Does one claw matter?

[skiblits]

After watching my mantid last night I noticed that he is missing a claw. The care sheet says to measure there claws to tell what size pray to feed. Will him missing a claw inhibit his eating habits at all?

 

[Ntsees]

It will still be able to eat. With 2 forelegs, it will be able to turn the food parcel to however it likes it. With only one foreleg, it'll be tougher. Just feed it things that wont be able to bite back.

 

[crucis]

Yup it'll still attempt to strike normally. For relatively small prey items, i notice that mantids usually snare them in just one forelimb (for medium to large prey, they would need two forelimbs for commensurate strength and security). Because of that you should (at least) halve the size of the feeder insects you normally give it.

Its accuracy will probably suffer somewhat, though...

Just my 2 cents

 

[Rick]

It can increase the chances of a miss. And I have never heard of meausring the front legs to determine food size. With more experience you will just know what size food a particular mantids can handle.

 

[nebrakacinese]

Iv'e had young ghost nymps ,and young chinese nymps,hold FFs or houseflies,one in each claw.which leads me to belive your mantis will be OK.Has any one ever have a claw grow back?

 

[PhilinYuma]

I don't think that Skiblits has been on the forum since asking her question, so all this valuable advice may not have been heeded (or needed if the poor mantis died)

T.S. Eliot said it best in his famous poem The Lovesong of J. Alfred Mantis; "I wish I had a pair of ragged claws."