C. Gemmatus Left Raptorial Arm Injury

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a1_collection

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I just discovered this evening while feeding my collection that my recently molted C. Gemmatus female has an arm injury. The left RAPTORIAL arm is bent slightly to the left so only the right arm is active and flexible. She is extremely skinny because of this injury. I have to hand feed her each fly.

I suspect this is a molting injury.

I am worried because she barely has enough food to eat on her own. How can she mate and carry eggs? I might just have to Leave her as is and hope for the best.

 
Oftentimes they can still catch food with one arm.

 
Forgot to mention. Adult.

It looks like she is very slow and inaccurate with one arm. I know that they can catch food with one arm but will the conditions be good for her to mate?

 
hmm, I think you're gonna be fine. this species is very easy to mate and can handle food as big as itself with 2 arms, so imagine what it can handle with one arm! :lol: you're good to go, I have seen these guys have injured legs but they adapt very well. I'm on my second generation, absolutely wonderful species ;) .

 
Had a creobroter at one time who was missing one raptorial arm and had no problems mating and eating and lived a productive life!

 
Will have nothing to do with mating.

 
She's probably still going to give good ooths. Let's put it this way, hand feeding creates a more intimate bond between you and the mantis...I like to toss food in front of my babies and watch them catch it instead of leaving a few fruit flies in and move to the next task... and if you feel the need to hand feed her to keep her healthy then by all means go for it. Observe her closely to see if she can catch food on her own, if she is big enough try a variety of food that would be easier to catch, like maybe small worms or crickets, perhaps?

Or, maybe rip a wing off of a house fly and see if she'll take that. I had to do some mutilation for a pet mantis I had some time ago who didn't seem to eat at all... except if I handed her a decapitated cricket. The cricket food I gave them might've been bad tasting, perhaps when she ate them she probably ignored them because she felt the crickets themselves tasted bad. When I rip the head off of a cricket, their crop usually follows and that pretty much empties them of the undigested cricket food, allowing my mantis at the time to eat.

Pretty neat, since as soon as she tasted the cricket juice, she just reached out of her arms out and grabbed it, as if going "Mmm, I'll take that! Thanks!" and ate the cricket like a banana.

 
just to let everyone know, I had a male L3 nymph die unexpectedly a few days after losing a leg and losing funtion in another. neither were raptoral, but I'm pissed off cause I need 6 males at L3 so a friend can my extra L2 nymphs. :angry: <_< :(

 

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