molting accident....advice

[creapedout]

Hi,

It's been a tough morning for me. First I find mites all over one of my ff cultures, next my oldest mantis....a L 3-4 or so.....looked like he molted fine. But it appears his leg was stuck in the molt and a rear leg has a little 45 bend in it where it shouldn't. He was also "stuck" to the old skin with that leg...dragging it around.

I cut that part off, saving most of the leg...the foot is gone.

So if this guy survives this, will he come out of the next molt fully intact...with all his legs and feet....or is this deformity going to remain?

He seems a little skittish...was taking small crickets and now he runs from this new batch I got for him.

Thanks for any insight.

 

[uralowl]

Once I wasn't paying attention and accidently trapped one of my Giant Asian Mantis' back feet when I was putting the lid back on her deli cup. She panicked and started thrashing about and I swiftly opened the lid again. She lost her foot, but other than that she was fine and still eating and acting normally. When she molted again, she grew back the foot she lost, so hopefully the same may be true for your mantis.

I still feel really bad about that day, only time I've ever caused harm to one of my mantids, but still...

 

[Mvalenz]

He should be fine after a molt or two. It might be refusing food because it might not be ready to eat yet depending on how long its been since it molted. As long as it can still hunt and catch food it should be fine.

 

[whatislove]

Yeah, Depending on the extent of the damage, it should be fine after a few molts, one of my female budwings had 2 broken feet at L3 and was perfectly fine after moulting to the L4

 

[creapedout]

Just an update, I fed and fed the mantis and he molted, but unfortunately he is still missing his foot. His leg was previously bent too but that is fixed. Hopefully next molt will be better.

 

[maybon]

Sounds like he will be fine after the next one mate.

 

[eyes]

I had an L2 that got stuck to a piece of tape and lost half an entire leg, 2 feet off others, one antenna, and seriously damaged one eye. I painstakely fed it by hand and after molting to L3 it got back the 2 missing feet and apparently its eye starting working because it started hunting again. After L4 it's almost normal now but the one leg that was missing half is shorter than the rest and the antenna is still missing. I thought for sure the antenna would be the easiest thing for them to grow back since they get damaged so easily, I guess not.

So I would say it will be fine considering what mine went through.

 

[MandellaMandy123]

I've had mantids with missing feet or even entire legs. Shouldn't affect him much.