Jam anyone!

[Termite48]

I have a non-mantid forum member acquaintance who rears Chinese Mantids. He shared with me that he has had some of his mantids take jam. So today I let four of my Ghosts free to roam on a white tee shirt upon the top of my bed, where I could clearly see them and put a small hunk of grape jam there. Eventually all of them were introduced to the jam, with three of them spending quite a few minutes "dipping their beaks" ala Marlon Brando, into the sweet treat. Also the cricket who was also there with them (disabled of course) was quite fond of the jam. I have a pic of one going to town on the grape goo.

 

[warpdrive]

that is so cute. I may have to try that some time.

Harry

 

[Rick]

They are probably in need of water. Mantids will eat nearly anything moist if given the chance. That doens't mean they should.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Ditto that! will rot their teeth :tt2:

 

[ismart]

Cant help but think, it's just a waste of time. Your goining turn them all into diabetics! :lol:

 

[dgerndt]

I must admit, that is pretty darn cute. But, probably not the best source of nutrition.

 

[psyconiko]

It also works with banana and apple.I have read some topics(and seen pictures) stating that Hymenopus,Idolomantis,Phyllocranias,Gongylus and Deroplatys would sometimes eat fruits if offered.

But why?

Some people say they are just looking for water and sugar....But this behavior is more common to "fly eaters" mantids.

I was thinking that maybe they rub their head on sugar to attract more flying preys(as they are not stalker-hunter mantids).

I may be totally wrong but who knows?

 

[dgerndt]

It also works with banana and apple.I have read some topics(and seen pictures) stating that Hymenopus,Idolomantis,Phyllocranias,Gongylus and Deroplatys would sometimes eat fruits if offered.

But why?

Some people say they are just looking for water and sugar....But this behavior is more common to "fly eaters" mantids.

I was thinking that maybe they rub their head on sugar to attract more flying preys(as they are not stalker-hunter mantids).

I may be totally wrong but who knows?

Sounds like something worth investigating to me. But mantids will also eat other things we offer them, like chicken or dead insects. Both of which they would not eat in the wild.

 

[PhilinYuma]

Cant help but think, it's just a waste of time. Your goining turn them all into diabetics! :lol:

Yep.

 

[Krissim Klaw]

I think one of the oddest food choices I've heard is one person who feeds baby food.

On rare occasions though I will offer a little dab of honey to my aging ones but that is as exotic as I get when it comes to feeding.

 

[MantidLord]

I think that was the shortest comment by Phil I've ever seen...ever. "Yep." Man, he must be getting old.

 

[PhilinYuma]

I think that was the shortest comment by Phil I've ever seen...ever. "Yep."a Man, he must be getting old.

A yep.

 

[sporeworld]

I've used it to stimulate their apetite (at least it seemed to work). Especially when I needed to hand-feed. I never saw any "head dipping". Just lapping up honey, banana, jam and fly food mix. Even if they didn't seem to want to eat it, dabbing a tiiiiiiny bit around their mouth would get them to clean it off, and seemed to lead to better hand-feeding.

 

[warpdrive]

I've used it to stimulate their apetite (at least it seemed to work). Especially when I needed to hand-feed. I never saw any "head dipping". Just lapping up honey, banana, jam and fly food mix. Even if they didn't seem to want to eat it, dabbing a tiiiiiiny bit around their mouth would get them to clean it off, and seemed to lead to better hand-feeding.

personaly, when short on flys, I've diped crickets in some powdered huney and bee polin and that always gets my ghosts to hand feed. otherwise, forget it.

Harry

 

[PeterF]

Harry, I found it easy to hand feed crickets to ghosts. But you have to squeeze or rip the cricket somewhat to get them to "juice out". Once the ghosts sense the cricket juice they get plenty interested in eating them.

 

[dgerndt]

I witnessed one of my Ghosts chase down/stalk a cricket almost as big as itself yesterday. It caught it no problem and ate almost the entire thing. I was unsuccessful trying to hand feed, though. I'll try ripping the cricket next time.