I found a strange spot in my Chinese mantis cage if anyone has advice or info I’d love to hear it

[Skcib]

Found the following brown spot in my tenodera sinensis nymph cage, I think it’s probably throw up, but she hasn’t ate since the 19th (crickets are sorta large for her, she’s a l4 I believe) she will ignore or run away from food when she’s full. Other than that I hand fed her some water droplets yesterday. Did she throw up? ? Any info apprenciated! 

 

[Skcib]

A few things to add the cricks I’ve been feeding are about 1/3 to 1/2 her size at most. Bought from a pretty reputable local pet store and I’ve been feeding the crickets apples and keeping their container clean. She’s never done this before and I’m sure that maybe she just ate too much but I’ve been spacing feedings appropriately every 2-3 days because otherwise she isn’t hungry. I just switched her from melanogaster flies so does she just need a while to get used to new food?

 

[MrGhostMantis]

It does look like vomit. She looks healthy otherwise. Have the crickets been in any contact with carrots? What pet store do you purchase from?

 

[MantisGirl13]

Keep an eye on her, but she should be ok.

- MantisGirl13 

 

[Skcib]

It does look like vomit. She looks healthy otherwise. Have the crickets been in any contact with carrots? What pet store do you purchase from?

No carrots, my crickets are from a really neat local pet store In St. Paul, they’re very knowledgeable and professional w great staff. Not a chain store. They actually usually have mantids for sale and I trust that they’re using safe practices for crickets. No carrots, just been tossing in a apple every few days.

 

[Skcib]

Also yes she is seems to be in great health otherwise no shaking odd movements or anything like that. Maybe I’ll just wait a extra day to feed her then. 

 

[MrGhostMantis]

She may have eaten too much to digest and therefor vomited.

 

[Skcib]

She may have eaten too much to digest and therefor vomited.

I figured just wanted to ask in case  I did just find it strange that it was almost 2 days after I fed her

 

[hibiscusmile]

Looks like wet frass to me. Not good, I have just saved one mantis from the black poo, the last one died last week. I don't feed for a few days, just give them water to help clean them out. Sometimes the food they get causes this. Let us know how it does.

 

[Skcib]

Looks like wet frass to me. Not good, I have just saved one mantis from the black poo, the last one died last week. I don't feed for a few days, just give them water to help clean them out. Sometimes the food they get causes this. Let us know how it does.

Wet frass? Not familiar w the term. Though I would like to update that I fed her some water droplets again earlier and more spots appeared again so I think maybe she’s just got a full belly and not much room for water? Anyways sorry to hear ab that mantis passing, are there any other symptoms of what your talking ab? Do they act strange at all? Im not sure if vomit or poop

 

[Skcib]

Also I’d like to add that I did see her drop a normal turd so I think it’s vomit, we’ll see how this plays out

 

[Skcib]

Update: she has enjoyed 2 crickets since this post, and no vomiting! So I think I was just hand feeding her too much water which she didn’t have room for.

 

[MrGhostMantis]

Great! Too much of anything can be bad!

 

[Tonypace2009]

Also sometimes a slightly higher temps help the mantids digest ther food. Even though a lot of mantids do fine in the upper 70s degrees they may have issues digesting some feeders completely. Warming up temp at feeding time for a little while or even feeding at the warmest time of day may help.