, African Assassin Bugs, Poecilotheria species, and even kept Sicarius for a while (google them if you're not familiar.....the TRUE "most toxic" spider on the planet)......I had stuff that would RUIN someone's day.....but it was never an issue because I was careful and I kept them because I enjoyed interacting with and observing them. Nothing more.

Trust someone with more years in the world's leading zoos and museums, and the field, than many net-experts have on earth, and quite a bit of time working for the leading supplier of wildlife to zoos, back when there were few regs....it is an issue! I suggest you subscribe to a prof journal, i.e. Toxicon, if you wish an accurate understanding of the status of our knowledge on venoms, treatment, etc.

[Beardo]

Just wondering.....since we seem to be straying off topic a bit and I'm not trying to have an argument on the justification of keeping venomous animals in captivity, but exactly how much personal experience do you have with keeping centipedes, findiviglio?

[findiviglio]

Just wondering.....since we seem to be straying off topic a bit and I'm not trying to have an argument on the justification of keeping venomous animals in captivity, but exactly how much personal experience do you have with keeping centipedes, findiviglio?

I'm not going to go into this any further...no offense, hopefully you are careful and will be fine. I mainly commented not to change your views, but because less experienced people might be unduly influenced. Good luck with all, Frank

[Beardo]

I'm not going to go into this any further...no offense, hopefully you are careful and will be fine. I mainly commented not to change your views, but because less experienced people might be unduly influenced. Good luck with all, Frank

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you probably have never kept centipedes before, based on that response. I have been keeping centipedes for 15 years. I base my statements on real-time personal experience, rather than what someone *else* did. That, IMO holds more weight when talking about husbandry advice....but again thats just MY opinion.

Jack, I would rank those species you listed in potency in this order from weakest to most potent:

S. polymorpha
E. trigonopodus
H. platei
R. longipes
S. mortisans
S. suspinipes

[findiviglio]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you probably have never kept centipedes before, based on that response. I have been keeping centipedes for 15 years. I base my statements on real-time personal experience, rather than what someone *else* did. That, IMO holds more weight when talking about husbandry advice....but again thats just MY opinion.

Jack, I would rank those species you listed in potency in this order from weakest to most potent:

S. polymorpha
E. trigonopodus
H. platei
R. longipes
S. mortisans
S. suspinipes

Ahhh...my fault for engaging, I might have expected this. Very foolish statement for you to make based on my response; I'd stay away from gambling if I were you. Suffice to say that 15 years as a private keeper would not measure up were I to take this further.

More importantly, you should not be ranking potencies as above. There is published information re this...someone in the dept. of invertebrate biology at the Am Museum of Natural History might be able to point you in the right direction, should you wish to do some serious research on the topic.

[Beardo]

You know what....not even gonna bother. Carry on.

[findiviglio]

Your question dodging abilities are quite stellar, sir. Are you sure you're not in politics as well? I asked a simple question, that was relevant to the topic at hand and you, for whatever reason, are avoiding it.

I'm getting a distinct elitist-holier-than-thou anti-captivity vibe from you, based off your previous posts in this thread.......not surprising, considering the personalities I have run into in the academia world. They view the "private" keeper as being nothing more than a Pokemon-minded, knuckle dragging fool who couldn't hold their Bunson Burners on a good day.

Probably a good chance that, either yourself or one/some of your "Expert" buddies have suffered venomous bites and it ruffles your feathers quite a bit to hear about a lowly private collector *possibly* having more experience and more success working with the same animals.

Not in academia, easy enough to find hands-on photos of me in the field; started out as and remain a pet keeper; again, private keepers cannot adequately prepare for envenomations in most cases. Unsolicited advice:-stay away from "probably a good chance" "going out on limb" etc if you want to be taken seriously

Began keeping centipedes in the mid-60's, continued at home, at the Bronx Zoo, Staten Is Zoo and several museums until present, assisted/studied (centipedes and others) at several Japanese Zoos as well (invert keeping there very advanced, has been for decades); field collection, as research associate, in Venezuela, Costa Rica and elsewhere, huge array of species, including undescribed. and so on