don't think she is going to make it.

[kllinke]

Well all weekend we have been giving her water by spoon and trying to get her to eat honey she has hung out on the curtains rode around on my husbands hat and just sat in my lap. I was hoping she would pull through but I really think she is egg bound I have tried all that I can. I gave her some water and honey this morning and just by miracle hope when I get home she may be a bit stronger. I just hope I have done all that I can

 

[sally]

If she is eggbound, try putting some soil from outside in the bottom of her container. If you have any real plants with no pesticides or fertilizers on them put those in as well. If she isn't climbing at all, give her some horizontal laying surfaces, like treebark or wide branches. I always either microwave my sticks and bark or slow bake it in the oven for a few hours to kill parasites. Good luck with her, you are doing everything you can Maybe sitting undisturbed will help her to find a suitable surface and she will lay her ootheca.

 

[Krissim Klaw]

If you are trying to get them to lay one of the best things you can do is provide humidity, tons of laying surfaces via say a plant, and some privacy. I love hanging out with my bugs but she can not get into the groove of things when she is being handled. Eggbound does not always equal certain death. I've had several females over the years that never laid an ooth and went on to live otherwise perfectly normal lives. Generally I pull back on how much I am feeding for a female that is having problems. Since you meantion feeding honey, has she completely stopped eating on her own?

 

[hibiscusmile]

I cant see the pic.... sorry

 

[kllinke]

yes she had stopped eating on her own, she didn't make it not sure if she was egg bound or if it was something else. she just started to get extremely weak and wasn't drinking or eating. I did make sure the humidity was up and she was warm enough. We did put a plant in with her and changed things around. I haven't really handled them much at all. just when I have to clean their enclosures. I was taking her out to give her water and try and get her to eat when she was really week and not moving around much. I got home from work on Monday from work and she could not even hold her head up I gave her some water and about twenty minutes later you could see a bubble coming out of her mouth it was just clear fluid I believe it was the water she had just drank, she had done this a couple of time in the days leading up to it.

Now I have one more gravid female that was succesfully mated. I am paranoid that the same thing is going to happen. I have been checking temp and humidity all good. I have been making sure she is drinking plenty of water, and trying not to over feed her she is getting pretty round. she has lots of perches and if by this weekend she has not laid yet I am going to move her into my 15 gallon aquarium and give her some more room to move around. any suggestions would be appreciated, I am new at this.

What would you suggest be provided as perches. I have sticks and some fake vine and a small live plant, is there something else I should try and provide her with. She rally would rather hang from the mesh at the top but since she is getting so heavy I am afraid that she will fall and that would not be a good thing.

thanks for all the suggestions, we were sad to see our female pass away. It is so crazy how attached you get to them. I started this in the spring to release the babies in my yard to watch grow and hopefully get my grass hoppers under controll but now I am obsessed.

I really am thinking of just having one or two of another species when my last female has had the best life a bug could ask for :0) Such fascinating creatures, I think some of them are so unusual, I would also like any suggestions on what would be a good next mantis for me to try. I have read everything I can find and have had success except for my female that just passed, raising from first hatched all the way through to adults. At one point during the summer I had 12 babies in the house. I would feel so bad if I found them outside and it looked like they had a bad molt or fell I brought them in till they had another molt and were a little stronger and release them back to live hopefully a full life.

 

[sally]

So sorry. It is def time for her to go in the freezer. Make sure you clean the area well. I hate it when it is their time. I have so many, and yet it is still horrible when they die. Def my issue not theirs, lol, they led a wonderful bug life. Anyway, for laying surfaces, other than sticks, and fake grasses, some of mine like to lay on bark. I get a large piece of bark, microwave it to kill whatever, and gluegun it to the enclosure. So funny how each mantis is so different where they lay their ooths. This is only an observation from my experience, which is still very limited, but ....I found my Creos like to lay on small sticks, my T Sinensis will lay on anything especially the screen top, my Stagmos love the bark and grasses, my T Elegans likes sticks and grasses, the B mendicas hide the ooths almost every time and the Orchid likes the foam plug on her container, lol, she laid 2 txs there. Good luck