# humans eat 3 meals a day, what about mantids?



## styrofoamheart (Jan 4, 2010)

how often do you guys feed your bugs? once a day? once a week?


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## idolomantis (Jan 4, 2010)

One fly a day or every other day for nymphs. A locust every few days for adults.

Depends on the species tho.


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## Peter Clausen (Jan 4, 2010)

I'm not sure the point of the question, but if you want them to grow quickly you'll keep them warm and well fed. They'll eat and eat...until they don't. Full mantises will often just hold their half-eaten prey, sometimes for days. Well fed females also lay oothecae more often.

I don't mind admitting that I have different tiers of care provided for mantises in different stages. Of primary importance are breeding pairs and fertilized females. Hatchlings need daily attention and feedings. Middle instar mantises are fed in accordance with my goals for them. Males may be slowed down, while females are kept warm and fed often. I especially like the house fly feeding stages because it is convenient. Fruit flies and crickets or roaches take more work so I typically try to minimize the time I put into feeding mantises that need these by offering a larger or more feeders (=less frequent feedings required).


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## sufistic (Jan 4, 2010)

Peter said:


> I'm not sure the point of the question, but if you want them to grow quickly you'll keep them warm and well fed. They'll eat and eat...until they don't. Full mantises will often just hold their half-eaten prey, sometimes for days. Well fed females also lay oothecae more often.I don't mind admitting that I have different tiers of care provided for mantises in different stages. Of primary importance are breeding pairs and fertilized females. Hatchlings need daily attention and feedings. Middle instar mantises are fed in accordance with my goals for them. Males may be slowed down, while females are kept warm and fed often. I especially like the house fly feeding stages because it is convenient. Fruit flies and crickets or roaches take more work so I typically try to maximize the time I put into feeding mantises that need these by offering a larger or more feeders (=less frequent feedings required).


+1


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## Rick (Jan 4, 2010)

Every other day. Gravid females are just fed a lot and I try to stuff them. Others I just keep plump.


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## hibiscusmile (Jan 4, 2010)

I feed the females every day, at least one cricket depending on their size, now orchids get flies and occasional worms and other flying things in season or from moth hatchings. Babies kept need water and food every day. Males get food three times a week, but often do not eat it, unless it is sheilds and violins, they like food more often. How old are yours and what species are you working with?


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## massaman (Jan 4, 2010)

so feeding them every other day wont hurt compared to every day as it seems that I go throough 50 dollars worth of crickets a month just by feeding them once a week and then buying 14 dozen or so to last a week if that so just trying to find a better solution then going though 14 dozen crickets in less then a week or up to a week!


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## Ntsees (Jan 4, 2010)

+1 to almost everything above.


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## styrofoamheart (Jan 4, 2010)

i have ghosts, spiny flowers, and boxers. like peter, i try to make sure the laying females are well fed. but i have other enclosures i'd like to just do the math, toss some crickeys in once a week, and forget about it.

thanx for all the posts! this will help me sleep a lot better at night. i'm sure it will help some beginners too!


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## PhilinYuma (Jan 4, 2010)

styrofoamheart said:


> i have ghosts, spiny flowers, and boxers. like peter, i try to make sure the laying females are well fed. but i have other enclosures i'd like to just do the math, toss some crickeys in once a week, and forget about it. thanx for all the posts! this will help me sleep a lot better at night. i'm sure it will help some beginners too!


Don't close yr eyes quite yet!  I doubt that any successful breeder tosses some crickets in once a week and forgets about it. If you don't feed, as you suggest, you don't observe (you also don't humidify or clean the enclosure, but that's a separate issue), so you won't know when they are about to molt and are vulnerable to all of those crickets that you put in. Also, crickets will double their size at their weekly molt and the mantids will not, whether or not they molt. And tell us again, why do you keep mantids if you only want to bother with some of them once a week?


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## yeatzee (Jan 4, 2010)

idolomantis said:


> One fly a day or every other day for nymphs. A locust every few days for adults.Depends on the species tho.


Straight up one fly a day/every other day? My mantids eat several a day/every other day no problem and never seem fat enough  

OH and phil I think he might be referring to not worrying about feeding for that week.... lets not go pointing fingers or ridiculing  

Edit: I eat way more than 3 meals a day


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## PhilinYuma (Jan 5, 2010)

yeatzee said:


> Straight up one fly a day/every other day? My mantids eat several a day/every other day no problem and never seem fat enough  OH and phil I think he might be referring to not worrying about feeding for that week.... lets not go pointing fingers or ridiculing
> 
> Edit: I eat way more than 3 meals a day


My gosh Tanner! Me point a finger? No way!  But my strong objection to this form of husbandry holds and I would still like to know the reason for it. Why should feeding be a "worry"? He would also have to feed the crix for that period of time, and cleaning up the mess of half eaten cricket food and dead crix ( and mantids, probably) once a week would seem to me to cause more work than regular feeding. I think that I am doing a fellow member a service by telling him that we _never_ do this unless we are on vacation, don't you?


