# New Member - Green Oasis Reptiles



## GreenOasis (Sep 2, 2010)

We are breeders of reptiles mostly, but have recently found a fascination with the hobby of mantises. Honestly, we never knew captive-breeding of mantids was possible until just last year! (We hatched out our first ooth earlier this year, from a wild-caught female Carolina that laid eggs for us last fall!)

We are not looking to become "commercial" breeders/sellers of mantises...reptiles are our primary focus, always will be, but we do enjoy the idea of breeding and conserving these awesome works of the Creator, and hope to contribute to the efforts of the Mantid community!

Green Oasis Reptiles consists of: Carey Kurtz, 36; Steve Kurtz, 36; FOUR human children of varying ages and sexes, more than 70 snakes, more than 20 bearded dragons, several Leopard Geckos, 4 European Legless Lizards and several mantises and various other "critters". And, no, we do not (nor ever WILL) feed mantises to any of the insectivorous reptiles!

So, HELLO ALL and NICE TO MEET YOU!

-C Kurtz-


----------



## Nepfreak (Sep 2, 2010)

Welcome to the forum and to the hobby!


----------



## Seattle79 (Sep 2, 2010)

Nice to meet you too and welcome.

-Kevin


----------



## nickyp0 (Sep 2, 2010)

Welcome to the forum!!!!  i my self am a reptile breeder mostly ball python's i have a few pics of my snakes on here. again welcome and have fun.


----------



## LauraMG (Sep 2, 2010)

Welcome!


----------



## Rick (Sep 2, 2010)

Welcome


----------



## angelofdeathzz (Sep 2, 2010)

Welcome, Kurtz Family!!!


----------



## ismart (Sep 2, 2010)

Welcome to the forum!


----------



## paddythemic (Sep 2, 2010)

And, no, we do not (nor ever WILL) feed mantises to any of the insectivorous reptiles

My coworker's Lineola just ate a lizard yesterday (left the bones). Kinda nasty, but your post reminded me of it.

Welcome by the way!


----------



## paddythemic (Sep 2, 2010)

Here's the "before" pic...I think the Lineola is sub-adult.

PIC DELETED - MEMORY ISSUES


----------



## Peter Clausen (Sep 2, 2010)

I had an adult female H. multispina mismolt badly while I was in Mexico last week. I fed the poor deformed, barely-living mantis to our bearded dragon.

Hey, you don't have any sandfire adult females available, do you? Or other red morphs? Our red male needs a lady soon. Any referrals or recommendations are also appreciated.

Welcome to the forum!


----------



## hibiscusmile (Sep 2, 2010)

I dont like that mantis eating the dragon:angry: . Hello girl! welcome, glad to see you found our hiding spot! :tt2:


----------



## GreenOasis (Sep 2, 2010)

Yes, I fear that the mantises will become more addiction than hobby...thank God the finances forbid me to get into them full-force, or I'd have several pairs of expensive exotics already! ;^)

No, we do not have any sub-adult or adult dragons, except for our first pair.

And YES, I've actually seen a video of a rather large (I'm assuming Chinese) praying mantis eating a baby cornsnake on YouTube! Poor snake! I just didn't want anyone to think that we're sick people that raise animals just to feed to other animals while we video and laugh about it (closing door to rat room). ;^)

Maybe if there was a problem with a mantis and I needed to "put it down" I might consider that...we have had to do that with a few baby geckos that had birth defects &amp; wouldn't eat (king snakes love them!), but I don't just go around willy-nilly, saying "Hey, let's see if this animal will eat that one!" Seems a little wrong to me. Though, I'm sure there are at least a few folks out there that do that. :^O

Thanks for all the kind welcomes! I hope that we can, at least by trades, get a few more species here &amp; there and play around with them. I would love to try Unicorns next, and maybe Ghosts after that....work my way up to those beautiful Orchids!

Speaking of trades, does anyone need some Carolina males? (Thanks hibiscusmile for helping with the ID!) I've got at least 6 I can part with! (Trades MOST welcome!)

-C Kurtz-


----------



## shorty (Sep 3, 2010)

Welcome to the community!

