Alright I'm Freaking Out!

[agent A]

Okay all the time I have bred a mantis the female never lays eggs. Then I was told to put foliage in the cage for her, but then Rick tells me his females lay in a bare cage. So I need to know what I'm doing wrong because if lack of perches isn't the issue, what is the problem?

 

[Peter Clausen]

Could be one of several issues, but I'll list a few possibilities here:

Maybe the male did not fertilize the female.

Maybe the mantis isn't getting enough food (is its abdomen especially plump?)

Maybe you haven't given it enough time (how long has it been since she was fertilized by the male?)

 

[agent A]

well I do feed females a lot and about 2 months go by before my breaking point, females would live 4 months after mating and then die without laying eggs. Also one time after I bred a female a different male was interested in mating with her.

 

[bassist]

Sounds like they're becoming egg bound.

 

[agent A]

Sounds like they're becoming egg bound.

how do I prevent this?

 

[AmandaLynn]

Sounds like they're becoming egg bound.

What exactly is "eggbound" ? My understanding is, it's when a female cannot produce an ooth, but are there other symptoms? Does anyone know or have any idea of what causes this to happen?

 

[agent A]

eggbound is when the female can't find anywhere to lay her eggs and she becomes so heavy with eggs that something obstructs her egg laying canal internally and she can't lay eggs at all- something like that.

 

[PhilinYuma]

What exactly is "eggbound" ? My understanding is, it's when a female cannot produce an ooth, but are there other symptoms? Does anyone know or have any idea of what causes this to happen?

For the narrow world outside of mantis keeping, being "eggbound" is a usually fatal condition that sometimes occurs in birds (chickens) and reptiles (turtles and lizards). An egg, inside a hard or leathery capsule, gets stuck, for a variety of reasons, on its way to the cloaca and freedom, something like a breach presentation that can't be manipulated. Obviously, since mantids only expel fertilized ova and the proteinaceous goo that becomes an ootheca and which is never contained inside the mantis in its expanded form, being "eggbound" in the conventional sense does not apply. I don't think that it exists at all in mantids, which, for one reason or another, either don't produce ova or don't lay them. A number of folks who keep mantids, also keep herps and I think that is another spill over (like dusting crix with calcium and vitamins) from herp husbandry. I hope that this view will precipitate a lot of opposing comments, all supported scientifically, of course.

 

[agent A]

well I would think that is a female is comfortable enough to lay an egg case, she will.

 

[massaman]

Females in my experience will look for a proper spot to lay their ooths as in my case I use sticks and stand them up and line them in a row in their critter keepers and let the mantis choose which stick to lay her ooth on and so far that works pretty good as she decides what stick to use and lays her ooth on them and well this has worked well for me with my creobroter gemmatus,nebulosa and my gambian spotted flower mantis,they all pick a stick and lay their ooth on it and the only thing that can halt their laying or cause them to stop is if their insect prey disturbs them and then they stop laying and try to lay someplace else and I suggest getting some critter keepers and filling the bottom with a few cupfuls of dirt and plant sticks straight up in the keepers in rows of three with 4-5 sticks in each row and sticks should be half the height of the keeper or close to that and this worked very very well for me and give this a try sometime.

 

[sbugir]

Females in my experience will look for a proper spot to lay their ooths as in my case I use sticks and stand them up and line them in a row in their critter keepers and let the mantis choose which stick to lay her ooth on and so far that works pretty good as she decides what stick to use and lays her ooth on them and well this has worked well for me with my creobroter gemmatus,nebulosa and my gambian spotted flower mantis,they all pick a stick and lay their ooth on it and the only thing that can halt their laying or cause them to stop is if their insect prey disturbs them and then they stop laying and try to lay someplace else and I suggest getting some critter keepers and filling the bottom with a few cupfuls of dirt and plant sticks straight up in the keepers in rows of three with 4-5 sticks in each row and sticks should be half the height of the keeper or close to that and this worked very very well for me and give this a try sometime.

I'm so gonna try that.

 

[d17oug18]

Also, ive found that they like laying in certain temperatures, if they are too cold they wont lay, trying kicking the heat up 5 degrees or so. When i do this it usually makes them lay within minutes. But i could be wrong.

 

[agent A]

Also, ive found that they like laying in certain temperatures, if they are too cold they wont lay, trying kicking the heat up 5 degrees or so. When i do this it usually makes them lay within minutes. But i could be wrong.

he he. I would put chinese outside in November because I thought they would think that it's getting cold and they need to lay eggs soon. that ended up killing a female :mellow: