Feeding my praying mantis that laid an ooth

[PlayingMantis]

My praying mantis (Chinese) laid a huge ooth this Monday. Her abdomen is much thinner now and I heard it's possible she will lay again. And she seems to be hungry all the time.

She's been eating a cricket daily. She is 4" in length and each cricket is about .75" in length. Do you I should feed her more or less?

I read that adult praying mantises should eat every other day and pregnant ones should eat everyday. I wonder if mine should be given any special care since she laid such a big ooth!

 

[Extrememantid]

Feed her a cricket or two a day and she should be nice and happy

 

[Domanating]

Feed her until isn't hungry anymore

 

[Love2read]

With my girls I usually try and keep food in their cages at all times. I feed BBs, so they just fly around til eaten. The rest of my mantids get fed every other day.

Dunno if that's the right/wrong way to do it, but it seems to work well for me and my buggies.

 

[hibiscusmile]

I feed every day about 2 3/4" cricks a day and maybe a bb fly for a treat, careful to not overfeed.

 

[Rick]

I think it is hard to actually overfeed a gravid female mantis. They need a lot of food and one cricket a day for that species is not nearly enough. She needs a lot of food while gravid.

 

[Extrememantid]

The other day my female European went through 5 or 6 small/medium crickets. That was to distract her from eating her mate though.

 

[devetaki9]

When my girls get really big I feed them a couple small meals a day and make sure they are hydrated really well. Once they lay the ooth until they get huge again it's a free for all buffet. Seems to work

 

[PlayingMantis]

Okay cool, thanks everyone for the replies! She's been eating up to 3 crickets a day. I tried giving her a fly but she didn't seem interested. I also give her water from an eye dropper as well as honey.