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The butterflies and moths are only bigger because of their wings the mantis should be able to take them no problem.

 
aje88 said:
hey i just fed my mantis a butturfly and he loved it.
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That's wonderful... great job! :D You're on the right track now, I think. ;)

Don't think you have to stop at just one feeder item a day though. If you can catch more, and he eats them... continue until he refuses the food and acts full. It won't hurt him a bit... well fed mantids are happy mantids! :)

Please don't think we are all trying to be mean to you. We understand you've just started with the hobby. But when you come here asking for advice and based on what you are telling us we say he's starving, and you deny our opinions and suggestions by saying he's not, it gets a little frustrating. ;)

 
Katnapper said:
That's wonderful... great job! :D You're on the right track now, I think. ;) Don't think you have to stop at just one feeder item a day though. If you can catch more, and he eats them... continue until he refuses the food and acts full. It won't hurt him a bit... well fed mantids are happy mantids! :)

Please don't think we are all trying to be mean to you. We understand you've just started with the hobby. But when you come here asking for advice and based on what you are telling us we say he's starving, and you deny our opinions and suggestions by saying he's not, it gets a little frustrating. ;)
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+1 ;)

Keep us updated on what else you are finding to feed him!

 
thx everyone oh and i put a beetle in his container but he doesnt eat it i think the exosceloten is to hard for his teeth.

 
aje88 said:
thx everyone oh and i put a beetle in his container but he doesnt eat it i think the exosceloten is to hard for his teeth.
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Yes, I've had similar bad luck with meal worm beetles. I suppose you could take the wing cases (elytra) off, but it's easier and less gruesome to use something else. Have you thought of feeding him houseflies?

And before another kindly member points out that mantids don't have "teeth," their mantibles (equivalent of our lower jaw) are used for grinding, and the mandible often has sharp bumps (cusps) which wear down like our teeth but are self-sharpening. Some even have fillings! They can't afford gold ones, but some insects have deposits of zink and manganese, which strengthen the cusps.

 
Really, I've never had a mantis have a problem with tearing open a mealworm. Although it could be a different species of mantis, obviously. But if a mantis can pierce the skin with its mandibles, you would think it could pierce the exoskeleton of a mealworm, maybe even a beetle. Maybe it's just not hungry. You can't rule out "too hard" unless the mantis picked up the beetle, nibbled on it, and then gave up and dropped. That's all I'm saying.

 
MantidLord said:
Really, I've never had a mantis have a problem with tearing open a mealworm. Although it could be a different species of mantis, obviously. But if a mantis can pierce the skin with its mandibles, you would think it could pierce the exoskeleton of a mealworm, maybe even a beetle. Maybe it's just not hungry. You can't rule out "too hard" unless the mantis picked up the beetle, nibbled on it, and then gave up and dropped. That's all I'm saying.
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I was talking about the adult beetle, Mantidlord, and the mantids that I tried them on were not close to starving. From what I've read of mantis vision, though, I would expect that they would just see a dark, moving line, rather than something that they found edible or inedible. My guess is that when I wasn't looking, they grabbed the beetle and found that it wasn't worth the trouble of trying to bite through the hard, convex elytra. Maybe if they had been starving, it would have been a different matter.

 
yeah, no species ive ever kept has been much of a fan of beetles. ive got a bunch of freshly pupated mealworms atm and so am desperately stuffing my mantids before the adults emerge :)

 
I fed one of my Chinese a firefly/lightning bug after seeing the "glowing mantis" photos on here, and he dropped it after a nibble because he seemed to be put off by the hard back of it. Later on, though, I guess he got hungry enough to have another go, because the next day all that was left were the shells that covered the wings.

 

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