Help please: Budwing female not eating

[intheabyss]

Hello! I'm hoping you can help me with some advice, please!

My Budwing moulted on Friday (five days ago). I gave her a small-medium sized cricket on Sunday, which she ate. Then when I went to feed her again on Tuesday, she didn't seem too interested, so I put a smaller one in and eventually she grabbed it when it came near her, took two bites and then stopped (and dropped it after a while). Today I tried again with an even smaller one, and she did the same thing. She is looking thin. I noticed on Tuesday that there was some strange liquid stain on the deli cup (vomit, I guess... it could have been there for a couple of days without me noticing). Yesterday I offered her some maple syrup on a toothpick... she wasn't really into it.

I keep the crickets in a clean enclosure, with fresh food and water every day, and have had no cricket deaths since I bought them a couple of weeks ago. Other mantises have been eating them, too, and they are all fine. (And I have been getting them from the same place for a few months with no problems).

Should I be worried? What should I do?

I've attached some photos: one with flash and one without. Please let me know if any more photos would be helpful.

Thank you!

 

[Introvertebrate]

It's hard to say what the problem is.  As I'm sure you are aware, there's anecdotal evidence of some crickets being bad for mantids, but apparently your crickets are well taken care of, and your other mantids are not suffering from the same affliction.  Since she's post-molt, it might take her some time to get her appetite back.  Have you tried any other food sources like roaches or house flies?  Waxworms are particularly fattening, which might help.  Just keep the mantis warm and well hydrated for now.  Hopefully, she'll come around again.  How mature is she?  Probably not final instar, right?

 

[intheabyss]

Thanks for the advice! Yes, she seems otherwise healthy. I put down a paper towel last night, and there is a fair bit of poop on it today. I'll try some other feeders, as you suggest. Maybe she has just decided she hates the taste of crickets haha.

 

[Extrememantid]

Try other feeder's, roaches, flies, locust's and all that. Might have just been one bad cricket to make her a bit sick.

 

[intheabyss]

I think that might have been the case.

She apparently vomited again yesterday. And she smells strange, kinda like a strong odor of sweet vinegar. I tried her on "superworms", since these were the only decent looking things at the pet shop. She liked watching it crawl around, but didn't go for it. I cut it in half and held it for her, she had an unenthusiastic nibble haha. She is enjoying drinking water sprayed on her enclosure. Maybe she just needs a few more days to recover from the bad Chipotle burrito.

 

[happy1892]

I wonder if even crickets kept healthily can be bad for some mantids.  Mantisman 230 has had problems in the past feeding healthy crickets.

 

[intheabyss]

I wonder if even crickets kept healthily can be bad for some mantids.  Mantisman 230 has had problems in the past feeding healthy crickets.

I think so! They were all kept healthily, and none of the other mantids got sick! So, for some reason there was one cricket that was bad... Really weird.

But, I have good news! She recovered!!! It took a couple of weeks.... for the first week or so I washed out her enclosure regularly, to get rid of the vomit smell. And twice daily I would stick a cut-up superworm in front of her mouth, to make sure she had a tiny nibble of food. But the most important thing was to spray water near her (at least twice a day). She was incredibly thirsty all the time. I didn't try honey (unrelated story: I bought a couple of tubes of raw local honey, but somehow they fell out of my shopping bag or something... didn't make it home) but I tried maple syrup (which I had at home) and she didn't go for it.

Eventually, she started holding the cut-up superworm herself while eating... then dropping it... so I'd pick it up and give it to her again... nibble nibble... dropped it again...

And then after a few more days, she started eating normally! Now she's eating flies. Happy and healthy!     

I'm too scared to try crickets again... but I probably will, because getting fly pupae shipped is really expensive.......

 

[CosbyArt]

I have a love/hate relationship with crickets, and can blame a few deaths on them (one of which lately which killed one of my Ghosts by biting). There are alternatives such as moths (wax moths or Indian/meal/closet/pantry moths), roaches (the biggest alternative), solder flies, houseflies, meal worms, etc. The biggest problem is many are a pest insect and can infest your home from any that escape, or are hard to grow any suitable numbers for use as feeds (especially without smell).

Glad to see you Budwing is back to normal, and you had some luck with meal worms. I haven't owned a single mantid (no matter the species) that would eat them whole/chopped/mushed/or otherwise.

I sent you a message too about pupae. Hopefully soon it will be warm enough for fly traps again, I will be setting some myself in the next few days once it is above freezing temps again - a money saver to be sure and a endless supply of flies.

 

[PlayingMantis]

I'm switching to roaches from crickets. Too many issues with crickets. Seems like no matter how much I clean their cages and how well I gutload them, the crickets still end up making my mantises sick every now and there. My rhombo female just finished recovering from a bout of "stomach flu" caused by crickets. She was throwing up violently and finally stopped today and is passing normal frass instead of diarrhea. 

 

[intheabyss]

I'm switching to roaches from crickets. Too many issues with crickets. Seems like no matter how much I clean their cages and how well I gutload them, the crickets still end up making my mantises sick every now and there. My rhombo female just finished recovering from a bout of "stomach flu" caused by crickets. She was throwing up violently and finally stopped today and is passing normal frass instead of diarrhea. 

Oh no! I'm glad she's recovered, too!

Yeah, you're right... it just seems to be the risk you run, even when you take all the precautions you can in order to ensure the crickets are healthy. Hoping to catch flies with a home made fly trap once the weather warms up....... Maybe I'll just keep buying pupae, with the occasional superworm in the meantime. I'll keep an eye out for small roaches, too.