Digger
Well-known member
Well, at least that's how Chasseur and Leonardo pronounce it.
The discussion regarding feeding foods to mantids they would otherwise not capture or eat naturally has come up often. I have consistently not been a proponent of giving fruit to our pets since it just isn't what they consume in nature.
However, after reading yet another description of how enthusiastically banana is taken, I decided to give in. So:
One very ripe banana and several recently fed Tenodera sinensis. And one skewer to hold the banana mush.
Wow. Chasseur was the first to try (He's L6). Licked once and tore into the glob like it was filet mignon in an anti-vegetarian camp.
Next came Leonardo (L7 male). He made Chasseur look bored. He ripped into the blob like a pit bull on steroids. He went absolutely bonkers. Had I dared put him on the actual banana, I think the walls would have been splattered with mantidnana an hour later from an explosion.
Is it the sugar?? Can they actually taste something? Anyway. They were so dam-ned happy that I will try a little bit with the other guys and gals. But only once every few weeks. Otherwise I'll end up with a bunch of heroin addicts
(..."Leonardo....look, look, I um..I got a cricket leg left. And...yeah, and a fly leg. They're all yours just for a TINY piece of that banana!! My sister-in-law's a ladybug. I'll throw her in too!! )
The discussion regarding feeding foods to mantids they would otherwise not capture or eat naturally has come up often. I have consistently not been a proponent of giving fruit to our pets since it just isn't what they consume in nature.
However, after reading yet another description of how enthusiastically banana is taken, I decided to give in. So:
One very ripe banana and several recently fed Tenodera sinensis. And one skewer to hold the banana mush.
Wow. Chasseur was the first to try (He's L6). Licked once and tore into the glob like it was filet mignon in an anti-vegetarian camp.
Next came Leonardo (L7 male). He made Chasseur look bored. He ripped into the blob like a pit bull on steroids. He went absolutely bonkers. Had I dared put him on the actual banana, I think the walls would have been splattered with mantidnana an hour later from an explosion.
Is it the sugar?? Can they actually taste something? Anyway. They were so dam-ned happy that I will try a little bit with the other guys and gals. But only once every few weeks. Otherwise I'll end up with a bunch of heroin addicts
(..."Leonardo....look, look, I um..I got a cricket leg left. And...yeah, and a fly leg. They're all yours just for a TINY piece of that banana!! My sister-in-law's a ladybug. I'll throw her in too!! )
