Chinese Mantis falling off stick/side of cage

[callisto9]

We have another mantis named Bruce, a Chinese mantis. Turns out Bruce is a female, as she laid and ootheca last week. Who knew? 

I was watching her tonight and she keeps trying to climb up the corner of the smooth plastic critter keeper we have her in. She has sticks, but for some reason, keeps trying to "climb" the corner, which mostly results in her falling and landing on her back. She has crickets in the cage, but can't seem to catch them. 

I've also noticed she's missing one of her "feet". She has the leg, but the foot at the end is missing. Not sure if she came that way or not.

Side note: is it OK to keep the crickets in the cage of my mantids or should I keep them in a separate container? 

 

[Connor]

If she is struggling to climb and is losing her appetite it might mean she is getting old. Although it weird because females usually last a while... 

 

[Sticky]

How old is she?

 

[Nanodot]

Has she had any water today?

 

[PrayingMantisPets]

We have another mantis named Bruce, a Chinese mantis. Turns out Bruce is a female, as she laid and ootheca last week. Who knew? 

I was watching her tonight and she keeps trying to climb up the corner of the smooth plastic critter keeper we have her in. She has sticks, but for some reason, keeps trying to "climb" the corner, which mostly results in her falling and landing on her back. She has crickets in the cage, but can't seem to catch them. 

I've also noticed she's missing one of her "feet". She has the leg, but the foot at the end is missing. Not sure if she came that way or not.

Side note: is it OK to keep the crickets in the cage of my mantids or should I keep them in a separate container? 

View attachment 9967

is she missing a foot? see the middle leg

try gluing mesh to the sides of the tank. spray her daily. 

 

[Okoboji22]

I don't think you should keep crickets in the cage with them. It will give them stress when their not hungry and in rare cases the crickets attack the mantis. Also, she could just be falling due to the missing feet and not being old. My first mantis only had 3 functioning feet and the rest were either missing or non working, and she was a klutz at times. How old is the mantis in question?

 

[callisto9]

Not sure how old she is. We brought her in from outside October 19. So we've had about three weeks. We have been putting the crickets in the critter keeper with them since last time I tried to keep them in a bucket it got really smelly. I am getting smaller crickets now since some of the ones we were buying were huge. 

Yes, I believe she's missing a foot. If I look at the first few pics I have of her, she's all intact, but then upon closer inspection, one of her legs seems to have been injured, so maybe part of it died off since we've had her. Look at the two attached pics.

She gets misted every other day or so. 

Thanks for the input everyone! 

 

[PrayingMantisPets]

hot glue some screen mesh around the sides itll help. Or try to find something taller

 

[cwebster]

One of our Chinese mantises falls sometimes (she is in a mesh mantis mansion).  Usually it is when she is thirsty. I mist twice per day and have noticed her drinking. I use two week crickets which are pretty small so they wont bother her. She has gone upside down once but i think she was surprised when i stuck my hand in and tried to feed her honey. She seems all better now. Hope your mantis improves with mesh like people have suggested. One of our other mantises, who was wild caught due to the cold outside, has branches of breath of heaven bush to walk up. 

 

[Ocelotbren]

I agree that it could just be a case of clumsiness while getting used to the missing foot, and that adding more gripping surfaces such as mesh would help.  Even though we provide so many lovely sticks, sometimes they just have to choose their own way!

 

[callisto9]

Well Bruce has been moved to Barry's cage since Barry passed this evening.   It's the first time we've really interacted with her. She's laid one ooth. She lunged at the stick when we tried to move her and it scared the out of me! 

 

[Connor]

Sad to hear that Barry passed... at least you got another girl to take care of to take your mind off things. She even gave you a ooth! That might explain why she was so clumsy 

 

[callisto9]

I'm not attached to Bruce in any way, unfortunately. She's so large that she intimidates me. She gets the same level of care, but we don't take her out 'cause I'm pretty sure she'd eat my face. LOL

 

[cwebster]

Bruce is not likely to eat your face luckily. The only aggression i experienced was from a dying mantis pinching me with her forelegs.  Hope Bruce does well. Am happy she gave you an ootheca. 

 

[callisto9]

Bruce is not likely to eat your face luckily. The only aggression i experienced was from a dying mantis pinching me with her forelegs.  Hope Bruce does well. Am happy she gave you an ootheca. 

I know.  She's just so big... so much bigger than my Carolina I had. We have taken her out and let her roam around... so we're making improvements.

She laid a 2nd ooth a few days ago, so now there are two giant ooths on the top of her critter keeper. 

 

[lynnea2015]

Just lost my Nickoletta (Chinese orphan) 2 days ago.. she left me w/4 ooths.  Called her LadyJane...she bit the hand that fed her and let her have the run of the house...still have Tiny Teena, an orchid since L3 8/8 /17....called diva...

 

[cwebster]

Sorry you list Nickoletta Lady Jane but glad she gifted you with ooths. 

 

[callisto9]

Just lost my Nickoletta (Chinese orphan) 2 days ago.. she left me w/4 ooths.  Called her LadyJane...she bit the hand that fed her and let her have the run of the house...still have Tiny Teena, an orchid since L3 8/8 /17....called diva...

Sorry to hear about your loss.