# African Mantis not eating, looking very thin, weird moult



## benmoore (Oct 18, 2006)

First of all hello, my name is Ben and as you have gathered I am new to the forums...

Ive been having a bit of worry with one of my african mantises today... yesterday it was refusing to eat and last night it shed its skin... all fairly normal. In the morning the mantis was a bright green color as it had only obviously shed within a couple of hours so so. When i returned from school however I found that the mantis had darkened and some parts of its body were a very dark green - almost black... The colors are pretty regular and seem to be a pattern of some sort so I guess its nothing to worry about.... Ive heard the species can have black moults to provide camoflage when there has been forest fires etc.

The main problem however is that it is now 8:41pm and still hasnt eaten anything and is looking worryingly thin... It had a poke at a cricket earlier, failed to catch it and gave up... the mantis almost seems to be avoiding food... or at least ignoring it. I even swapped the two slightly larger crickets for two small... still nothing...

urgent suggestions please!


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## robo mantis (Oct 18, 2006)

try getting i cricket and pinch it with tweesers and hold by the mantids mouth and it should start tasting it and if i goes well the mantis will grab it and wait another day (they fight back food when their skin isn't fully dry)


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## benmoore (Oct 18, 2006)

> try getting i cricket and pinch it with tweesers and hold by the mantids mouth and it should start tasting it and if i goes well the mantis will grab it and wait another day (they fight back food when their skin isn't fully dry)


thanks dude

ill give that a go right now

ill post an update in 10 mins or so  

wish me luck!


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## robo mantis (Oct 18, 2006)

good luck hope it works


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## benmoore (Oct 18, 2006)

UPDATE:

Due to lack of food the mantis was a lot less mobile then usual so I perched it upon my desk..

I managed to feed it two small crickets which it gobbled up very readily ^_^ Its looking a little plumper - Ill try and feed it again tommorow.

Having it on the desk was very useful - allowed me to inspect its weird new pattern... its far to regular to be any kind of mould so things are looking up.

Thanks a lot dude youve been very helpful!


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## Rick (Oct 18, 2006)

Those are probably the mantids with the biggest appetites.


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## robo mantis (Oct 18, 2006)

your welcome i've had many of those problems i'm glad it is doing well


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## benmoore (Oct 18, 2006)

> your welcome i've had many of those problems i'm glad it is doing well


Woke up this morning to find the mantis just finishing off another small cricket it had caught itself... looks like things may be back on track.

Another couple of mantids are acting up though... one african mantis although i suspect that this is moulting like the one this thread is about.

Also my marbled hasnt touched its food and shouldnt be shedding for at least another week :s

At what point should I start to worry about my mantis not eating... ie. how many days?


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## Jwonni (Oct 19, 2006)

they dont tend to eat the same day they moult anyway do they?? thought they usually wait a couple of days then start munching again


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## robo mantis (Oct 19, 2006)

just leave it alone (marbled mantis) only worry if it has a paper thin stomach and try my tweeser trick if that doesn't work it will shed soon (if it doesn't eat mist it with water or get a water dropper and put one drip out at a time and it should drink it) good luck!


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