Help... My First Badly Mangled Mantis Moult!

Hi all. Just joined here. I've been keeping mantises for a couple of years now and I think my latest mystery box takes me up to 20 mantises in total.

Anyway, I was overjoyed to find I'd been sent a Hierodula "Papua" in the latest box. But it quickly turned into heartbreak. She (assuming it's a female) had a terrible first moult and her head ended up being attached to the moult. I assume the start of the moult went wrong rather than her falling during the process. It might have been due to low humidity.

Her arms were in a terrible state and were fused together. I managed to separate them with tweezers. She was terribly weak and I thought about euthanising her. But somehow she pulled through.

Her legs are perfect btw.

It's been about a week. Her arms are useless except for waving when she feels threatened. I have been feeding her with fishpaste and also beef mince. She can't hold anything, but if I force food into her face she will eat. She will also drink water. Then it's just a question of trying to position the food on a Lego brick so that she'll keep feeding for a while. Initially I tried giving her a fly but without success - she just can't use her arms.

I don't know if I can post photos yet but I'll post some when I can.

I'm so hoping she'll pull through as she could be an absolutely gigantic adult. She is already twice the size of the other recent arrivals.

My only other mismoult has been a Violin. She had a mangled leg but it repaired during subsequent moults... then fell off when she was an adult lol. Ironically she lived for 17 months and is my longevity record holder.

not much u can do but wait for next molt and pray.

I have the complete opposite issue! My lil guy had his big molt to adulthood and it went horrifically. I found him when I got home from work and he was stuck in his old exo in the back corner of his enclosure. I managed to save him, he has perfect raptorials but all of his legs are wonky.

I specifically wanted to reach out since I understand the heartbreak, fear, and panic. It’s been over a month now since the molt incident and my idiot bug son (his nickname given to him by my dad, his official name is Mr. Bug Man lol). He’s doing incredible and continues to surprise me every day with how well he’s doing. Don’t give up, you got this!

Thanks - my big guy is still hanging on, almost 3 weeks after the bad moult. I feed him a little fishpaste every day. It's easier to feed him now he's started living on the lid rather than a plastic tree.

Happy update: a successful moult after 24 days.

Arms look good - he's using them when walking. I put some flies in his house to see if he's interested.

I'm now thinking it's a male. A female would probably be more bothered about food. But I've been wrong before. I'm not even sure he's a Papua lol. Time will tell.