Gravid Mantis religiosa

[worldsparadox]

well my recently mated Mantis religiosa has not dropped an ooth yet but she is gigantic! she was about 2 weeks old when I bred her with a wild caugh male...i witnessed the mating, but did not remove the male, he lasted about three days in here cage, lol. its been almost or more then three weeks since they mated and she has been absolutley gigantic for about a week now, does this sound right? I was reading some breeding logs about gravid mantids and they said that if she is not fertile she will delay laying her Ooth and now im worried! I dont have my male anymore and now i dont think she was fertalized!!! My sister did manage to catch a MM at her house so I am going to pic him up today i think, should I mate her again or could the male mess up the eggs she has in her now? or should i just wait and keep the male to mate her a little later down the line, after she lays a few ooths? and do you think the male would even last to wait that long? it has taken her almost a month to produce a single ooth...

 

[worldsparadox]

Ooh, yea. forgot to mention that she is still eating ravenesly, like 4 large crickets every 24 hours or less so it dosent seem like the ooth is comming soon

 

[Rick]

When they mate has no bearing on when they lay ooths. She will lay one in due time. If you saw mating and it lasted for awhile she should be fertile. Fertile or not fertile makes no difference on when they make ooths.

 

[MantidLord]

Agreed with what rick said. Also, yes you can remate her with the new male without incurring any problems. In the wild, there's no telling how many times females mate.

 

[LauraMG]

Ooh, yea. forgot to mention that she is still eating ravenesly, like 4 large crickets every 24 hours or less so it dosent seem like the ooth is comming soon

She'll probably stop eating when it's time to lay. Take a deep breathe, she's doing just fine!

 

[hibiscusmile]

You are over feeding her. She will bust or become eggbound. I see this a lot with my girls and have learned to give them the same amount of food at each feeding and to stop overfeeding them, it does not help them. The only time I overfeed is when I am putting in a male, and that is only for a short time to take her attention off of him. So if she gets 2 big fat crickets, then at mating time she can also have a big superworm or two big crickets, and I do not mate them after the regular meal until a couple hours later either.

 

[hibiscusmile]

ok, I misread your post, but the info is still good, I think the four crickets a day if over 1/2" size is still a bit much.

 

[worldsparadox]

Thanks everyone, greatly appreciated!