# gongylus and locusts



## julian camilo (Jun 6, 2006)

hello.

i was wondering if anybody knew what kind of effect locusts have on gongs. i know crickets are unsuitable, but was wondering what the case was with locusts, does anybody know? (regardless of size etc, i just mean nutritional content, such as the ootheca laying problem gongs get when fed crickets). thanks


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## Jackson (Jun 6, 2006)

Well i know with Tarantulas it is said that feeding locusts is bad because the tarantula uses up more energy eating it than what they actually gain back from the locust....may be the same with mantids.


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## bruty2fruity (Jun 13, 2006)

ive had mine fead on locusts for a month now and are really active, more so than with curly winged house flies or cricks. next i wanna try is roaches


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## infinity (Jun 13, 2006)

Key to healthy living as with any animal (let alone, insect) is of course variety! Use a mixture of flies, mealworms, buffalo worms, crix, locusts, waxworms (and the moths) earthworms (small), silkworms...and anything you can find...

But yeah, curious here- does anyone have a site for nutritional content of all these things? I would have thought that protein is protein whether it be in a cricket or a locust- same thing with the gut-loading- whether it's in a cricket or locust... please feel free to correct me


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## julian camilo (Jun 13, 2006)

yeh id like to know the values of all these different types. i do usually provide a variety but at the moment im between the "good times" when theres flies hatching everyday and moths aplenty and all that. however these past few days have been kind in terms of wild caught stuff, theres been plenty of flies about during the day, i caught a bumblebee too which she wolfed down, and moths during the night. and most of the flowers arent even out yet, when they bloom therell be plenty of honeybees too  

i do think as you said protein is protein whether in a cricket or locust but i dont think its just having protein which has an averse effect on gongs, im sure they do well with certain amounts of everything, including protein, the thing with crickets as far as i understand is theyre too high in protein. so i was wondering if this was the case with locusts. im sure they must have SOME protein, but was unsure as to whether it was a comparable amount to crickets, or less so.

bruit2fruity, the thing ive heard about gongs and crickets is they have trouble laying foam for the ootheca if fed on them, due too high protein content (i may be wrong, feel free to correct). so id be careful if i were you maybe, because the gongs might seem fine and active but you wont find the averse affects until it comes to ootheca laying, so it may seem like locusts are fine at the moment but on a nutritional level it might not be as it seems. i only fed mine one locust as i should have flies hatching soon, also if the weather stays nice, plenty of wild stuff, so wont need to risk the locusts.


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## infinity (Jun 14, 2006)

Never kept gongys so i have no experience on this so someone that does, maybe you can help... What are the exact symptoms of feeding crix to gongys? - does it affect the lower instars or just the ooth producing female? If just the female, I've been thinking (with reference to what julian said) that yeah, crix might be very high in protein but usually they're a kept with low water diets, so maybe *frothing up* an ooth requires a lot of water??? Or maybe the mantis can use the protein it eats very well to make its own protein but unlike mosquitoes n such, it cannot convert that protein to energy easily (and sinch ooth production is very energy requiring, it might screw that up). So perhaps something fatty like a waxworm or something with lots of sugar like a bee might solve it... I guess this needs to be tested- these are just my theories.


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## bruty2fruity (Jun 15, 2006)

> bruit2fruity, the thing ive heard about gongs and crickets is they have trouble laying foam for the ootheca if fed on them, due too high protein content (i may be wrong, feel free to correct). so id be careful if i were you maybe, because the gongs might seem fine and active but you wont find the averse affects until it comes to ootheca laying, so it may seem like locusts are fine at the moment but on a nutritional level it might not be as it seems. i only fed mine one locust as i should have flies hatching soon, also if the weather stays nice, plenty of wild stuff, so wont need to risk the locusts.


im just talking from my point of view not experience. as a mantid noob i to need to learn  i just have beginer species at the mo. so im just feeding them a mix


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