Is it normal for your mantis to "charge" it's food

[doktorhook]

I find that when i put crickets in my mantis' cage, he seldom waits to ambush it. Instead he'll charge right at it & strike it. I don't think he's hungry because I give him two feeder crickets a day. I'm just wondering if it's normal to charge his dinner, is he exceptionally aggresive, or is he just hungry.

 

[Kriss]

Its not unusual for a mantid to go after food.

What Sp do you have?

 

[doktorhook]

Chinese

 

[Schloaty]

Just two crickets?

I would think that he's hungry. They can eat a lot more than that - though I guess you don't want to stuff 'em too much.

Might want to graduate to three crickets, though.

When I was a kid, my chinese nyphs used to go through LOADS of blue bottle and green bottle flies. At 1.5" to 2" they could easily consume 6 or 7 in a day.

 

[Kriss]

Mantids would not eat every day in the wild.

 

[Krissim Klaw]

It isn't odd for some for chinese mantises to charge their food. Many of mine have openly chased their food around in their hurry to catch dinner. Just the other day, my current one jumped off my hand to catch a cricket in his cage. He had that poor cricket clamped in his claws before his back feet even latched on to the sides of his cage.

Edit- I've even had some chinese in the middle of eating, reposition their prey to one claw and run after another nearby insect and catch it with their free claw. They really can be greedy little buggers.