I was told to introduce myself here so here it goes.
I caught my first praying mantis this last sunday while working at Lowe's. It was on a flat bed cart in the middle of the garden center, but all the plants were gone so it was alone in a sea of concrete. It also would have died from frost soon anyway. I know it may only live for a few more months but that is alright.
I keep it in a decent sized cage that is plastic with a ventilated plastic top it loves to hang from. For now the substrate is a fine almost sand like gravel as I hadn't learned what was best yet and wanted to get her into something bigger than what I had her in at work. I put a nice dead twig in the cage as well as some greenery from some bushes near the house as all the trees' leaves around here are turning or dead. I mist the cage once or twice a day depending on conditions as it is rather dry in the house currently. I also keep a small dish of water in her cage to provide humidity, and possibly for her to drink although I know they don't typically drink from a dish and perfer drinking droplets.
I determined it was a she as it's abdomen has 6 segments, but she is not fat at all really so she probably is not pregnant, or already laid her ootheca. I feed her medium sized crickets and am still getting a feeding schedule down. She ate her first meal from me sunday night and devoured the whole cricket in less than 5 minutes. She likes to spend most of her time hanging upside down from the top of the cage.
well that is about all there is to tell. I plan to get a proper substrate mixed up for when I clean the cage, and maybe find a plant or 2 I could put in with it. I have a bamboo I could possibly cut and root the cuttings and plant then in there. These things can live in just a vase of water so they are pretty hardy.
I caught my first praying mantis this last sunday while working at Lowe's. It was on a flat bed cart in the middle of the garden center, but all the plants were gone so it was alone in a sea of concrete. It also would have died from frost soon anyway. I know it may only live for a few more months but that is alright.
I keep it in a decent sized cage that is plastic with a ventilated plastic top it loves to hang from. For now the substrate is a fine almost sand like gravel as I hadn't learned what was best yet and wanted to get her into something bigger than what I had her in at work. I put a nice dead twig in the cage as well as some greenery from some bushes near the house as all the trees' leaves around here are turning or dead. I mist the cage once or twice a day depending on conditions as it is rather dry in the house currently. I also keep a small dish of water in her cage to provide humidity, and possibly for her to drink although I know they don't typically drink from a dish and perfer drinking droplets.
I determined it was a she as it's abdomen has 6 segments, but she is not fat at all really so she probably is not pregnant, or already laid her ootheca. I feed her medium sized crickets and am still getting a feeding schedule down. She ate her first meal from me sunday night and devoured the whole cricket in less than 5 minutes. She likes to spend most of her time hanging upside down from the top of the cage.
well that is about all there is to tell. I plan to get a proper substrate mixed up for when I clean the cage, and maybe find a plant or 2 I could put in with it. I have a bamboo I could possibly cut and root the cuttings and plant then in there. These things can live in just a vase of water so they are pretty hardy.
