How long can they go without eating before a molt?

[eyes]

I have three Chinese that are/were about to molt to adult. They all stopped eating about the same time. One molted after about 2 days but the other two still haven't molted and it has been like 6 or 7 days!

I have never had them take this long to do a molt. A few times I have tried giving food just to make sure but they refuse it. I mist with water every once in a while, I don't know if they're drinking but I haven't seen it. I'm worried.

 

[rs4guy]

Give it a little more time, they know what to do. Just make sure to provide humidity/water and wait it out.

 

[eyes]

Yeah, I don't know. I mean they don't look like they're about to die or anything, still pretty fat. It just seems so long.

Do they not molt if they're threatened by nearby mantids? Maybe I need to move the cages farther apart.

 

[Rick]

Just needs time. Sounds like you're doing the right thing so just wait.

 

[eyes]

Well they finally molted at the same time last night. Apparently these are both males. At sub-adult the males were almost the same size as the female so I guess they were way too big to molt to adult and had to wait a long time to shrink. As adults the males really aren't any bigger than they were before.

Weird, I would have thought a bigger sub-adult would make a bigger adult but there must be some sort of limit.

 

[MandellaMandy123]

Wow - that's surprising that they weren't any bigger! But congratulations on getting two perfect adults!

 

[mantid_mike]

i'm having the same issue with my ghosts.not eating and not molting. the male hasn't eaten in days and his abdomen looks thin.