# Hello from Louisiana! Need advice!



## moviemanmania (Jun 27, 2011)

Hello All! This is my very first post on the forums and I am very excited to start learning from everyone. My name is Jon and right now I have three chameleons. Two panthers and one jackson. I am looking to start breeding a version of the mantis to add to the variety of feeders for my chameleons. Which subspecies of the mantis would be the most ideal as a feeder for them?

Which has the most meat and is the easiest to take care of and breed. I'd love to hear all of your thoughts!

jon r.


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## patrickfraser (Jun 27, 2011)

DUBIAS! NOT MANTIS!


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## [email protected] (Jun 27, 2011)

I have had success bredding budwing mantids and popa spurca mantids. They were pretty easy and produce 100+ babies at a time. Not sure how well the would be as a feeder because you can't keep them together very long without them eating each other. Do you use roaches at all? What about adding flies to part of the chameleon diet? I am about to get my first chameleon this weekend unk: a baby Jackson's


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## moviemanmania (Jun 27, 2011)

Right now I have a colony of dubia, crickets, and superworms. I also use crickets. I don't plan to feed many of the mantis to the chameleons as this is just something for me to tinker with but once I get them breeding the L2 or L3's would be fed off...


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## angelofdeathzz (Jun 27, 2011)

Thats like asking Santa which reindeer the elf's should eat.  inch: :no:


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## Mr.Mantid (Jun 27, 2011)

Welcome to the forum.

Well you could purchase an chinese praying mantis egg case which would hatch out hundreds of small ( 1-2 cm nymphs), and use those as feeders every once in a while but it is not practical to use mantids as a main source for feeders. The chinese mantids are hard to raise to adult and can take a 5-6 mos be able to mate. Then it would take another month or two for them to hatch. Mantids are carnivores so they will eat eachother if housed together. Also it takes a lot of time and energy for praying mantids to grow and get bigger. If you want a pet praying mantis and then maybe a month or two later get bored of raising it, then yeah it would sound more practical if it was a once in a while thing. But overall I wouldn't recommend it and I am confident to say that a majority of the more experienced members would say the same thing. Stick with roaches or whatever the common feeder is for chameleons. Also there is a lot of mantis lovers on here so don't be alarmed if people freak out on you lol.

Good luck.


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## GreenOasis (Jun 27, 2011)

I agree with most of the folks on here...aside from the moral issues of asking a bunch of mantid-lovers which species of mantis would make a great feeder (akin to asking a mother what type of baby tastes best!), mantids are really more difficult to raise than they are worth as feeders, since most "meaty" species MUST be kept separate beyond L1/L2. You might try a phasmid of some sort...whatever's easiest to raise quickly to a consumable size. Check into it! At least those can be kept together and eat easy to find foods that are relatively inexpensive.

Man, I'm glad I never got into chameleons...sounds like they are more trouble than any other reptile out there! :blink:


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## hibiscusmile (Jun 27, 2011)

hello, mantis are not meaty, most of them is just the head and spiny arms that stick in a chams throat, better off using a black widow or scorpion for food! :blink: The rest of the body is just wings and waste material and taste really bad, also has a poison that is released upon losing their heads.


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## kitkat39 (Jun 27, 2011)

I don't see flies anywhere on your list of food for your chameleon.. why not try those? Mantises eat those, and you'd be feeding mantises to your chameleons anyway. Chameleons go CRAZY for flies, trust me on that one.  It'll be a lot cheaper for your wallet if you take that route.

If you still insist on feeding them mantids, then you might as well go big: Orchids, Idolos, Toxodera... =Þ:::


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## moviemanmania (Jun 27, 2011)

You guys are absolutely right that mantids are not the ideal feeder. I realize this and wasn't planning on using them as staples by any means, but more as an alternative feeder. The more I read and dig, the more I find out how high maintance they are as a feeder so I will likely steer clear of them for consumption use and more as a pet-entertainment for myself and maybe the occasional chameleon snack; should I get them to breed. Sorry if this offends anyone. :-(

All my chameleons are full grown and would roll there eyes at you if you attempted to feed them any kind of fly. My guys are eating full grown crickets, dubia, superworms, hornworms, wax, silkworms, etc. and even then they can be picky about which one they want to eat that day. Yes, chameleons are VERY VERY high maintenance but they are by far the most rewarding pets I've every kept.


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## angelofdeathzz (Jun 27, 2011)

It's all in good fun, I knew you would never really do it when crickets are 10-20 times cheaper and grow much faster than any mantis, not to mention they are very pickery and may injure there mouths before going down the chute.  

And oh yeah, Welcome to the forum


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## Mr.Mantid (Jun 27, 2011)

No offense taken.  

Welcome to the forum


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## kmsgameboy (Jun 28, 2011)

You want to do WHAT!?!


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## Rick (Jun 28, 2011)

That won't go over too well around here. But then again depending on your location go out and find a bunch of chinese ooths and hatch those as food. They're non natives so no problems here. But then again mantids are not a good food source.


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## hibiscusmile (Jun 28, 2011)

Ok, all is forgiven, but as I said they are poison to eat!  I bad girl  Welcome! :tt2:


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## ismart (Jun 28, 2011)

you best bet for using mantids as occasional feeders, would be to aquire a bunch of chinese ooths. Place the ooths in various undisturbed, over grow weedy lots, and fields. When they hatch let nature feed them. When you want to use a mantis as a feeder. Just go back to where you let them free. Find some and use those as feeders. This would be the most cost affective way. Should you try and raise them yourself, you would end up spending more money on feeders for the mantids, then on the chams. The only back draw to this method, would be if you are in a climate with cold winters. You would just be restricted to find them during the winter months.


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## kmsgameboy (Jun 28, 2011)

hibiscusmile said:


> Ok, all is forgiven, but as I said they are poison to eat!  I bad girl  Welcome! :tt2:


 You forgot that they will also bite, gnaw, and slash their way out from the inside of any animal that eats them. It would kind of bite to have your lizard eaten from the inside out by its prey.


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## lancaster1313 (Jun 28, 2011)

Sometimes I will feed an old or mismolted mantis to a lizard or other insectivore. Otherwise, it is more effort to raise mantids than it would be worth to use them as feeders.

The occasional mantis could be a treat.


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## hibiscusmile (Jun 28, 2011)

kmsgameboy said:


> You forgot that they will also bite, gnaw, and slash their way out from the inside of any animal that eats them. It would kind of bite to have your lizard eaten from the inside out by its prey.


Oh Yes, thank you my Boy! I did indeed forget that!


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