# Ready to lay eggs



## pizzuti (Aug 18, 2007)

How do you tell when a female is about to lay an ooth?

I have a very fat adult female _religiosa_ and a male, but all mating attempts have failed; the first time I tried to mate her with a male, the male went for the grasshopper she was holding and eating, and the second time he just kind of looked at her for a long time and never advanced towards her. He might be a bit too young, but I don't know how much time I have; the female is about as fat as I've ever seen one and I'd hate for her to lay her first ooth without mating. Are there any signs that an egg laying is imminent?


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## Morpheus uk (Aug 19, 2007)

They should be ready to mate in 4-6 weeks roughly, make sure the female is stuffed and then give her a big food item so the male gets a chance then put the male i think an inch or 2 behind her.

As for laying behaviour i dont know if theres any clear evidence, except when she eats something big she wont got a little thinner over the next couple of days, she should eat almost everyday, and she be way more active


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## Ben.M (Aug 19, 2007)

If she looks like she is gonna pop then she will probs lay an ooth in the next few days :roll:


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## Rick (Aug 19, 2007)

> If she looks like she is gonna pop then she will probs lay an ooth in the next few days :roll:


Not always. If she lays one before mating it's not a big deal. She will lay more and you can mate her before then.

Try this:

http://www.mantidforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7112


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## pizzuti (Aug 19, 2007)

I know they'll lay more than one, but in my experience the first one is the biggest and best and each successive ooth is smaller and more distorted in shape after that. I'd really like to see the first one fertile.


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## OGIGA (Aug 19, 2007)

From my orchid mantis, the first ooth was about 1.5 inches. The second was quite a bit smaller, maybe an inch. Then, the third one is the largest so far, 1.75 inches.


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## Ben.M (Aug 19, 2007)

My virecens smallest ooth was her first :lol:


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## pizzuti (Aug 20, 2007)

Well I'm only talking about _religiosa_s; they're used to seeing winter come right after they lay eggs, so they quickly start to decline after the first ooth. Once I was lucky enough to keep one to December (outside they had all died in September) which is almost a doubling of lifespan, but in the last two months she only produced one very small, shriveled raisin-sized ooth.

Also consider this: the protein mass that composes the ooths seems to be limitless; as long as the female mantid is alive, she can produce it out of the food she eats. But human females are born with all their infertile eggs already intact. Perhaps the same is true for mantids; every time she lays eggs, there are fewer eggs left in her body that can be fertilized and added to the next ooth.


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