# Adult mantis bored of food?



## Gaylordlizard (Dec 4, 2020)

Hey y'all Momo's been enjoying their adult life so far so well. I know adult mantis's don't eat so much too. However, Momo doesn't seem to like the food I have for them? I ran out of silkworms/silk moths a while back. Now I only have mealworms and roaches which they seem to have next to no interest in. 

I feed Momo every 3-4 days but sometimes go to about a week (spraying water in between) because they just don't seem to be hungry. 

When I first introduced Momo to the small roaches, they were hesitant, almost as if they didn't know if they could eat them or not. Definitely not momo's first food of choice. 

I just went up a size in mealworms cuz I figured Momo could handle it, and now momo's continuing to act uninterested. It's been about 4 days since I last fed Momo a roach and I would think that they're hungry but are they...? Is Momo just being bougie?

Thanks in advance


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## MantisMart (Dec 4, 2020)

Is it an adult male? Adult males really just dont eat much and 4 days isn't too long. Also make sure the prey item is smaller than the mantis itself. A good size is like 1/4 the size of the mantis although they can go a bit bigger or smaller. Are you hand feeding or just letting them attack? If its moving and its a good size, they will eat it if they are hungry.


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## Gaylordlizard (Dec 4, 2020)

MantisMart said:


> Is it an adult male? Adult males really just dont eat much and 4 days isn't too long. Also make sure the prey item is smaller than the mantis itself. A good size is like 1/4 the size of the mantis although they can go a bit bigger or smaller. Are you hand feeding or just letting them attack? If its moving and its a good size, they will eat it if they are hungry.


I don't know for sure but I think Momo is male. I still have some smaller meal worms but they don't respond to those when I put them in front of Momo. My feeding technique is a little awkward rn w the mealworms. I have (small/regular size) tweezers but the mealworms squirm so much they usually fall out I tried handfeeding kind of but I guess Momo is just not hungry then.


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## MrGhostMantis (Dec 4, 2020)

Crush their head an put the guts to his mouth.


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## MantisMart (Dec 4, 2020)

MrGhostMantis said:


> Crush their head an put the guts to his mouth.


Lol you should be a 5 star chef at a fancy diner! Oh and yea do that, u can cut the head off with scissors and hold the tail with the tweezers and put the yucky yellow guts up to their mouth. Mantids have interesting taste buds.


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## MrGhostMantis (Dec 4, 2020)

MantisMart said:


> Lol you should be a 5 star chef at a fancy diner! Oh and yea do that, u can cut the head off with scissors and hold the tail with the tweezers and put the yucky yellow guts up to their mouth. Mantids have interesting taste buds.


They don’t have tastebuds...


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## MantisMart (Dec 5, 2020)

MrGhostMantis said:


> They don’t have tastebuds...


Which is pretty interesting. :0


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## hysteresis (Dec 5, 2020)

They likely have something.


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## Gaylordlizard (Dec 5, 2020)

MrGhostMantis said:


> Crush their head an put the guts to his mouth.


Brutal but it would stop the hectic squirming. I'll try that tomorrow if Momo still refuses.


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## Gaylordlizard (Dec 5, 2020)

hysteresis said:


> They likely have something.


Like they're sick? I really hope not, they act pretty normal


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## MrGhostMantis (Dec 5, 2020)

Gaylordlizard said:


> Like they're sick? I really hope not, they act pretty normal


No, some way to taste.


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## Gaylordlizard (Dec 5, 2020)

MrGhostMantis said:


> No, some way to taste.


I did end up crushing the head of the mealworm and Momo responded to eating it but wouldn't hold on to it. Eventually my partner got Momo to hold onto the mealworm while Momo was on my hand. I wanted to put Momo down so I put them on the plant and they just kinda stood there awkwardly and eventually dropped the worm. Should I be concerned now? Do you think I should try some other feeder food again?


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## Mantis Lady (Dec 9, 2020)

If Momo is a male, he wont eat much and a few bites will do. Better a little bit than nothing. If he drops the worm he is not hungry. Try it in a couple of days again.


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