I have no reptiles at the moment, just mantises, a few carnivorous plants and a few bonsai trees, but I'm thinking about buying a uromastyx after seeing my friends _Uromastyx maliensis_ that he recently bought. You wouldn't happen to have any species of uromastyx for sale would you?

Also, your idea of becoming a commercial breeder and seller of mantids is a good one. There aren't a whole lot of breeders in the U.S. that consistently sell a variety of species. And they breed relatively quickly as compared to reptiles.

Do you have a website?

Thanks and enjoy your time here!


----------



## GreenOasis (Sep 3, 2010)

I just didn't know if it was okay to "plug" our website on here. Don't want to break any rules! But, our website is www.greenoasisreptiles.com We don't have any Uros. I don't really care for them, and you can't get captive-bred ones here in the US (from what I've heard). They're all imports. We prefer to breed our own stuff, so that we know exactly how it's been treated from day one. (And we know that they're not carrying any diseases or parasites, since MOST importers don't bother to treat them.)

We may get into importing a few select species ourselves starting next year, though. The demand is just too high to pass on it. (Have I mentioned that we really haven't made much in sales here in the last year or so?) Stupid economy. Doesn't help that the weather made fertility pretty low on the colubrids &amp; pythons. If it weren't for the female dragon being a laying machine this year, we probably wouldn't have broken $100 in sales! :^O

I wouldn't mind offering mantids for sale here &amp; there as I learn to properly care for them myself (better to sell off the extras to someone else than have them die from neglect because there's just too many to keep up with!) I do agree, though, that there is certainly a big gap in the area of "mantid supply" places! I think 'hibiscus' smile has the only other one I've seen that sells actual "LIVE" mantids. That DeShawn's site seems to have been out of commission for years!

So, as I have "extras", I'll likely take them to the reptile/exotics shows with me and try selling them (get folks interested in the hobby!) I've heard another vendor at a reptile show mention that they saw someone at another show selling mantids before..."really exotic-looking ones", they said, so...WHO KNOWS! Maybe the idea will catch on.

On a related note, I have received hubby's "blessing" to "get into" mantids...when we have the $$. ;^) He says, "If anyone were going to keep a BUG for a pet, I would have to say that mantises are the way to go!" (We got out one of the nymphs for him to hold &amp; check out earlier, since they are finally big enough to handle!) Yep...he's hooked too, so...I'll be checking back with folks when we have the money to "branch out". ;^)


----------



## shorty (Sep 5, 2010)

GreenOasis said:


> I just didn't know if it was okay to "plug" our website on here. Don't want to break any rules! But, our website is www.greenoasisreptiles.com We don't have any Uros. I don't really care for them, and you can't get captive-bred ones here in the US (from what I've heard). They're all imports. We prefer to breed our own stuff, so that we know exactly how it's been treated from day one. (And we know that they're not carrying any diseases or parasites, since MOST importers don't bother to treat them.)
> 
> We may get into importing a few select species ourselves starting next year, though. The demand is just too high to pass on it. (Have I mentioned that we really haven't made much in sales here in the last year or so?) Stupid economy. Doesn't help that the weather made fertility pretty low on the colubrids &amp; pythons. If it weren't for the female dragon being a laying machine this year, we probably wouldn't have broken $100 in sales! :^O
> 
> ...


I understand your fears about importing. I would so much rather buy a captive bred animal rather than an imported one, but I'm not completely against the idea of importing if measures are taken to properly care for the animals. After all, if no animals were ever imported, we wouldn't have much of a selection here in the states.  

As far as mantids go, I think they have potential to be a popular pet to keep. They are relatively easy and inexpensive to care for, they are interesting to watch, feed, and can be handled, so they are an attractive option for a pet. When I first talk to my friends and acquaintances about the hobby they don't seem to understand why someone would want to keep an insect as a pet; when I show them the mantids, however, many seem to be instantly fascinated with them, even people who otherwise despise bugs. I've been pleasantly surprised by how many people I know that at the very least are thinking about ordering mantids. When I show them some of the more beautiful and/or exotic species, like the Orchid mantis, for example, they are even more attracted to the hobby.

Anyway, good luck with your website and your venture into keeping mantids.


----------

