# adult female orchids



## wuwu (Oct 17, 2006)

after both my females molted into an adult, they seem to lost their gluttony. i always thought they should be more gluttonous as adult females. they eat, but sparingly. does anyone know why?


----------



## yen_saw (Oct 17, 2006)

YEs i have seen this with my orchid female as well. But they will gobble up food 2-3 days after molting, and then stop eating for next 2-3 days. Adult male will eat even less often, or don't seem to be interested with food at all.


----------



## wuwu (Oct 17, 2006)

my male is actually showing more interest in food than the females. he's eaten 3 bluebottles already and his tummy is nice and round. the females on the other hand have only eaten about 10 bluebottles or so in the last week, and their tummies still look flat.


----------



## yen_saw (Oct 17, 2006)

Well that's not good, female of any species will eat like pig usually 2-3 days after molting, including orchid mantis. female orchid mantis will only stop when she has a full tummy. Try to keep her at higher temp., and force feed if necessary. Good luck.


----------



## wuwu (Oct 17, 2006)

hmm i'll get a heat lamp then.


----------



## rickyc666 (Oct 19, 2006)

When mine dont seem to want to eat most food, they can often be tempted by moths. they seem to respond instantly to the fluttering of their wings.


----------



## Butterfly (Oct 19, 2006)

I like to feed my european mantis winged things whenever a friend comes by that has never seen her eat. She just loves it when something is going crazy flying in her cage, she'll do this little wave thing at me and then goes right for the bug. People love watching it too, It just goes alot quicker than catching crickets.


----------



## wuwu (Oct 25, 2006)

i think i figured out why my female orchids were acting that way. it was the size of the prey. i've noticed that orchids are pretty particular w/ the size of their prey. if they consider a prey too small, they will ignore it. when my females were around L5/L6, they completely ignored fruitflies. on the other hand, my adult female g. gongylodes still eats fruitflies. i fed my female orchids some crickets today and they gorged themselves.


----------



## Rick (Oct 25, 2006)

The three orchids I have are eating food that is larger than they are. They will still take fruitflies but they enjoy houseflies or moths even though those are usually as big or bigger than they are.


----------

