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The concept of "freedom" is constructed by humans; I doubt most animals care whether they're in the wild or not. You can provide a safe, stimulating environment where she can live far longer than she would normally, so why not?

Hope it goes well for you! :D

I had a great weekend and I'm having an awesome week! The weather's nice, Halloween is near, and I'm just two weeks away from my birthday (getting a new gecko- seems mantids will have to wait 'til Christmas.)

I was just wondering if anyone here in the mantis community is into vulture culture: the collection of dead things and other nonliving biological material, such as taxidermy, bones, fur, mummified remains, eggshells, wet specimens, etc. It's a hobby I've just started getting into, mainly because...

I had a male H. membranacea last five months after the final molt. Around the four month mark he became generally unresponsive, didn't move that much, and wasn't quite as interested in food. He wasn't all that different from his usual self, just slower. He went downhill pretty rapidly after...

My mom is really supportive and encouraging, but my dad endlessly reminds me of how expensive it is to buy the correct items for my pets and how it shows a lack of ingenuity every time I go to the pet store... and then he goes on to brag to his friends that I have a mantis and a scorpion in my...

I used to poke my mantis to get it to go forward onto my hand, but over time learned to just slide my hand under him and he'd step onto it. If people were watching me, I'd say "step up" and it would look like he was trained, lol. Also, he would try to climb anything larger than him and moving...

I can personally recommend H. membranacea for beginners; I had two, lost one to a freak accident, the other one was a male and lived to the age of nine months. They were very forgiving of my mistakes and rewarding to keep (fearless, highly aggressive eaters but with a gentle disposition toward...

I've lost a nymph by accident too, never really got over that one. In George's case... he lived way, way longer than expected, and it made it easier on me knowing he lived out a full lifespan under my care. I miss him, though. Mantids are awesome.

The female mantis eats the male because she's hungry, not because that's a part of the courtship ritual. Keep both of them well fed and introduce them carefully and you should be fine.

As long as he can catch prey with one foreleg he'll be fine. It'll likely grow back with the next molt, too!

I'm a little late to this thread, but how are you handling the mantises and how often? You should never pick them up; you have to get them to walk onto you, and be careful to make sure that the mantis touches you and not the other way around. My dad was holding my mantis once, and the mantis...

Depends on how old the mantis is. If it's an adult you can safely go a week without feeding; if it's a lower instar and you're gone for more than two days, it would be prudent to have someone over to feed it just in case. You'll probably be just fine, but I give paranoid advice.

When I checked on him last night, his entire front half was paralyzed; all he could move were his legs and abdomen. When I looked at him this morning, rigor mortis had set in. I cried my eyes out days ago, so I could finish being sad and send him off in good humor. Here's hoping he doesn't mind...

Mantids and other insects are cold blooded; therefore keeping them cool slows their metabolism, making them require less food and grow and age more slowly. Keeping males cool and cutting back on food is about the only thing you can do to make them live longer, but they can actually live quite a...

My male H. membranacea is dying of old age. There's nothing I can do about it, I just wanted to write a little memorial to him. He moulted into adulthood five and a half months ago, and I've had him a total of nine months, which is a pretty good run for a male of his species. He's been slowly...

I had first heard of pet mantises a year and a half or so ago; the idea intrigued me, and I wanted one, but I decided not to get one because I was afraid my mom wouldn't tolerate feeders in the house. Eventually, though, I saw a forum post about a pet mantis named Aaron Burr, which renewed my...

With my own giant Asian mantis, I've noticed he gets more active due to stress/rough handling, but with that said as a nymph he was never still for very long... always happy to step from hand to hand and climb on/jump to every moving surface. He also started making great escapes when he outgrew...

I've decided I need more baby mantises in my life, and so I've been shopping around online, gathering resources at home, and thinking about it a lot. I found a site where I can buy a giant rainforest mantis (fell in love with those guys first time I ever saw one), which is a little expensive...

Looks like a Jenny to me, unless it's a juvenile. And congratulations! My own mantis is starting to age, and so I've been reminiscing about how fun mantis nymphs are. :') I used to make a game out of trying to guess when the next molt would be... good times. I've considered getting another one...