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The Wraith are reliant on humans for food, but this is complicated by the fact that humans breed very slowly and thus the Wraith spend most of their thousands of years of existence in hibernation.

It turns out that the vast majority of the Wraith population is essentially clone soldiers and their ships have AI which can hold conversations and are not dependent on a steady diet of humans.

Why don't the Wraith use their gestation technology to grow humans or other suitable species, thereby removing their crippling reliance on the free range human population? Why do they waste their limited food supporting all those hungry mouths when it would be more efficient to use the same weird meaty technology they use for everything else?

This wouldn't even change the conflicts all that much, since the Wraith would still be ageless, alien, man-eating, sadistic, imperialist drug-pushers. They'd probably be even worse, since they'd be free to use free-range humans for entertainment rather than food.

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    The issue was the human population was so massive, as well has making massive fleets to fight the ancients(atlantians) that they over extended/englarged their population. But since they can simply hybernate why take the time and energy to create massive breeding factories on which to feed, whats 100, 1000, 10,000 years asleep when your immortal, and can wake up to fully repopulated worlds to feast on.
    – Himarm
    Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 14:01
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    @Himarm: the soldiers are treated as expendable, so it makes no sense to keep them around once they no longer serve a purpose. It makes more sense to use AIs for infantry and pilots if wraith already use them for all infrastructure. It takes the cloning facilities on hiveships minutes to grow a wraith from zygote to combat readiness, so there's no reason it cannot replicate food as easily. The goa'uld made tactically stupid decisions because they were constantly high and mentally ill. The wraith don't have that excuse and every reason to avoid it.
    – Anonymous
    Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 14:21
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    AIs almost always are shown to have limits and a tendency to turn on their creators in stargate (replicators as best example). Biological "drones" or wraith soldiers don't have that limitation and by having the same appetite they are more loyal than an AI could be (as they would cripple their own species else). What is more is...they are immortal so what are a few thousand years to them?
    – Thomas
    Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 14:37
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    @Thomas: Almost every example of AIs turning evil in the series may be attributed to incompetence on the part of humans. Fifth was more than happy to betray his entire civilization in exchange for playing house. There are several other AIs which are not hostile even after the cast tries to kill them, such as the clone robots, Urgo and Fran.
    – Anonymous
    Commented May 2, 2017 at 12:57

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Wraith cloning technology takes a hell of a lot of energy

The Wraith cloning facility that grew their soldiers took three ZPMs to run. Considering that the only way the Wraith could get any ZPMs was by stealing them, using the cloning technology to grow humans as food wouldn't be a viable, long-term solution. After a while, and not even a long while, they'd be out of power and out of cloned humans, at which point they'd have no choice to go back to the Cull-Sleep-Repeat cycle.

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  • That cloning facility was an industrialized, wartime application of how the Wraith reproduce on their hive ships, as stated in the episode it was showcased. A single hive ship, which is over ten kilometers long, should be more than adequate to grow enough of whatever it is that wraith need from humans.
    – Anonymous
    Commented May 2, 2017 at 12:49
  • It's never stated that the Wraith reproduce in that way, nor that the technology on their hive ships operates in the same fashion. You also assume that a single hive ship is capable of growing human tissue, and that a single hive ship would be sufficient to satiate the hunger of every Wraith in the galaxy. I doubt either of those things is true.
    – DisturbedNeo
    Commented May 2, 2017 at 16:25
  • I meant to say grow enough to sate the population of the hive ship, assuming they purged all non-essential personnel. I can't make any accurate assumptions when the characters don't mention any options other than removing their need to feed or converting other Wraith into humans to eat. Those sound much more extreme than growing humans, or even just growing whatever nutrients they need without a whole human attached.
    – Anonymous
    Commented May 2, 2017 at 19:58

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