Grrrrr......Adult Female Not Eating

[mantisboy]

Soooo......I have a wild adult European, the night I caught her I fed her a moth and a grasshopper. Judging from her abdomen size and appearance she was probably a 1-2 weeks into adulthood. A couple of days past and I caught a male so I decided to mate them. They paired up quickly and when I got up in the morning there were pieces of him on her housing floor. Since then, she won't eat. I didn't think much of it since I don't feed my adult females daily at this stage anyways. She receives a daily misting and spends 1-2 hours out of her housing. Now we are Day 5, so I detached a grasshopper abdomen and did the hand-feeding trick. She ate a little but was still fussy about the whole ordeal.

So I bought some crickets, gut loaded them with lettuce and crushed Honey Nut Cereal (they love that stuff) and tossed a couple in with her. She looks at them, but does the classic Coxae fling when the get close. So I tried a couple of house flies....no go...butterflies..no go. Tried a little honey at the end of a toothpick dipped in water, she took a little bit of it, then got fussy.

So I'm thinking at this point the Male either damaged her (nothing visible), she damaged her mouth while eating him, or he had poison in him. Of course there is a 3rd possibility, she just doesn't do well in captivity. I have read that some Wild Europeans don't, although I have never experienced it.

Any and all thoughts are appeciated.........

 

[sppc9876]

Im not sure about europeans but my blue flash female took almost a full 2 weeks before she ate anything. Its quite normal after the later sheds for the mantises to take longer to resume their appetite. I also noticed that my female munched exactly around the guts of the grasshopper. Perhaps when u fed the abdomen it tasted distasteful and it is taking a while to subside. Last alternative is to starve it and make it eat out of desparation. All in all, if it doesnt want to eat then let it be.

 

[mantisboy]

Thanks for the replies, I decided to play the waiting game and sure enough at day 12 she broke down and ate a cricket. However, that event would shed light on why she previously didn't eat and her estimated age. I think she was a week into adulthood when I caught her and was possibly living off molt reserves. Her abdomen was very thin and she was hyper-active, like a male. The night of her capture she ate a good sized Moth and a Grasshopper. A few days later she ate a male I bred with her, yet all that time I never saw her defecate. Euros are quite large and I am using sand this year as a base. So spotting droppings is rather easy and her cage has been droppings less. So after taking a close look at her I can only determine she has a gut disorder. I think I would have lost her if I had stopped misting her. I offered her everything...flies, hoppers, crickets, butterflies, moths, and for 12 days she could care less. I thought mating her would help, but the male was pretty pathetic and was engaged with the branch she was hanging from more than he was engaged with her....I wasn't sorry to see him in pieces the next day.

I decided to simply release her yesterday. She looks and reacts normally, yet there is no doubt something is going on so it's better to let nature take it's course. I placed her in a tree and to my surprise she was within 18 inches of where I had released her 10 hours later. I have not looked for her today and will not recapture her knowingly in the future.