Mantis acting sickly

[konstantine16]

Lately my giant asian mantis has been walking around wobbly like it was unbalanced. This started about after its 3rd molt and just today about a day after his 4th molt he is sitting and looks stiff, not moving and unrespnonsive to food but not dead. I noticed that when he eats alot the scales on his belly stretch and two of them stretch so much that they create two cracks that look like openings.. even after molting the cracks still open when he eats alot. Is this a disease or a mutation??? I beleive I have seen a pic on here someone posted and it had a similar thing but nobody came to a conclusion.

 

[The_Asa]

The cracks are normal. Mantis will not eat for a day after their molt.

 

[konstantine16]

He ate a cricket the same day he molted that was about average sized. He does not seem to care for crickets anymore though. I gave him some small flies and he gobbled down three of them about 10 minutes ago. I guess the cricket made him sick some how, thats all I can think of.

 

[Rick]

Those are not cracks. They are just a dark colored area on the abdomen that comes visible when the mantis is fat. Also, they display those dark red areas when in a threat posture. Many mantids walk in a strange manner by waving back and forth or front to back. This is normal. Your mantis sounds normal to me. I doubt a cricket made it sick. Too many people automatically think a cricket caused their mantids problems. I have fed almost nothing but crickets for years and can count the number of problems I had with them on three fingers.

 

[MantidLord]

Relax, your mantis is fine. They don't eat everyday, especially males.