Hello all. I did not see any cat actually carrying the mantid in. Just found her crawling around. I have one cat that brings me big live bugs quite often, I've had cicadas, beettles, and cave crickets brought to me. Some are slightly mangled and die, some appear unharmed and I release. Now I'll be keeping them! I do not know how the cats manage to catch something without harming it, I just know that they do.
Tuesday night I put 4 mealworms in with her. She ate 3 of them while I was at work on Wednesday, the 4th died, I think it might have drowned because I got a little over enthusiastic with the mister and I found the worm in a tiny pool of water. Wednesday night I gave her 3 mealworms and again, while I was at work she ate only 1. I'm feeding her Giant Mealworms.
And ha! Right this very second I just watched her scoop up a mealworm that was stupid enough to climb most of the way up the ladder. She's munching away and the worm is still wiggling. A bit. How cool! First time I get to see her feed! Yay!
And yes, I bought her a ladder. Because she seemed a little clumsy. She's fallen twice on her back that I've seen. I put sticks in her enclosure and did not see her climb on them. Tonight I bought her a wooden bird cage ladder and she has not touched it yet but apparently it works as a food delivery system.
The only bugs I can buy for her at my local Petco are mealworms and crickets. I want to catch bugs for her but I don't know how! That I need tips on. I keep a window partially open for the cats all day so I get flies in here. Right now I have a few that I would love to give to my girl. I did put some fruit in a glass, covered the glass with foil and poked holes in the foil but all I've managed to catch in there are a few little fruit flies. They won't do for food. How do I catch the bigger houseflies? And how do I catch any bugs in the wild? I figure I can catch moths for her at the light by the front door, thank you happy1892 for that tip.
Lucy has a little brown spot on her back and I think I see some darker brown spots on her brown uhm, don't know the name for the body part that's above the wings. I have no idea if it's mold but it looks like it. A little. I got rid of the sticks that were in with her because of it. The sticks were wet, it's been raining here everyday since Lucy arrived, so I was worried that she might have gotten an infection from mold on the wet sticks. Is that possible? I hope not.
Also, I came here via this site
http://bugsincyberspace.com/mantid_care.html. I read this bit, "
One issue that is common is the sudden appearance of a black liquid on the walls of your pet's habitat. This is fairly rare, but almost always results in death. Theories on the source of why a mantis will sometimes get sick include bacterial infection. This may be prevented with regular changes of substrate and removal of left over parts of feeder insects. I've also noticed that mantises will sometimes excrete surplus liquids via a spraying action. This excretion will turn powdery white in a dry cage, or brownish and sticky in a humid one." Tonight I found not a white powder but a dark brown powder that did look like it could have been sprayed on the bottom of the cage near the base of one of the sticks. I don't know if it came from Lucy, the meal worms or the stick. Can anyone offer any guesses?
Another question - don't they get bored in there all day? Is there anything I can put in there with her to help relieve the boredom? I lock her tank in a room during the day to keep the cats away and carry her out into the living room when I'm home and believe it or not, Lucy seems to be as interested in watching the cats as they are in watching her.
I'm keeping the temperature in my apartment at 70 for her. Does she need a heat lamp or a pad? In the evening I've been putting a little lamp with a 10 watt bulb right next to her tank and she's drawn to it.
I've had her out twice. She wants to climb me and I think eat my face. Or something. I have to stop her climbing befor she gets to my face. I'm worried about taking her out and her flying off somewhere where I can't easily get to her, like behind the fridge or something. Most wild mantids that I've handled have eventually flown away from me. But I see pictures in the galleries here of people taking their mantids outside. How can you be sure you won't lose them? Or can you be sure? I'd love to let her have free reign of the entire apartment but I can't because of the felines. They wouldn't mind if I let her out. At all.
That's it for now! Thanks!
? I do not think you will have much trouble trying to keep her alive hahahaha! I think mealworms will work but I have fed them to my mantids before and the mantids seemed to drop the mealworms because they were too wiggly. Are they not too small for an adult female Chinese Mantis? I seemed to have problems with feeding crickets from pet shops to my mantids about them making the mantids sick. The wild moths outside around lights are probably good to feed her if she does not eat the mealworms. Is your mantis eating? I guess she will lay a fertile ootheca for you. 
