Bad molt

[Lylelovett666]

Howdy,

One of my mantis molted today and she seems to be missing one of her back legs and the other back leg seems to be stuck out stretched.Can she survive in this condition and when should she begin feeding again?

Thanks

 

[ismart]

Yes, she should be fine. As long as her raptoral claws can still hold food. They generally start to eat two days later after a molt.

 

[Mr.Mantid]

I believe she should be fine, they should grow back slowly with each molt. There is a chance that one or both of her legs may become infected but I would assume that most likely she'll be fine.

 

[angelofdeathzz]

I agree with the above comments, but if you have a photo or two that may help. Can she walk?

 

[Lylelovett666]

Not sure what happened but when I got up this morning she was lying on the cage floor dead and covered with crickets.What a shame.The molt seemed to almost double her in size.She moved very little after the molt.Any Ideas on what could have happened?

 

[Lylelovett666]

After doing research it sounds like the mistake was mine.I never thought of crickets as such aggressive feeders. Live and learn.

 

[crucis]

Yea crickets can be just nasty.. they're really aggressive and if grabbed the the wrong way they can kick free (maybe even injuring the mantis in the process). Once a cricket managed to twist its head round and chew half the tarsus of my mantid's right forearm clean off - luckily it was a nymph and recovered by the next moult. I'm really wary of them now, I'll never put one in that's more than two thirds the length of the mantid's prothorax

(of course, one could always refrigerate and de-leg them while they're sluggish... but whenever i did that i felt awful)

 

[angelofdeathzz]

Yeah, I never put any crickets in with a mantis unless there 1/3 the size or I'm willing hang around a make sure it got it. And never more than 1 or 2 per mantis at a time.

I know their not for everybody but I use BB's on all my mantis, that are fed honey and some powdered milk/powdered sugar 50/50 mix, and then use crickets as a bonus food source every couple days with the type that like them(Budwings,Chinese etc.). Crickets will gang up on a larger insect if given the chance.