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## JoeCapricorn (Jan 5, 2010)

Feeding time is the time I look forward to the MOST in the day! I have so much fun doing it that now I feed them smaller portions at multiple times a day.... if I am away a lot and need to feed them all at once, at this point the L5s are taking 4 fruit flies per feeding, the L4s get 2 fruit flies per feeding. Angel, for example, wolfs down 4 flies in about 3 minutes... each fly taking just a few noms to be gone.

Moving these fellas to crickets at L6, probably could take on them now but I want them to be a bit stronger and I still have a lot of fruit flies.


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## bassist (Jan 5, 2010)

massaman said:


> so feeding them every other day wont hurt compared to every day as it seems that I go throough 50 dollars worth of crickets a month just by feeding them once a week and then buying 14 dozen or so to last a week if that so just trying to find a better solution then going though 14 dozen crickets in less then a week or up to a week!


You should consider breeding roaches/crickets.


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## Peter Clausen (Jan 5, 2010)

JoeCapricorn said:


> Feeding time is the time I look forward to the MOST in the day!


Love that first sentence! That's what the hobby is all about. I can lose myself for hours in there.


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## hibiscusmile (Jan 5, 2010)

Yea , me too, so much time is spent looking!


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## massaman (Jan 5, 2010)

Personally I dont like the idea of breeding crickets and roaches as would be much more work then anything and I personally dont like roaches and breeding crickets is more trouble then its worth and roaches are something I would never want to to do.Trying to raise them of course no one that I know of would want me to breed and raise roaches! But I am trying to get more crickets though to last me little longer so I dont have to go out and buy them as often and it is cheaper to buy 250 large crickets then it is 7 or 8 dozen at a time and can just get as many dozen smalls that I need that is way less!


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## Ntsees (Jan 5, 2010)

Peter said:


> Love that first sentence! That's what the hobby is all about. I can lose myself for hours in there.


Same here. My younger brother, who isn't into mantid keeping, tells me that whenever I feed the mantids that I should tell him because he likes to see the mantid eat.


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## yeatzee (Jan 5, 2010)

Ntsees said:


> Same here. My younger brother, who isn't into mantid keeping, tells me that whenever I feed the mantids that I should tell him because he likes to see the mantid eat.


My little cousin staid with me for a couple days and every morning he would ask when he could feed them... his favorite were the ghosts B)


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## ZoeRipper (Jan 5, 2010)

im on my phone, so excuse the spelling and grammar. i feed mine once or twice a day. also i keep records of the time, whether they've eaten by x amount of time, molting and to what instar. its pretty detailed.


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## yeatzee (Jan 5, 2010)

PhilinYuma said:


> My gosh Tanner! Me point a finger? No way!  But my strong objection to this form of husbandry holds and I would still like to know the reason for it. Why should feeding be a "worry"? He would also have to feed the crix for that period of time, and cleaning up the mess of half eaten cricket food and dead crix ( and mantids, probably) once a week would seem to me to cause more work than regular feeding. I think that I am doing a fellow member a service by telling him that we _never_ do this unless we are on vacation, don't you?


Maybe "worrying" was the wrong word... idk lets wait for a response from him  

And when I had my ghost collony I would frequently drop a large amount of BB pupae into their large container and not need to feed them (or in other words not "worry" about giving them more food  ) for usually a week. I still get the excitment of watching them catch food, but in this case they can eat until they are full..... and finish off whats in there later. No biggie  

As for my current mantids all get fed a large sum of fruit flies a day (im a believer in the "tap the FF culture lid, open the lid, tap in some FF's into the container, close lid, DONE" :lol: ).... I always leave enough so that they can eat until stuffed and have some left over. Its not like the flies die a day after being in the container (that is unless they get captured  )....

So to the Op.... my mantids eat a lot but only once a day (depending on whats left in the container sometimes every other day)


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## batsofchaos (Jan 5, 2010)

As an ambush predator insect, mantids eat whenever they have prey available and stop eating when they're full. How often a breeder feeds them is largely a human invention and boils down to "feeds them often enough that they stay plump and healthy, but not so often that the feeder insects can pose a threat to the mantids." How often that is varies on species, instar, feeder insect, and breeder preference, much in the same way that "three meals a day" is largely a guideline for people.


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## Ntsees (Jan 5, 2010)

batsofchaos said:


> As an ambush predator insect, mantids eat whenever they have prey available and stop eating when they're full. How often a breeder feeds them is largely a human invention and boils down to "feeds them often enough that they stay plump and healthy, but not so often that the feeder insects can pose a threat to the mantids." How often that is varies on species, instar, feeder insect, and breeder preference, much in the same way that "three meals a day" is largely a guideline for people.


+1

Ooooo, I couldn't have said it better.


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## PhilinYuma (Jan 5, 2010)

batsofchaos said:


> As an ambush predator insect, mantids eat whenever they have prey available and stop eating when they're full. How often a breeder feeds them is largely a human invention and boils down to "feeds them often enough that they stay plump and healthy, but not so often that the feeder insects can pose a threat to the mantids." How often that is varies on species, instar, feeder insect, and breeder preference, much in the same way that "three meals a day" is largely a guideline for people.


