How Much How Often?

[KrZyLimE]

Is 2-3 crickets/meal worms per feeding 3 times a week good for an adult female hierodula bipapilla?

If I do adult roaches I assume only one per feeding? Still 3x weekly?

Cheers...

 

[Aryia]

I just feed my adult females as much as they'll take. Most of mine will eat 3-5 roaches/crickets per feeding and then not want to eat for a whole week.

 

[KrZyLimE]

Ok thanks, I will try 3-5 once a week also.

!) what type of roaches do you feed, and adult or babies?

2) are blue bottle flies too small a prey for this mantis? I would think w/the fliy being so small & the mantis being so big it would have problems catching & holding on to it.

 

[Aryia]

I feed a variety of lobster and dubia roaches. The size of the roach depends on the size of the mantis, generally I feed roaches about the length of the "shield"/thorax of the mantis but most mantises will take prey larger than that too (I leave most of the larger ones for breeding too). Mine tend to like lobsters more than dubia, probably because dubia have a lot more hard shell. Go figure.. dubias are so much easier to get.

I've tried feeding my subadult lobatas with BBF before. One of them somehow caught one and ate it, but generally they are just an annoyance for larger mantises. You can always put a couple in to see if your mantis will catch them. Once they catch something they won't have trouble eating/holding onto it, though I personally would get tired of the sheer number of flies I have to throw in to satisfy their enormous hunger.

 

[Rick]

Feed whatever you want. There is no hard and fast rule on how much or how often to feed. If the abdomen is flat feed more, if it is always stretched to the max, feed less. Keep in mind gravid females will be very fat and should be fed as much as they want.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Blue bottles are good for them , they have no problem catching them either. I did not read all the answers, short on time, sorry if I repeat something. I feed 2 crickets per

day or 1 crick and 2 to 3 flies. One roach about 1" is plenty for one day, give flies the next day, 4 to 6. People overfeed the mantis at all times, IMO that is why they do ot live as long and become egg bound. Their body like all bodies can only handle so much food each day and they get very little movement to use it up, so they get fat, to fat is why some abs become so stretched as Rick said.

 

[Digger]

I've had excellent luck with mantid longevity. Most of my pets have lived 1 year or longer (8 Tenodera sinensis; 1 Parasphendale affinis). I've only bred one T. sinensis. My feeding regiment has always been *less* rather than more. On average, the adult female T. sinensis = about 1 large crix every two days in winter months and 1 moth every two - three days (depending on size of moth) in summer months. This occasionally would be interchanged with mealies. And I always am conscious of water water water **especially** with older specimens.

 

[KrZyLimE]

I've had excellent luck with mantid longevity. Most of my pets have lived 1 year or longer (8 Tenodera sinensis; 1 Parasphendale affinis). I've only bred one T. sinensis. My feeding regiment has always been *less* rather than more. On average, the adult female T. sinensis = about 1 large crix every two days in winter months and 1 moth every two - three days (depending on size of moth) in summer months. This occasionally would be interchanged with mealies. And I always am conscious of water water water **especially** with older specimens.

Digger, when you say water do you mean a standing water dish or misting the cage? If misting how often & how much water? Cheers...

 

[Shadow]

Digger, when you say water do you mean a standing water dish or misting the cage? If misting how often & how much water? Cheers...

every day or every other mist

 

[KrZyLimE]

every day or every other mist

Ok thanks, so there is no set % of how humid/much water the cage should be?

 

[Digger]

To a degree, it depends on the species. Think of the environment in which the species lives naturally. As Shadow says - every day or every other day. I spritz directly on the wall of the Kritter Keeper to let droplets form. Better to little than too much. Never standing water in a dish. That's verboten. I always use distilled water - but many here use tap with success.

 

[devetaki9]

I'm an anxious mom, I offer food and water every other day to all, boys and girls. I feed the gravid females enough to keep them healthy but definitely agree with Rebecca, I don't let them stuff themselves. I water everyone with a syringe and use glaceau water, it has electrolytes and feeding/watering them individually I can keep track of how everyone is doing. Yeah, I'm crazy but I'm happy ^.*

As Digger said.... Water, water, water. SO important. I pretty much feed according to what the mantis likes, their size.. Their health status and age. Elderly and handicapped or infirm get a lot of soft crix and waxworms. Everyone gets a variety of mealworms, waxworms, superworms, crix or either dubia/lobster. I am leaning toward ditching my dubias as far as feeding and going with lobster roaches.

 

[Aryia]

Keep in mind mantis metabolism works a little different than humans. When you feed them little they grow slowly and therefore live longer, but on the other hand the insect may live "hungry" for it's life. The same thing also works with temperature, the colder you keep a mantis, the less it will eat and longer it will take inbetween molts and therefore stay alive longer. Of course, too little food and too low temperatures can lead to a dead mantis, the easiest way to tell when a mantis needs food is by it's abdomen (like Rick mentioned). I give them however much they want to eat, but there's no right or wrong amount in this case (unless your mantis keels over with a flat belly!)