Bluejay
New member
Hi, I am hoping someone can help as I'm a mantis novice. I'm in need of some advice!
We had two praying mantis pets, 4th instar (molted successfully three times). We have raised them from the egg sac and watched them grow and thrive. This past weekend, one was molting for the fourth time and got it's hind legs caught. It was like this for a day and then we put her out of her misery after I read that there was no hope for her to survive. It was very sad for our family. I also discovered that maybe her cage wasn't humid enough; I didn't realize about misting. So, I misted the other cage to help the second one with molting.
This morning I checked and the other one made it out of her exoskeleton. But I've noticed that her hind legs aren't fully functional. They are bent back somewhat and can't easily be planted. They are blackish on the lower section. She can't use them to climb up the walls as she can't plant the ends of her hind legs on the wall as the legs curve up. But when she's hanging, she can use them. I haven't seen her eat (fruit flies) since the molt either. Do you think we will lose this one too? We have had no problems so far so this is a loss and I don't know what we are doing wrong. I'd be grateful for any advice you have. Thank you.
We had two praying mantis pets, 4th instar (molted successfully three times). We have raised them from the egg sac and watched them grow and thrive. This past weekend, one was molting for the fourth time and got it's hind legs caught. It was like this for a day and then we put her out of her misery after I read that there was no hope for her to survive. It was very sad for our family. I also discovered that maybe her cage wasn't humid enough; I didn't realize about misting. So, I misted the other cage to help the second one with molting.
This morning I checked and the other one made it out of her exoskeleton. But I've noticed that her hind legs aren't fully functional. They are bent back somewhat and can't easily be planted. They are blackish on the lower section. She can't use them to climb up the walls as she can't plant the ends of her hind legs on the wall as the legs curve up. But when she's hanging, she can use them. I haven't seen her eat (fruit flies) since the molt either. Do you think we will lose this one too? We have had no problems so far so this is a loss and I don't know what we are doing wrong. I'd be grateful for any advice you have. Thank you.