Well, that does sound good, doesn't it?  But I don't see it being very helpful to anyone who wants to know what and how often to feed their mantids! Nor do I think for a moment that most mantis keepers vary their feeding schedules according to "species, instar, [&amp;] feeder insect." For a more practical and scientific approach, try David Yager's article in Prete's _The Praying Mantids_. And if you don't think that it is worth about $20 used from Amazon (shame on you) here is a free copy of the chapter: http://www.mantislab.com/373.pdf Go to p. 313.


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## batsofchaos (Jan 5, 2010)

PhilinYuma said:


> Well, that does sound good, doesn't it?  But I don't see it being very helpful to anyone who wants to know what and how often to feed their mantids! Nor do I think for a moment that most mantis keepers vary their feeding schedules according to "species, instar, [&amp;] feeder insect." For a more practical and scientific approach, try David Yager's article in Prete's _The Praying Mantids_. And if you don't think that it is worth about $20 used from Amazon (shame on you) here is a free copy of the chapter: http://www.mantislab.com/373.pdf Go to p. 313.


Ah, but I was answering the question hinted at in the thread's title "how often do mantids eat?" as opposed to "how often do you feed your mantids?" which I feel is the more biologically-relevant question, if not the one that most directly affects those in the hobby. Besides, there had been several answers relevant elsewhere in the post.


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## PhilinYuma (Jan 5, 2010)

batsofchaos said:


> Ah, but I was answering the question hinted at in the thread's title "how often do mantids eat?" as opposed to "how often do you feed your mantids?" which I feel is the more biologically-relevant question, if not the one that most directly affects those in the hobby. Besides, there had been several answers relevant elsewhere in the post.


Hey, those "hinted at" questions are always the most fun! Just so long as your poetic licence is current!


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## styrofoamheart (Jan 7, 2010)

PhilinYuma said:


> Don't close yr eyes quite yet!  I doubt that any successful breeder tosses some crickets in once a week and forgets about it. If you don't feed, as you suggest, you don't observe (you also don't humidify or clean the enclosure, but that's a separate issue), so you won't know when they are about to molt and are vulnerable to all of those crickets that you put in. Also, crickets will double their size at their weekly molt and the mantids will not, whether or not they molt. And tell us again, why do you keep mantids if you only want to bother with some of them once a week?


i keep 'em because they're awesome!!!  

they are also one of the only pets you can count on dying within a year. sometimes i have to go out of town, or get bogged down with other projects and i have limited time to care. sure you can baby them, but with such a short life cycle, and evolution always honing away, i find after just a few generations these things will adapt to much differnt conditions. i've even had ooths hatch on me with no care at all.


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## styrofoamheart (Jan 7, 2010)

Peter said:


> Love that first sentence! That's what the hobby is all about. I can lose myself for hours in there.


i can too. only i don't have the time to lose.


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## PhilinYuma (Jan 7, 2010)

styrofoamheart said:


> i keep 'em because they're awesome!!!  they are also one of the only pets you can count on dying within a year. sometimes i have to go out of town, or get bogged down with other projects and i have limited time to care. sure you can baby them, but with such a short life cycle, and evolution always honing away, i find after just a few generations these things will adapt to much differnt conditions. i've even had ooths hatch on me with no care at all.


Fair enough. Some of mine die in a lot less than a year!

Like you, I sometimes have to be away. One good idea is to put bluebottle or HF pupae in the enclosure together with some "ready to eat" food. Roaches tend to last better in a pot or small enclosure than crix, and the Turkestan roach, B. lateralis, for example, cant climb glass or slick plastic walls to bother molting nymphs, but they will hide if they can.


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## styrofoamheart (Jan 7, 2010)

PhilinYuma said:


> Fair enough. Some of mine die in a lot less than a year!Like you, I sometimes have to be away. One good idea is to put bluebottle or HF pupae in the enclosure together with some "ready to eat" food. Roaches tend to last better in a pot or small enclosure than crix, and the Turkestan roach, B. lateralis, for example, cant climb glass or slick plastic walls to bother molting nymphs, but they will hide if they can.


that's great info! thx!!!

i have done the fly pupae thing but i may give some of these other things a try.


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## styrofoamheart (Jan 7, 2010)

batsofchaos said:


> As an ambush predator insect, mantids eat whenever they have prey available and stop eating when they're full. How often a breeder feeds them is largely a human invention and boils down to "feeds them often enough that they stay plump and healthy, but not so often that the feeder insects can pose a threat to the mantids." How often that is varies on species, instar, feeder insect, and breeder preference, much in the same way that "three meals a day" is largely a guideline for people.


so true! these are all just guidelines for sure. sometimes i get a mantid that is a little dim, and won't seem to eat for any reason.


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## styrofoamheart (Jan 7, 2010)

batsofchaos said:


> Ah, but I was answering the question hinted at in the thread's title "how often do mantids eat?" as opposed to "how often do you feed your mantids?" which I feel is the more biologically-relevant question, if not the one that most directly affects those in the hobby. Besides, there had been several answers relevant elsewhere in the post.


yes. how often do they eat is the heart of the issue. i've had love struck males that will forget to eat forever.


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