# Molting didn't fix his back legs



## dgerndt (Dec 19, 2010)

The first time my Chinese nymph molted, he fell and I had to help him get out of his old skin. He made it out alive and well, but with his back two legs bent out of shape a little bit. I thought that with his next molt, his legs would be fixed. Now with his second molt (that went perfectly) he still has bent legs. Will they ever become straight again?


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## PhilinYuma (Dec 19, 2010)

So is he at L2? He has a good chance over the next few molts, though limbs with the end broken off seem to recover better than deformed limbs.


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## hibiscusmile (Dec 19, 2010)

Ditto! With him going thru another molt, he did good not having any problems, so far so good.


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## dgerndt (Dec 20, 2010)

PhilinYuma said:


> So is he at L2? He has a good chance over the next few molts, though limbs with the end broken off seem to recover better than deformed limbs.


No, he's at L3. I was thinking about clipping his worst leg to see if that would help. But I decided that it would be mean and he seems to be doing fine with his bent legs. I'll just keep my fingers crossed and hope he gets better with each molt.


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## nebrakacinese (Dec 20, 2010)

I had one like that with a bad back leg when mine were smaller ,they've seemed to work out of it.They can be terrile at least for me with the old skin stuck to the back.In fact i pulled one off and the back leg came off but it grew back a few molts later.So never depair.


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## dgerndt (Dec 20, 2010)

I _almost_ pulled his legs off on accident. But I sprayed him a little and his old skin pretty much dissolved. It's good to hear that your mantids got their legs back!


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## Rick (Dec 22, 2010)

If he molted just fine leave the legs alone. They may or may not get corrected, but he has plenty of mollts left. The important thing is that he is able to molt normally.


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## nebrakacinese (Dec 22, 2010)

Several of my chinese molted last night .Had one bad molt,the skin was stuck to his right hind leg.With some warm water i got the skin to fall out,but the nymp seems pretty well exausted so i took out his perch's and letting him stay on the substrait.Is this a good course of action.


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## lancaster1313 (Dec 22, 2010)

I would let him hang. I have had mantid's legs improve after a couple days of hanging. I think that the weight of the mantis helped to straighten bent legs.


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## dgerndt (Dec 22, 2010)

Update: Molts last night!

My Egyptians didn't have very good luck with their last molts. One of them had a single back leg stuck and it's bent now. My other had a back leg entirely pop off and the other back leg is bent. I feel so bad for them! All my nymphs are cripples.


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## Krissim Klaw (Dec 23, 2010)

Sorry you are having a bad go, but if they are young there is still a lot of time for recovery.

I feel your pain. Not sure how but my girl macrops nymph managed to bend one of her leg/arms that attaches to the claw. You don't really notice it when you look at her but when she would try to walk it would just collapse and she would fall to her claw on that side. She just had her first shedding since the problem developed a few days ago and things are starting to look up. It is still warped slightly but she can now put weight on it. However, at certain angles or if she tries to move to quickly it will still collapse at times. At least she isn't favoring it anymore, so I'm hoping it will continue to improve with each shedding.

At this point however limb deformities seem like such a minor issue to me unless they mess with shedding. All I know is after having a girl with a deformed mouth, some missing limbs or twisted legs seem like a breeze in over all mantis care.


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## dgerndt (Dec 23, 2010)

Krissim Klaw said:


> Sorry you are having a bad go, but if they are young there is still a lot of time for recovery.
> 
> I feel your pain. Not sure how but my girl macrops nymph managed to bend one of her leg/arms that attaches to the claw. You don't really notice it when you look at her but when she would try to walk it would just collapse and she would fall to her claw on that side. She just had her first shedding since the problem developed a few days ago and things are starting to look up. It is still warped slightly but she can now put weight on it. However, at certain angles or if she tries to move to quickly it will still collapse at times. At least she isn't favoring it anymore, so I'm hoping it will continue to improve with each shedding.
> 
> At this point however limb deformities seem like such a minor issue to me unless they mess with shedding. All I know is after having a girl with a deformed mouth, some missing limbs or twisted legs seem like a breeze in over all mantis care.


I'm glad your girl macrops is improving.  I love how strong mantids are and how well they recover. My mantids are L3/L4 right now, so they have a few more molts to go. Thanks for sharing your story and experiences; I feel better now. My nymphs seem to be getting along all right at this point. I've been seeing them eat and drink so they seem healthy despite their bent legs. I'll just have to be very watchful with their next molt.


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## Krissim Klaw (Dec 23, 2010)

Yep, they really are amazing. I got convinced of that when I got a Texas Unicorn that I ended up calling Nubs. He came in the mail missing half of his claw on one arm up to the joint so there was nothing to catch with on that side. Then his other claw was missing half off the top so he only had this little nub of a piece that he could actually move to catch things. He had such a hard time going after food but he managed to catch stuff on his own. He was also missing a couple feet. To top it off when he finally ended up shedding, he did it in a bad position, not leaving himself enough room and he ended up completely bending his one back leg.

Still the shedding was amazing because he regrew all his feet, and pretty much all of both his claws. The leg did panic me though because it was the first time I had ever had a shedding problem like that and I was worried that he wouldn't be able to shed at all with it next time. I even posted something on the board asking if I should cut it off. Thankfully I didn't touch it and even before the shedding it went from being held over his back and useless to in a couple days him somehow stretching it out so he could at least get his foot to the screen at times. In his next shedding it drastically improved, and by the time my special boy reached adulthood you would never know he had ever had any deformities or missing limbs.

Here is a picture of his bad leg if you are curious.


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## dgerndt (Dec 24, 2010)

Wow, mantids never cease to amaze me! Your cute little Nubs is amazingly resiliant. I have high hopes for my nymphs now.  I saw my most crippled mantis catch a hydei fruitfly yesterday and eat it all up. He has trouble staying on the lid and walking with only three of his back legs, but he's learning and getting better. Hopefully in a few weeks he'll molt again and regrow at least most of his leg.


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