# Any way of liquifying chitin? Got a mantis that can only take liquids



## Vespertino (Jul 30, 2015)

I've got a mantis with damaged mandibles from a bad molt that can only take liquids. Baby food and squished bug guts are a no-go (she can't get those down). Does anyone have a trick up their sleeve for getting chitin in a liquid form to feed injured mantids?

I was half thinking of taking a bunch of superworms and putting the through my vitamix on high with some spring water. But that would freak out my germophobe hubs.


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## Mantis Man13 (Jul 30, 2015)

Read this article. Don't know if acid would be good for doing it but it is the only way to liquify chitin  

http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&amp;file_id=BI9620526.pdf


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## Vespertino (Jul 30, 2015)

Hahaha, some biochemistry 101 flashbacks from reading that  I'm sure it would work but I don't know how digestible or food safe the result would be. I was worried the vitamix not not be able to get the exoskeleton ground up fine enough to be drink-able for a mantis with a malfunctioning mouth.

I'd also given thought to roasting some superworms in the oven until crispy, putting them into a spice grinder to grind it into a fine powder and mixing that with water.

On a sad note, my mantid was in rapid decline and I decided to put her in the freezer, but she's far from the last and being a new "mantid parent" I know I'll have more sick ones to take care of in the future.


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## Sticky (Jul 31, 2015)

Try whole milk. It is very good. My Uncle's mantids grew great with it as part of thier diet.


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## birdiefu (Jul 31, 2015)

Sorry about your girl's feeding problem. Honestly I don't think there is too much of a need for them to eat chitin itself, as they should be able to synthesize their own from carbohydrate and protein sources. Mantids also don't eat very hard-shelled prey either. As long as they can get essential micronutrients (which chitin itself doesn't have much of) from the rest of the prey, plus enough carbs, proteins, and fats (protein from bug guts, carbs can be supplemented with honey/milk, fats are high in stuff like waxworms), I don't see the lack of eating chitin itself as being too detrimental for enough growth from one molt to the next.


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## Vespertino (Jul 31, 2015)

Thanks! For some reason I thought they needed to eat chitin to produce their own exoskeleton, good to know they don't. I did try milk, and it helped for a day or two but I think the poor little girl was doomed by that point. She did seem to like it when I first fed her some, I'll start giving it to the others as a treat. There's a surviving mantid that is a ringer for the one that I just had to put down (almost the same markings), she's very playful and she cheered me up this morning when she crawled onto my head, got tangled in my hair, started chewing on my hair to get free and decided she liked it. The chewing sound was WEIRD so I went to a mirror to see what she was up to and she immediately stopped chewing on my hair, looking quite guilty like a kid caught in a cookie jar. then I realized hair is just protein, I just hope she never gets a taste for human flesh.


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## Danny. (Jul 31, 2015)

Vespertino said:


> Thanks! For some reason I thought they needed to eat chitin to produce their own exoskeleton, good to know they don't. I did try milk, and it helped for a day or two but I think the poor little girl was doomed by that point. She did seem to like it when I first fed her some, I'll start giving it to the others as a treat. There's a surviving mantid that is a ringer for the one that I just had to put down (almost the same markings), she's very playful and she cheered me up this morning when she crawled onto my head, got tangled in my hair, started chewing on my hair to get free and decided she liked it. The chewing sound was WEIRD so I went to a mirror to see what she was up to and she immediately stopped chewing on my hair, looking quite guilty like a kid caught in a cookie jar. then I realized hair is just protein, I just hope she never gets a taste for human flesh.


Stick to feeding flying insects and avoid the others mentioned.


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## Sticky (Aug 1, 2015)

I am sorry you had to put her down. That is always a bummer.


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## Sticky (Aug 1, 2015)

there's nothing wrong with milk. True it doesnt come from but gs, but it is just as useful as honey or bee pollen. All three of those I fed to a mantis who stopped eating bugs. He lived 2+ months on that diet.


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## birdiefu (Aug 1, 2015)

Vespertino said:


> Thanks! For some reason I thought they needed to eat chitin to produce their own exoskeleton, good to know they don't. I did try milk, and it helped for a day or two but I think the poor little girl was doomed by that point. She did seem to like it when I first fed her some, I'll start giving it to the others as a treat. There's a surviving mantid that is a ringer for the one that I just had to put down (almost the same markings), she's very playful and she cheered me up this morning when she crawled onto my head, got tangled in my hair, started chewing on my hair to get free and decided she liked it. The chewing sound was WEIRD so I went to a mirror to see what she was up to and she immediately stopped chewing on my hair, looking quite guilty like a kid caught in a cookie jar. then I realized hair is just protein, I just hope she never gets a taste for human flesh.


Awww, adorable! Glad your passed mantis' "twin" could cheer you up - sounds aborable  . I have so much hair I'm afraid of one getting lost in that mess never to return, lol.


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## Vespertino (Aug 4, 2015)

Danny. said:


> Stick to feeding flying insects and avoid the others mentioned.


Oh I never intended to feed her my hair, she sorta decided she wanted to chew on it while she was climbing on my head. I usually feed them a little of everything from my garden when it comes to bugs (except venomous stuff), and use store bought worms in between when I don't catch anything in the yard (and I gut-load those on apple and lettuce first). Other than the mismolt related stuff I haven't had any problems with what they've eaten as far as I can tell. I'm not sure Carolinas are ones that are as insect diet specific other types. They do get picky and don't always eat what I catch in the yard. I noticed they don't like green army cutworms but they LOVE tomato hornworms. They used to like small leaf-hoppers when they were little but now they won't touch 'em. But they loved a BIG grasshopper that was stupid enough to stay in one spot on my tomato plants, chewing the leaves off like a chainsaw... Big mongrel, almost 4 inches long, that bastard had a date with a pair of tweezers and an xacto blade- I chopped it up into pieces and fed it to the girls. Kermit (one of the girls) ate the entire skull down to the antennae.


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## Vespertino (Aug 4, 2015)

birdiefu said:


> Awww, adorable! Glad your passed mantis' "twin" could cheer you up - sounds aborable  . I have so much hair I'm afraid of one getting lost in that mess never to return, lol.


I have a lot of it too, so I started putting it in a tight pony tail in case any of them decide to attempt the climb to the top of my head. It seems to make it easier for them to climb that way rather than get tangled up in a loose hair avalanche.


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## Mantis Man13 (Aug 5, 2015)

Lol!


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