Embarrasing Mantis Question...

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Joe Caruso said:
You're slightly weird. I mean 'dungeons & dragons' weird.
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I dont play dungeons and dragons! :blink:

At least not anymore lol ;)

But seriously. Just as was so passionately debated a few days ago before the whole thread got magically deleted, insects lack the complex nervious systems that vertibrates have and it is widely accepted that they therefore do not feel pain. Where you stand in that debate is up to you, but most of us dont consider the feelings of those who get eaten. If you cannot overcome your sypmathy for the feeder bugs then maybe mantids arent the pet for you.

Besides...

They enjoy it. Really.

 
There is an absolute truth to the premise that there are vital nutrients (as well as moisture) lost in feeding dried "anything" to any creature.

Joe, I think you probably have a good heart to not want to "play God" with the life of even the tiniest creature, but the fact of the matter is ALL animals are either predator or prey (or both). Crickets are essentially vermin, and I would much prefer feeding them to a mantid than butterflies, which (like bees) help spread the gift of life through their foraging from flower-to-flower.

The suggestion of feeding flies was also good, as they are nothing but vermin and scavengers themselves. To have an unlimited supply, simply leave a piece of meat in a dish outside and in no time you will have all the flies you ever wanted (or didn't want).

What's funny (actually sad) is that the same people who make sure to feed live animals to as insignificant a creature as a praying mantis, will then go ahead and feed their dogs a bag of dried dog food. Dogs are a hundred times more complex, intelligent creatures than a mere mantis, and yet 99% of dog owners will dump dry, barren, nutritionally-devoid "kibble" in front of their dogs to eat every day ... and yet provide whole animals to their mantids.

As a breeder of dogs for over 20 years, I can't tell you how many dogs I have seen fall apart prematurely precisely because of this same concept ... that raw, whole animals are what the carnivorous predator we call "dogs" were in fact designed to eat, and that by feeding them "dry dogfood" all their lives instead, most owners don't realize that they are slowly poisoning their animals with an unhealthy concoction that will never be able to take the place of feeding raw.

Anyway, good posts. Mantids were designed to eat other raw, whole, living arthropods ... and that's just the way it is.

Jack

.

 
ExoticOddities said:
Crickets are essentially vermin, and I would much prefer feeding them to a mantid than butterflies, which (like bees) help spread the gift of life through their foraging from flower-to-flower.The suggestion of feeding flies was also good, as they are nothing but vermin and scavengers themselves
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nature is not as black and white as this. caterpillars can be considered pests and vermin when they infest and destroy plants and crops, likewise flies (like bees) can also act as pollinators, not to mention the important role they play in genetics research (drosophila).

 
I concure Mr Blue, the flies do pollinate and so do most insect that move from one plant to another, and the caterpillar is a pest to a lot of our crops, take the tomato hornworm, Yuck :blink: , they ruin the plants if left to feast there.

 
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Point taken.

But let us not get lost arguing trivial minutia of which insect trumps which in the "vermin" department ... and in the process forget the point of this thread ... which is that mantids require living, whole animals to eat and not dried ones.

If you folks would rather have flies and crickets all over your home and yard, than butterflies and bees, then by all means cultivate these creatures and feed your mantids butterflies and honey-gatherers instead. However, I would venture no small wager that most people would rather keep the butterflies and bees in their gardens and dispense with the flies and crickets.

Either way, regardless of which food item you choose to select for your mantids, its being alive and raw is what's healthiest for them.

.

 
ExoticOddities said:
If you folks would rather have flies and crickets all over your home and yard, than butterflies and bees, then by all means cultivate these creatures and feed your mantids butterflies and honey-gatherers instead. However, I would venture no small wager that most people would rather keep the butterflies and bees in their gardens and dispense with the flies and crickets.Either way, regardless of which food item you choose to select for your mantids, its being alive and raw is what's healthiest for them.
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Nope, I would rather have a healthy mix of both. Without those vermin insects as you insist on calling them, waste material, decay, and a load of other ###### would build up making it impossible for the little cute flowers and butterflies to exist. Just because they aren't as pretty doesn't mean they are any less important to a healthy garden.
 

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