# Mental Health Questions/Quality of Life Issues



## Curiosity (Dec 16, 2020)

I still have two wild-caught mantises who are both alive and don't seem to be in a big hurry to die. I'm kind of worried about the fact that their lives have been reduced to little more than eating and sleeping - they don't even get to hunt anymore. (Unless there is a way to tempt them to try and catch mealworms.) I'm also wondering wether it's a good thing or not that their life spans have gone far beyond what should've been by now. . . there was a frost locally in October that probably killed all the wild mantises. How do I keep their lives from not just becoming constant suspended animation?


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## Mantid-Tim (Dec 16, 2020)

I've had wild caught before (Chinese) and have always thought they are content to hunt flies in a large enough cage. Get an upright 10-gallon and they will be happy enough hanging upside down off the cage. Maybe try feeding flies instead of hand feeding worms if you want them to hunt.


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## Connor (Dec 16, 2020)

They are insects, their only “worries” are to eat and survive, which you are providing. I’m sure they are doing well. If you are worried, I would just give them flies to hunt


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## MrGhostMantis (Dec 16, 2020)

They don’t sleep, and as @Connor said, they only worry about eating and surviving.


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## Curiosity (Dec 17, 2020)

Okay. . . I'll see if I can find some flies before they die of old age. . . neither of them can actually climb anymore.


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## MrGhostMantis (Dec 17, 2020)

Curiosity said:


> Okay. . . I'll see if I can find some flies before they die of old age. . . neither of them can actually climb anymore.


That may be from overfeeding. Your last mantis that died was extremely overfed.


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## Curiosity (Dec 21, 2020)

That was probably true a couple days ago. . . their appetites dropped off a lot about 14 days back though.


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