Can mantids be vegetarians?

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Maybe your friend should invest in some phasmids? Mantids are predators. If your friend is squeamish on feeding them live prey, then a praying mantis is not for them.

 
ismart said:
Maybe your friend should invest in some phasmids? Mantids are predators. If your friend is squeamish on feeding them live prey, then a praying mantis is not for them.
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good luck getting phasmids...
 
Chivalry said:
Okay, I'm terribly curious... I have the impression from "he is not comfortable feeding live" that this is a kind of moral objection to feeding live food to pets. What is the difference, on this basis, whether you are doing the killing or the mantis is? Or is it just the logistical difficulty of keeping live food around?

I disagree with people who are vegans and refuse to feed their cats (true carnivores, unlike dogs) food containing animal protein. If someone isn't comfortable giving a pet food items that it needs, perhaps another pet would be better. It's the reason I've never kept snakes, actually.
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The thing is, he doesn't like the feel of killing something, even insects. He can watch me feed my mantids live, but he wouldn't do that. He wouldn't have difficulty keeping live around, he just feels like (even though the mantis is killing the insects) he's killing the insects.

 
do you think if he hand fed the mantids grocery store meat, fish or poultry, they would eat? I have extra mantids for him so if he decides then I'll give him them

 
brancsikia339 said:
do you think if he hand fed the mantids grocery store meat, fish or poultry, they would eat? I have extra mantids for him so if he decides then I'll give him them
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It would be very hard! It would take a lot of time! If you raise a mantis from an L1 nymph by hand feeding it I think the mantis would probably die because the mantis probably would not eat. If you got a mantis when it is older, like L5 or older the mantis would probably eat if you hand fed it. But it would be very hard and take a lot of time! I do not know if a mantis would do alright eating just meat that is not from an insect. How about if you feed them flies? There are many kinds of cockroaches that are pretty. Do you not like cockroaches? I think some or a lot of cockroaches need meat too. But I think cockroaches would do alright if you fed them grocery store meat. You can see some pretty cockroaches here.
 
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happy1892 said:
It would be very hard! It would take a lot of time! If you raise a mantis from an L1 nymph by hand feeding it I think the mantis would probably die because the mantis probably would not eat. If you got a mantis when it is older, like L5 or older the mantis would probably eat if you hand fed it. But it would be very hard and take a lot of time! I do not know if a mantis would do alright eating just meat that is not from an insect. How about if you feed them flies? There are many kinds of cockroaches that are pretty. Do you not like cockroaches? I think some or a lot of cockroaches need meat too. But I think cockroaches would do alright if you fed them grocery store meat. You can see some pretty cockroaches here.
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It's not me who is having the problem, it's my friend. No he is not comfortable feeding live, so he isn't going to get the mantis.

 
You weren't giving them enough food or water. I used to breed gerbils for my pythons, and they'd eat each other when I forgot to fill their water bottle

 
frogparty said:
You weren't giving them enough food or water. I used to breed gerbils for my pythons, and they'd eat each other when I forgot to fill their water bottle
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They had water most of the time. There was a lot of room. We did not give them any live foods. They ate each other!
 
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Rick said:
No.
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Lol straight to the point as always Rick. ;) It wouldn't be fair to the mantis in this situation. You can kill insects before serving them to the mantis, but since your friend is against killing period that won't work either.

 

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