Posts Tagged "prey"

Octopus Feeding

Octopus Diet

At the ends of the arms of Octopus are suction cups. They contain sensors that allow them to taste their food. These animals are very particular about the overall taste of their food. They will pass up a meal that is readily available if they don’t care for the way it tastes. This will occur even if they are very desperate for food in order to survive.

They have a very strong and powerful beak on their mouths that they use to get prey and to rip them apart. They will swallow chunks of food whole. They mainly consume mollusks and crustaceans. They are also known to eat various types of fish and snails. Sometimes they will also feed upon smaller species of Octopus that are around them when they can’t find enough other food sources for survival.

Many of the types of foods that the Octopus consume have shells on them. They are able to get their food source out of the shells before they eat them. When they aren’t able to they release a type of toxin from the body that will quickly dissolve the tissues that connect it to the shell.

This type of behavior is one that they make seem very easy. Yet researchers find it to be very complex in nature. Some how these creatures know if they need to use the toxins and how much. With some prey they will create two holes and put the toxin into each of them. With others they only drill one hole. It is believed that they have some instinctive connection for what they should do to benefit from the meal in front of them.

Most of the time Octopus will feed during the night time. They are able to see well in the dark, murky waters which gives them the advantage over their prey. They will hunt during the day though when they are very hungry and an opportunity presents itself. They are amazing predators. Since they can blend in so well to their surroundings they are able to get close to prey without being recognized.

The use of the suction cups on the arms is another way that they are able to capture their prey. There is a sticky type of residue here among the webbing that makes it virtually impossible for the prey to get away. The foods that they do consume go through the esophagus and then directly up into the brain area. Then they are carried back down the body into the digestive system.

When Octopus bite their prey, they inject a powerful venom into it. This usually won’t kill the prey but it is enough to immobilize it. That way the prey isn’t thrashing around and fighting back as they are trying to consume it.

Most living creatures tend to eat more before they lay eggs or give birth. For the female Octopus though they don’t eat for about a month before they young are born. They spend all of their time trying to defend the eggs from predators, keeping them clean, and at the right temperature. By the time the young are born they are close to death themselves.

They don’t care for their young when they hatch or teach them to hunt. Instead, the young offspring go to the surface of the water where they will hunt for plankton. As they get bigger and older they will move towards the bottom of the ocean where they will consume the other types of foods mentioned here. Hunting for prey is very instinctive for them though from the moment they come out of the egg.