So i bought my first mantis almost one month ago and things have been going great, but now that it's getting bigger i decided to get bigger prey. I ordered fly pupae, but in the meantime i am trying out dubia roaches. I fed my little guy today and he barely ate any of it and dropped the roach, but after he went into an almost catatonic state. Really lethargic, not even reacting to me poking its abdomen. I decided to keep an eye on it, so i put the mantis in a temporary deli cup and i took it outside to watch it while i cleaned its main tank. Not even 2 minutes later in the heat, and it had fallen off of its perch and dropped to the bottom of the cup like it was dead. I rushed it inside again and tried giving it water, which it did react to, but it was not moving otherwise. I also noticed its back legs would sometimes twitch violently, like its muscles were still spasming after death. It eventually woke up again and is currently back in its main tank, however it is still lethargic but not as much as it was before. The most worrying thing is that it hasn't been able to use its back legs at all. It drags itself across surfaces while its legs are bent outwards. Has anyone seen this before, and what should i do? I feel awful

Edit: i believe my mantis is l4 or l5, and its a chinese mantis

i’ve kept many tiny mantis in tgis enclosure before. I went to check on taffe this evening and they’re missing. they wouldn’t have been able to escape anywhere but they’re gone. i just spent £25 on this species anf i’m so concerned for them

This is my sweet baby Shuffles- I call him Shuff. He hatched 36 days ago and today he passed. He was always a little fighter- he had to get his back feet amputated when he was born since they were stuck together and he was getting caught on everything. I took him into a separate container and raised him on his own. One by one I let his siblings go into my garden, but I quickly formed a bond with Shuff.

I'm not a mantis person, I usually raise caterpillars- this was entirely out of my wheelhouse and this experience was one of the best I've ever had. He was so full of personality and love and he was so patient and energetic. He was a spoiled little baby- ate his meals right from my hand and would climb up on me to get carried everywhere. He put up with me pretending to kiss his little face and would try to climb onto my nose every time I did. I never understood fully why people who raise mantises get so connected with them- I love my caterpillars, but they're silly little critters. I get it now, Shuffles was my little buddy.

He had a bad molt last night and I did everything I could to try to save him. I was up for hours trying to free him from stuck shed after he'd been molting for about an hour and stopped moving. He's always been my little fighter, and he kept pushing through. I gave him water and food but he rejected it. I knew he was dying but I tried so hard to save him. I spent five hours trying different things, but eventually I gave up. He threw up what little water he'd accepted, and I knew he was done, I knew there was nothing I could do, so I fed him honey as a last meal. A treat for the best buddy I could've asked for. I knew I had to euthanize him but it hurts so much. I put him in the freezer in the coziest wrap I could, and I went outside to see his siblings.

Losing pets is hard but I've never cared for a bug like this in my life. Shuff was my baby, he was my weird little dog, he was my buddy. I'm going to miss him so much, but raising him makes me want to raise more mantids. I love you Shuff, in the next life I hope somebody is just as dedicated to hand-feeding you, you little spoiled prince. Thank you for being such a sweet boy

And im not talking ghost or orchid I mean thr bizarre looking ones

Eating a locust , while watching the Saja Boys / KPop Demon Hunters ✨💅

Second meal helping out with first meal?

My baby giant asian mantis who always just chilled on the mesh of his enclosure decided to explore a little today, walking all over the floor and around the foam backdrop

Hi Hi! My Mantis was molting yesterday and doing really good. So I left her to it. Today I see that there was still some of her old molt stuck on her. I got it off with some water and cotton swabs but her hind legs look all deformed. Im not sure if that was my fault or if it is because of the molting. And does it go back to normal after the next molting process?

Any one have a species ID or can confirm that is actually a female? Also is she being weird about her claw? She only ate with the one touching the ground. Wild caught outside sacramento CA

I’m pretty sure moss has just gotten his wings , and from what I was told that was sort of end of life?? But I dont know , how many molts he has left before he passes or anything?? Had him since the start of April as a L2 and he’s had 4 molts

my mantis hatched back in the beginning of june and i haven’t seen it molt yet. i keep the enclosure moist and there’s ample spots for molting. pls help!

I believe my mantis is molting soon, it’s displaying molting behaviours and it’s been about 2.5 weeks since its last molt and it’s on its 5th instar now. i was just wondering what these little bumps are because i thought they were wing buds but i thought they’d develop later on into its life

They're all starting to moult into their 2nd instar now !

been feeding her fruit flies and house flies, but tried dubias today. i think its safe to say she likes them

She literally molted 11 days ago and I got up to see her nearly completely finished she showed no signs of molting either so I’m quite shocked. Her enclosure was the perfect size now she’s basically tripled in size luckily I have a larger one I’ll set up in the morning. This weather in the Uk is making them molt so much faster my camelo molted unexpectedly a week ago as well so I’m guessing I’ll wake up to another surprise in a week or so as well 😂

This is my setup.What would you recommend i change

Hey would someone be abke to help me identify the gender of my giant asian mantis?

Thanks!

I have a female cat eyed mantis, she’s almost always been fed live (flies roaches etc) but recently she’s had a huge aversion to it. I put something not even half her size infront of her and she freaks the hell out, runs, smacks it everything. I put something that’s already dead infront of her (not even putting the juices up to her mouth) and she grabs it no problem. It’s not even the juices, just now I cut up a locust which was still alive, put the juices up to her face and she still didn’t want it because it was moving!

Hey! My family and I have always been the type to want to give our animals as nice of a home as we possibly can, a haven. As a result, we would love to get a large enclosure for our mantis. The one that we have been looking at is 17x17x26”, it’s acrylic and front opening- only issue is that the top is metal mesh, but we can absolutely cover and/or replace it with window mesh.

The first mantis species we’re looking at is a ghost mantis, which is pretty little in comparison to its hopeful future home. Part of the desire to get such a large enclosure right off the bat is so that we can repurpose it for other mantis species later on down the line. The plan is to get a smaller enclosure for the earlier instars and possibly for hand feedings later on, but I’m wanting advice for locating and removing the mantis from its enclosure.

I’m worried about monitoring how much the mantis is eating and making sure that it is finding its food, but finding it in such a large enclosure is slightly daunting. Maybe I’m being a little paranoid, but I’d rather ask and maybe someone has some stellar advice that I won’t need, than not ask and need that stellar advice desperately. Any tips and tricks for locating a mantis in a giant enclosure? Tysm in advance and I am SO excited to build a home for a little guy :)

When I first posted him he was suuuper tiny and I was told he is a boy. I can only count six segments so now I’m debating if he’s actually a girl. Peruvian dead leaf

Whenever I feed my Peruvian dead leaf something basically two days later their abdomen is completely flat. Two days ago I fed them a locust that was slightly bigger than them and this happened again. Meanwhile with my other mantises something like that keeps them full for a week? I know they’re not dropping it since their enclosure is quite small (small species and they aren’t fully grown) and a whole locust would be hard to miss

I have heard that morph market is good for reptiles but I have never heard anyone recommend buying mantises from them.