Recently I've bought a Nepenthes pitcher plant, and the seller have told me that I may feed it meat, if there is not enough flies and bugs in the house.
As I have nets on my windows, I guess that indeed will be the case, but I just want to be sure that I really can feed it meat, and I won't actually hurt it by doing so.
Thanks in advance for any help.
I think you would be better off with catching some bugs, spiders, flies or worms occasionally instead of feeding the plant with meat. They do not really need that much "food" at all.
Insects and bugs are serve as "fertilizer" to the plant, supplying valuable nutrients like Nitrogen and Potassium. If you do not feel like catching bugs you can use a regular leaf or foliage fertilizer at very very weak dosages, around 10-20% of the recommended concentrations.
Some species of this genus do eat (sporadically) small vertebrates, like mice, shrews, or lizards. But these are species with large cups. And they catch more insects (or other arthropods) mostly, but occasionally vertebrates. Nepenthes attenboroughii is one example (yes named after David Attenborough).
So they prefer insects, but once in a while they can handle meat from vertebrates as well. If you really want to feed it real meat, please be sure it is raw and with a size smaller than the pitcher. But a better solution would be to buy insects in the pet store, which are sold as food for lizards for example.
they consume insects and sometimes small amphibians...other than that no meat. it can cause rot and fungi
