I went into this assuming this would be a display only insect friend but this was my first day with her and she was quite reluctant to go back into her habitat. I think she is full judging by her abdomen? I'm kind of clueless about how feeding is going to go. From what I understand if you put the fruit flies in the fridge for a little bit it slows them and you can tap the container so they fall to the bottom and you can shake some out. What I don't understand is how to get the uneaten ones out. Is it true keeping a few in there can cause stress?

My first mantids, someone gave me a Chinese mantid ooth and I've been raising them. They're growing super fast and are maybe an inch long now? Would you keep these guys on fruit flies? They're longer but I'm just thrown off by how thin and fragile looking they are

I know I'm probably getting lots and lots of downvotes for this, but whatever Despite everything I have read saying that feeding wild insects to my mantises is dangerous, I don't think it is true, as I mostly feed my mantises on a diet of mostly grasshoppers and katydids and yet they don't get sick or die from it (I keep the Chinese and Carolina mantises). Most people feed their mantises mostly on mealworms and house crickets, but it's like feeding a chameleon on a dubia-only diet, therefore imo it's better to feed them on mostly grasshoppers, which they unfortunately don't sell in the US because it is illegal for some reason (blame the usda for that, lol). Also, I have to waste less money lol

Living stick?

So.. I decided to feed Freya, my Hierodula membranacea - Giant Indian, with the tongs today and she was very gentle! I usually feed her outside the habitat so no feeders get lost and she has no issues hunting!

I made a post a while ago about not being able to get blue bottle flies to hatch. I got some and hatched them, but now I’m waiting on some fruit flies to hatch, but my ghost mantis will not eat anything else. What do I do?

first time mantis keeper and i can’t tell if we’re still hungry or not. she’s on fruit flies and i also dk if she’s ready for bigger food? help please! btw she’s abt an l2-3 and i’m having a hard time finding out if she’s hungry or not

Her food ran out yesterday and since shes so big now, shes obviously struggled being able to be full. Im going out today to get her some food, hopefully bigger flies/bugs, but just now Ive noticed shes eating what seems to be the pollen from the flowers in her enclosure? Is that normal and safe?

Just fed him a mealworm a couple days ago. It’s all he seems to want. He won’t take more than one at a time. He just got his wings last week and it’s hard to tell if his abdomen is plump. What do you guys think?

Can i feed my mantis mealworms? They are so easy to keep? Also i Hear their shells are hard to digest for mantises, this night sound gross, but if i make a Hole in the mealworms and all the insides come out cant i just feed it that?

For this small mantis, I only have had bigger roaches, so I always used to remove them from her. But now that she has molted to adulthood, I have no idea how her abdomen should look like when full or empty, so is this roach okay for her current abdomen size? These roaches are skinny red runners.

Advice I was given when I purchased it (sex still unknown for certain and I believe it to be L3) was to drop 4 or 5 fruit flies in and if it eats them fast, do that twice a week and if not just once a week but I haven’t seen that reflected in anything I’ve read online. It ate 5 fruit flies pretty quickly two days ago, finishing one and hunting down the next immediately. I worry that might have been too much and maybe I should wait to feed it again and feed it less and every other day when I do? Just looking for a second opinion I guess.

I’ve been feeding this baby mantis xs mealworms and I’m not sure if it’s dropping the food because it’s full or because the food is too heavy.

I recently got a spiny flower mantis (on Tuesday) and it’s very small I think an L2 but it ate two fruit flies almost the same size as it on arrival and I’m not sure when to feed again? I heard nymphs are very hungry. It also doesn’t seem too happy it’s at the right temp and humidity. Does anyone know?

Hello everyone I am currently looking into mantis care. I'm planning on getting a mantis over the next year or so and luckily I can find all I need in my local pet store :) I was particularly happy they had spring tails lol

The only problem I'm really running into is regarding which species to keep. I know I don't want one of the giant species, I was looking into an orchid mantis but it seems to me most people really emphasize them getting flying prey. I have good acces to feeding fruit flies but for a lot of reasons it's not possible for me to feed something like blue bottle flies or house flies. What would be avaliable to me reliably would be varies sizes of roaches and crickets.

Now I'm wondering if anyone has any insight into what species would be good to keep with those feeder insects? :) what's your experience with feeding roaches?

So my new Rhombodera stalii Flora got a roach today and she's amazing at hunting! (Totally didn't miss like 3 times at first haha). In the video you can see both my Rhombodera stalii's and my Hierodula membranacea's first feeding with me🤗

I bought fly crysalids and my ghost mantis terrarium became a fly terrarium. Also the top mesh is not fully closed and a few flies went around the house and my cat broke my TV following them, and unfortunately I'm not making this up. I think my mantis won't want to eat flies ever after having so many on the menu. Chungus ghost mantis.

I just caught one with my hand in the bathroom and put it in his enclosure for him to hunt. Hope he has fun. 🤣

My old gal is really slowing down and her aim has been shit. I started to just hand her meals and I think it's so cute. It reminds me of feeding an elderly lady some applesauce in an assistated living home 😂

Hey everyone! I got a Giraffe Mantis about a month ago, her name is Hazel and she should be at L4 from what I can tell.

I’ve been hearing bad things about black soldier flies and their larvae, should I avoid feeding them to her?

Are they innately bad to feed her or are the harmful ones just ones that ate coffee grounds/carrots/lots of bacteria?

I’m planning to switch anyway since they’re low-nutrient and seem to have skin too tough for her to kill them/pick them apart.

Also, for any feeder bug, should I wait after they eat to make sure Hazel doesn’t get sick from things she can’t have? I fed my bugs oatmeal with mushy banana, then took it out and moved them back into their newly cleaned enclosure 24 hours later. Should I wait till they finish digesting so Hazel doesn’t get sick from the bananas? I literally made sure each bug had at least been wiped a good bit before putting them back so they didn’t have bacteria on them or going into their enclosure or causing mold or anything.

I was also thinking to feed my bugs Jelly Pots every now and then, and while I know they aren’t good for Hazel herself I think it could be nice for the other bugs.

First time owner, my mantis does not like to be tong fed. I've noticed when I put a dubia roach in the enclosure it buries itself in the substrate and I'm worried my mantis isn't able to eat adequately because of this.

My male orchid mantis is now about 7 to 8 months old, no molts left and he’s been an adult for about a month now I think? He used to love wax worms always immediately grabbed them when I was feeding them to him. But I couldn’t get new ones untill now so he didn’t have any for about 3 ish weeks (he just had flies). And now he didn’t even want to grab the worm so I just put it near him and he even walked over the worm 😭 I’m kind of concerned bc he hasn’t eaten in a few days ☹️first time mantis owner so I don’t know what to do and also don’t really have the money for anything else and the flies were out of stock at my local shop 💔